is it unsafe to test an athlon 700 without a heatsink???

[shocksyde]

i just wanna make sure everything works, is it ok to test an athlon 700 without a heatsink to make sure it works???

shock

[smokin1]

The question you have to ask yourself is..how hot will it get while it boots, and you "make sure everything works"...
IMHO...NO is the answer...why risk it?
http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif

[shocksyde]

yeah i guess. i just got a new mobo and chip and i guess i'm actin like it's christmas or something. gotta wait til i get arctic silver ****...****!!!

shock

[thekingofpain]

Do yourself a favor, refrain from trying that as it only takes seconds for an unrecoverable failure...

[Dputiger]

I tried this trick before--my CPU hit 80 ' Celsius in under two minutes.

THAt was a K6-2 400.

My suggestion is not to try.

[Target]

If all you are waiting on is arctic silver paste, go to radio shack and buy some of their $2 stuff. That will allow you to fasten a heatsink and still afford you protection.

Can't remember where I read it, but it was recently, and the site stated that they burned up an athlon in under 15 seconds!!!

Not sure about you, but my system takes that long to boot up sometimes. If it where me, I wouldn't do it...............

[tonym]

Let's not lose our minds when it comes to heat and processors!

You CAN do what you want to do if you just be careful and only do it for a short period of time. You know, get through post and see if Windows beginsto boot up. That is plenty long enough to tell if everything is ship-shape!

If you have a heatsink and no thermal grease:

You can safely substitute two sheets of aluminum foil for the thermal grease (if you don't use them for very long periods of time). The aluminum deforms and athough doesn't fill all the processor-to-heatshink gaps, in a pinch it will allow you to do a shakedown of your hardware.

Also, the Radio Shack thermal grease is more-than-adequate for any processor application. So why not use it?? The fancy-schmansy thermal pastes give you 2-5% better thermal performance (in real terms maybe a 2-5°C temp reduction), but you pay 200-500% more! Doesn't seem like a good tradeoff there!!

If you don't have a heatsink:

You can use a fan pointed right at the processor to "scrub" the package with cooling air. The stronger the airflow, the better. Stronger airflow breaks up the barrier layer of hot air that exists close to the processor package (in free air) and creates a significant thermal barrier (resistance).
Again, you can do this for short periods of time without doing any damage to your processor.

NEVER, EVER operate a processor or any electronic component without a heatsink or some form of adjunct cooling...unless you have a spare or $$$ to burn!!


Tony

[shocksyde]

thanks for the advice everyone...i wish i had known about the radio shack stuf earlier...i ordered arctic silver stuff yesterday http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/frown.gif

shock

[Dputiger]

Shocksyde, I've used both types of paste. Radio Shack is not bad at all, but Artic Silver kicks its ****.

Over at Thetechzone.com they've got a review of thermal pastes--the Artic Silver keeps the CPU about 7 degrees Celsius cooler than the Radio Shack Brand.

To me, that's worth it.

[OuTpaTienT]

That's funny. I just went and read the article you are speaking of and it clearly shows a 0.5 to 1.5°C temp drop. Possibly you are exaggerating just a wee bit?

Obviously it's a personal choice, but I don't think an average drop of 1°C is worth $20.

[thekingofpain]

The following message was sent to AMD resellers about cooling on the Duron and Thunderbird processors, (guess you can disregard if its a slot and not a socket chip) in summary if you can't be bothered to read it, it says never attempt to switch on these processors for even a second without a cooler, and always use a cooler with thermal paste.

The bulk of the text is:

.......(Did) you know that the new PGA (Pin Grid Array) AMD Athlon(tm) and AMD Duron(tm) processors have very different thermal specifications than any preceding AMD processor? Due to these differences, the AMD Athlon and AMD Duron processors should NEVER be run without a heatsink, not even for a few seconds. Doing so will cause the processor to overheat and fail immediately, resulting in permanent damage. While testing a processor by booting it up for several seconds without a heatsink installed may be common industry practice, it should never be attempted with the new PGA AMD Athlon and AMD Duron processors...
Feeling brave??? A risktaker??? Its your call!!! GO for it!!! What have you got to lose???



[This message has been edited by thekingofpain (edited 09-14-2000).]

[BFlurie]

Just my .02$, when I put the paste on, I dabbed just a small bead, then "thinned" it with some ether-like stuff (extremely volatile), spread it out completely w/a tiny paintbrush before it evaporated (seconds), & ended up w/an extremely thin coat of the stuff. Wish I had a temp probe.

[tonym]

The reason the BGA and Flip-Chip devices do this is because their semiconductor die face upward and have the heatsink affixed directly (well, there is a small metal layer!) to the processor. In this situation there is absolutely no heatsinking and no thermal mass available to the power dissipating processor die.

This is not the case with a "cartridge" style processor like Athlon and PII/PIII. These processors have that aluminum plate which bonds to the processor and cache packages...creating a thermal mass which must be heated before a thermal run-away can occur. The thermal time constant of this module is 10's of seconds, so these cartridge packages are very forgiving of the lack of cooling for quick functional testing.

A similar situation exists for the older style ceramic cavity package Pentium and Pentium Pro processors. The processor die is mounted rightside-up in these packages, and they make intimate thermal contact with thr ceramic. Also, these low frequency devices dissipate considerably less power than their second and third generation counterparts.

So listen to the kingofpain! Or you'll end upfryign, with all the best of intentions, you new processor!!!


Tony