Athlon cooling

[Guest]

Athlon cooling
I recently got an Athlon 800 and an Asustek A7V motherboard and I couldnt get the two to work although at first the board would go throught the BIOS, now it dosent do that either. I thought I would check a few assumptions with you guys first...(the retailer has taken them back for testing)
1) Can i use generic RAM (133MHZ) with my Athlon? someone suggested this may be a problem
2) Can you use a celeron heatink/fan or do i need a special Athlon heatsink/fan?
3) Can the heatsink just be clamped onto the chip like a celeron or MUST you use thermal paste?
4)I take it you just put a blob of paste on the shiny bit in the middle of the chip yes? Does this stuff stick permenantly or remain gelatinous?
5)If my inadequete cooling was letting my chip overheat (i noticed it was very very hot when i tried reseating it) Would that mean the motherboards sensor would just stop it booting? (I wasnt getting any beeps or video or anyhting).
Sorry for all the newbie questions...... I never had these problems in the celeron/pentium dayz......

 

[Guest]

I've got to get to work, so no links, but briefly:

1. You can use generic. Athlon motherboards are apprently more picky about such RAM, though. Good, name-brand RAM is exceptionally cheap these days, so why take a chance?

2. You MUST use an Athlon heatsink.

3. You must use heatsink compound. Follow your cooler instructions. Forget about trying to relate to a Celeron.

4. Just use a thin layer, depend on the type of compound you use. Again, follow instructions if they're available. It's not permanent...assuming you don't, God forbid, use some type of thermal epoxy!!!

5. I don't know about booting, but it's been clearly demonstrated on many sites that if you don't use proper cooling or don't install the heatsink correctly, you can destroy your Athlon CPU in about 10 seconds. ZIP!

Mike

 

[Guest]

Good to know that I am not the only one that had issues with an A7V. The darn thing would not boot at all and constantly went into the BIOS safe mode. I had to set the DIP switches to get it to work. I did use Crucial (Micron) PC133 256mb CAS2 modules, so the memory should have not been an issue at all.

Regards,
Frank

 

[Bubba]

I would only use a heatsink/fan that is approved by AMD as stated on their web site. If the HS you used was for a Celeron, it is possible that you applied too much force and possibly cracked the core. Or it may also be that your Hs was not making good contact and the chip heated up too much.
Most TBird HS do not need to be pasted to the chip, they can simply be clamped on but make sure the clamp is not putting too much pressure on the core (like it said it could crack).
You can use Arctic Silver thermal compound. Please be aware of the difference between compound and paste. The paste makes it stick and in most cases it is permanent where the compound is not. People usually only use paste when the clamp is broken or if they are putting a heatsink on the video card chip where there is no place to clamp the heatsink down to.

If you turned off the system for a while and let it cool down then tried to start it again and it still doesn't boot, you probably cracked the core. Get a new HS so it doesn't happen again. And hope the retailer doesn't notice it is cracked and replaces it, or this will be one expensive lesson you have learned.

 

[Guest]

I must admit that i also cooked my cpu trying to put an incorrect fan on my Duron 650. First, I almost cracked the chip as the h/s clasp was too tight and then as it wasn't secured properly, the chip overheated in approx 6 seconds. I thought i was stuffed as my pc now refused to boot. after much cursing and out of desperation i took my CPU to my friends place who runs a TBird for confirmation of my stupidity. To our surprise it worked! Turns out the extra money (and faith) i put into my DFI AK76 Motherboard paid off, it would work in his PC because (after 30-40 minutes) it had re-cooled to below the 65 degrees celsius that an A7V is defaultly set to shut down at. Where as my DFI is set to 50 degrees. This feture saved my chip and it still runs perfectly. I also believe due to the amount of postings saying that an overheat killed their cpu's on A7V m/b's that the 10 degrees difference saved my bacon. While i admit that 50 degrees may be TOO low for general day to day use (55 may be better) i would be wary of having it set to 60 or above when experimenting. Also, patience is a virtue! sit and think carefully before dealing with something as damaging as SPU overheat.