Post your comments on the article entitled: "Installing A Socket A Fan/Heatsink"

Link: http://www.systemlogic.net/articles/00/8/socketa

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After reading your article about not using grease, I dropped in on AMD and found the word grease right in their instructions. Though they do mention compound, but being so against a product (grease) then instructing the public to go ahead and use it seems a bit mis-represented.

http://www.amd.com/products/cpg/ath...oling_guide.pdf

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Rules of Thumb for Proper Cooling
1. Use an adequate heatsink, sized for the processor speed you are using. Make certain it has the proper sized
fan(s). Check the AMD Athlon Processor Recommended Heatsink Page for specifics.
2. Make sure the thermal compound (grease, phase-change or pads) you use is recommended by AMD. If
you use a recommended heatsink, it is normally already included.


Just Passin Thru....
Bradmph

I've noticed that too.

It's pretty whacked.

Obviously two different people writing the stuff.

I use Arctic Silver myself and I get BETTER RESULTS than ANY thermal pad. I think AMD just wants to dumb it down. MOST PEOPLE when they use grease USE TOO MUCH and when you use too much grease, it has a ADVERSE EFFECT and certainly NO ONE WANT THAT. Pads only go on one way.

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Hey. What kind of party is this? There's no booze and only one hooker. -- Bender (Futurama)

Perhaps it was just me.. but I found the Socket-A installation on my computer to be quite simple.. just as much so as any other CPU installation i've done..

I mean, is there something I'm missing here?

Great article though.. as always..

Ryan

It's just you Ryan.

I talk to several people a day, including professionals, that sweat bullets putting on socket A fans.

It's easy for me, but then again, I do it on an average of 50 times a day (not an exaggerated number. I really do).

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Hey. What kind of party is this? There's no booze and only one hooker. -- Bender (Futurama)

Way to go,

I've read your article and the comments, appart from the grease issue, i have to say good article.

I read a lot of forum about the AMD based CPU's and many times i read about the fried CPU's. Buiding PC's is still something for a technician an not for an average home user. I'm also a system builder, almost never used grease but thermal pads supplied with the heathsink. Also i use Taisol Coolers wich have excellent cooling and use a 3-way hinge which is easy to install without suppliyng much pressure.

Sorry for my bad English, but i just had to comment on this.

If you're ever in the mood to argue the validity of thermal grease versus thermal pads, I'm game. I'm all for the pad. Matter of fact, even Intel is using phase change thermal compound on the P4 and Xeon. It's more durable, it's easy to use, it's neat AND IT WORKS!

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Hey. What kind of party is this? There's no booze and only one hooker. -- Bender (Futurama)

Ok, I'm going to attract extreme violence by asking this... but I just have to, I'm scared :P.

I just switched to an Athlon, my Celeron was doing strange things and I figured I might as well change sides. I'd done enough preparing to not be overwhelmed by the software side of an Athlon system (BIOS, drivers, etc), but I guess I just wasn't prepared for the subtle but all important hardware instalation differences..

Long story short, I fudged a couple capacitors, bending one somewhat out of the way. One just has a small scrape, the other is significantly scratched and has a wobble to it. I spent 30 minutes kicking myself then an hour slowly chipping bits of the heatsink till it fit, mounted everything, crossed my fingers and turned the damn thing on. It worked, big relief. Still works now 4 weeks later.

But here's the problem, I'm not sure what I've actually done to the board in the grand scheme of things.. Suppose I'd broken one of those capacitors right off, would that disable the board outright? If not, what effects are likely to devolve from a broken or just damaged capacitor? Does the fact that it's working mean I got very lucky and don't need to worry about this anymore? Or could this system just spontaneously fail with no warning and possibly catastrophic results? (assuming no further physical incidents)

Now that whole thermal grease thing is a pain, I've got AS on there, perfectly willing to use AS2 or something else entirely in principle, but on this system I'm just scared silly of touching stuff in the vicinity of the CPU anymore on the offchance that something loose might just pop off, leading to a large explosion..

Anyways, Jonny, thanks for all the articles, I try to read anything I can find from you, always very enlightening and/or entertaining. Take care mate. Cheers to everyone else on the board.

Guy Matthews

Nicks and scratches don't effect the capacitors, but if the wobble is too much, this could change the capicitance of the capicitor. This could cause a problem, but you would know it because the board would not be stable or would do flaky things.

As for you thermal interface; AS is good, but I have had it "squirt out" which is what justifies AS2. AS2 has a higher viscosity. I have had customer calling for warranties on CPU that died after 4 to 6 moths because their thermal grease dried up or pumped out, so consider yourself forewarned.

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/con...oling_guide.pdf

The cooling guide does mention grease. Note that the guide is dated 4/2000. It is obviously out of date. I bet it applied to the Slot-A Athlons.

If you look at the AMD Thermal, Mechanical, and Chassis Cooling Design Guide, page 13 lists the suggested interace materials. All of them on the list are phase change materials.

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors...30_182_869_1039^1065,00.html

No. The guide on AMD's website pertains to socket processors, it is current and it still stands. If you went to any of the AMD tech tour, you'd know that was an issue that was brought up. They still prefer PCTC.

AMD actually said that slot processors were fine with grease, but when you have a heatspreader that's nearly 6" long, why wouldn't grease be fine?

They do have two, non electrically conductive, greases on their list, but they state that they are not for long term use. For exmaple; if I was using one CPU to test several motherboards, I could use thermal grease as the machine would never be on long enough to go through enough power cycles to pump out the grease.

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Hey. What kind of party is this? There's no booze and only one hooker. -- Bender (Futurama)

Re AMD CPU cooling issue - just bought an Athlon XP 2000+. Came with an EverCool CUD-725CA copper heatsink/fan combo., no manual.
WWW.EverCool.com.tw says either use thermal grease or peel off thermal pad paper. The whole bottom of th eheatsink is covered with a light-blue thin film (like Saran wrap . ..) with a small "Attention!! Tear off before using" sticker - about the size of the Chomerics phase-change thermal compound (PCTC) in the AMD manual. Does not look like there's anything underneath, except the same light-blue film.

Anybody knows what that light-blue film is - is it PCTC? Is it some other form of thermal interface? or is it just an oxidation/scratch protection foil for the heatsink bottom?

Thanks -

C. Shen Orr

Errr... you do realize this thread has been inactive since February LAST YEAR, right? :P I'm amazed it sent me a notification, talk about a blast from the past! Why in heaven's name didn't you start a new thread?

There's no reason for her to start a new thread. The newest posts are listed at the top.

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--Daniel--

This information is very helpful. Since when is good advice out of date! I'm about to remove a crappy fan and heatsink and replace them with something a little cooler ... for the first time. Wish me luck with my $50 motherboard and $75 CPU.
Asus A7V266-E and Athlon 1700. I'm attempting to put a Thermalright SK6+ and a Delta 50? Cfm. Funny thing is the fan and cooler it comes with is probably better than I thought at first.