Beware Athlon socketA

Just wanted to warn anyone that doesn't know already, be SUPER careful when installing an Athlon SocketA cpu, especially when putting on the fan. They are very fragile and I have had 3 customers already who trashed 1ghz and 1.2 ghz cpus. The square in the middle is breakable (ceramic I guess) and I have seen 1 with a large gash in one corner and 3 with just the edges rounded off one corner, doesn't even look bad. They work at first usually, then start getting stack dump errors, etc worse and worse, then DEAD. DO NOT run these even for a second without a fan either (I have seen people do this often when "testing" clock speeds, you could get away with it in old chips but heat is extreme now) And definitely use heat sink compound. I hate to say I damaged the first athlon850 that was how I became aware of the problem, and I couldn't even see it until the RMA was returned unaccepted for physical damage and circled with red pen...AND I HAVE NEVER DAMAGED ANY COMPUTER COMPONENT IN ALMOST 12 YEARS before this, so its not like I don't know what to do. I am now warning anyone who buys them (that I don't install for them)that they are on their own if they mess it up. I just had a tech in my store asking me because he has 2 new athlon pcs giving multiple errors even after reformat, including but not only the stack dump one, so I told him to check the cpu for damage... Just a heads Up for those that may benefit... :eek:

You are 100% correct there Jeanne. Same goes for FC-PGA Intel chips. As long as you place the Heatsink on basically level, you should be ok, and if you want to get the Heatsink off, the easiest way is to run the system for about 5 or 10 minutes before attempting to remove the HSF as this will soften the Thermal Compound up , making it less likely to damage your CPU.

Yep, I managed to smash the core of a T-bird 800 when I was applying a ThermalTake Chrome Orb. Be ESPECIALLY careful of trying to attach any Orb with an Abit KT7/A/Raid mobo.

My chrome orb was a b!tch to get on my 1.1, I was ready to just duct tape the SOB on. Also, I dont know if you watch tech tv but patrick norton broke the corner off one and ran another for a few secs with no fan and melted it. He said that the geeks at the computer store laughed at him over it because he had to pay out of pocket for it.

Weeeelllllllll..............
There is a solution for that.
It's called a CPU spacer

http://www.oc-shop.nl/nl/images/cpu_spacer.gif

https://forums.windrivers.com/

LOL, ya Patrick on the ScreenSavers was having a really bad run with those T-Birds :)
Did he ever get the UGM 3.0 working or is that now a $11,000 doorstop?
Those CPU spacers are great, wish I had one when I installed my T-Bird...but at least I didn't break it :D Still runs really hot at 145 F though...but stable :)

WotsUpDoc where did u find that at???

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Originally posted by robbydobby:
WotsUpDoc where did u find that at???

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http://www.oc-shop.nl/ click on tweaking gear
However I'm shure you can find it at several other outlets
https://forums.windrivers.com/
Bill Gates named his company after his penis
:D

hmm i thought being extra careful was normal anyways ... im glad i treat our athlons 1100mhz and 800mhz with extra care

I HATE THE ORB! The Chrome oRb ate through one of me HSF holder brackets without me doing anything 3 days after I installed it. It was a new Mobo too. I turn on Computer one day and it loads all the way to win2k and then it went pzzzt and no more duron. I had to get a 3 bracket HSF (Taisol CKG 764 which I highly recommend) and a New T-Bird chip 1ghz (200fsb) (i figured what the hell if i need to get a new one might as well get a good one) so ends my story. Pease Out oh yeah ORBS SUCK! ;)

Orbs are a pain in the backside. FIt one on to an ABit KT7 family of boards and the HSF will eat the capacitors by the CPU socket. I know ThermalTake have released a slimmer version but TBH, if AMD don't have them on their recomendation list, his must say somethign about the efficiecy of them.

The problem with the cpu spacers is that they must be the EXACT thickness of the die. I've yet to see a spacer that perfectly fit...

1) put one on the cpu
2) now put the heatsink on
3) is the spacer causing a gap between the heatsink and cpu? if there is a gap, the spacer is too big...very bad
4) is there a gap between the heatsink and spacer? then the spacer is too small, and isn't helping anyways...

All pretty funny, one of my techs fired up an 850, no sink or fan, cracked the proc in half in less than 10 seconds.....no RMA There!

At least with a spacer to thin, likelyhood of crushing the corners is alot less!

The Orb series is highly over-rated. Honestly, who likes them simply because they look cool? And Darren's right about them chewing up the KT7's capicitors.

But the Volcano II is a very efficient HSF combo, and it does keep my rig cool enough for me, so I'm happy with it.

BTW: all underlined words in this post are links!

About Shimms: (CPU spacers), here's a ThermalPhobia review

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The AMD shim was .028" thick, which seems to be quite acceptable. I had no problems using the shim, but even after measuring I still checked to make sure the heat sink was making good contact. To check if a heat sink is making good contact really just boils down to plain old common sense. I simply applied my thermal grease to the CPU core, mounted the heat sink, then took it off carefully to check the core impression on the bottom of the heat sink.

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Originally posted by 'Cobra':
The Orb series is highly over-rated. Honestly, who likes them simply because they look cool? And Darren's right about them chewing up the KT7's capicitors.

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Well, I simpy cut off a bit of aluminium from the bottom part of my Orb. so I could easily fit it on my KT5 RAID, but then I didn't use it as I figured it was too light and too noisy. I didn't use Thermaltake orb, but a Spire cooler, which has similar specs (0.56ºC/W, 29dBA) but costs a lot less (8 US$)

At the moment I'm thinking about noisecontrol's Silverado, it's an axial fan (36 m³/h) on a silver base.
It's very quiet (38 dB A)
Here's Silverado pics (click on thumbnails)
It beats the Thermaltake Super Orb:
http://members.tripodnet.nl/wotsupdoc/tomshardquiet.gif
https://forums.windrivers.com/