Re: K6 and Debian (and heatsinks)
Most CPU fans I've seen come with a pad of conductive [something] which goes between the processor and the heatsink. I would think that something like this would be essential, given that the surfaces are probably not perfectly flat (on a nano scale). I think it's more a case of sheer laziness. The thermal grease doesn't come with the heatsink/fan combo, so has to be purchased seperately, and applied. It's not laziness, it's more like criminal negligence (my limited english shows here, but you'll get the idea). If a shop that build the machine says it doesn't matter, then I question their professionality. At work, if we happen to see a tube of thermal grease, we'll apply some, but we don't break our necks looking for it or anything. You can get a tube of it from almost any shop that sells electronic components (chips etc.) - at least here in Finland. It costs about 45 FIM = about 9 USD and lasts for about 40 machines. If you want to try - put your finger on a bare processor ( 486DX33) and power on the machine with some load on the cpu and see how long you can keep it there ;-) Note: some Cyrix etc. chips stay almost cool until they start to do something. Within a month I've seen 4 fried processors. Two of them were because faulty regulators on the motherboard and two were normally clocked *without* anything between the processor and heatsink. Heatsinks were good. A fried cpu is not always just dead. I've seen one that made funny things with interrupts, and that was hard to diagnose. --j 'liquid hydrogen for the processor' ;-) -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: K6 and Debian (and heatsinks)
frank wrote, Rick Hawkins [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote They work wonderfully. I have a k6-166 running at 210/83 quite happilly. However, it needs some cooling at this speed; until i get something more than this cheesy $2 fan, I need to keep the side off to compile (but not at 166/66). How is the heatsink (between the fan and the CPU, right?) attached to the CPU? Are you using heatsink compound (thermal compound, heatsink grease) between the heatsink and the CPU? I used a $2 tube of heat sink compound from radio shack. And, for the moment, an audio cassette tape to prob up the fan, as it slides down (board is upright in the tower). I just added a second case fan, blowing down from the top half of the case, and this with a cheesy fan now seems to be enough--I closed the case, and it's done a couple of kernel compiles so far. It seems that the front case fan isn't doing much--it doesn't seem to blow much air at all, but then it's partway blocked from it's mounting hardware, and really doesn't have a good source to draw from. Maybe I'll move it to the top of the case to blow more air in. Hmm, now that I'm stable at 210/83, maybe I should play with voltage and go for 250 :) Does anyone have any experience with this? In the old days, voltage regulators and power transistors and such hot-running ICs usually were not just attached to their heatsinks bare, but were smeared with heatsink/thermal compound first in order to provide better heat transfer than a bare connection would provide. yes, do this. It was the difference between running stably and not. However, I have gathered that the typical CPU heatsink is just put on bare. Is this just laziness on the part of assemblers or is there some legitimate reason to think the heatsink compound is not needed with CPUs? Laziness. It should really be there. It makes a better thermal connection. rick -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: K6 and Debian (and heatsinks)
On Fri, 28 Nov 1997 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: A fried cpu is not always just dead. I've seen one that made funny things with interrupts, and that was hard to diagnose. This is why I always put heatsink goop on the chip, without it the heatsink/fan doesn't do much. The problems you can get from an overheating processor are varied and can be quite subtle. I'd rather not have some odd problem because someone decided 0.10$ worth of thermal compound was too much trouble. Basically, if the tempurature of your chip is higher than the tempurature of the heat sink you are in trouble. I've seen heat sinks with what appears to be ductape on the bottom (It isn't though) and that doesn't seem to do much of anything. Be sure to realize that some Pentium chips dissapate ~20 watts of power, that's ALOT of heat, the chip can go from room tempurature to untouchably hot in about 20 seconds! If you have a Cyrix chip then be sure to use set6x86 to enable the power saving mode, it will keep the chip cooler than a Pentium if your machine is mostly idle. Jason -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: K6 and Debian (and heatsinks)
Most CPU fans I've seen come with a pad of conductive [something] which goes between the processor and the heatsink. I would think that something like this would be essential, given that the surfaces are probably not perfectly flat (on a nano scale). I think it's more a case of sheer laziness. The thermal grease doesn't come with the heatsink/fan combo, so has to be purchased seperately, and applied. At work, if we happen to see a tube of thermal grease, we'll apply some, but we don't break our necks looking for it or anything. D. -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: K6 and Debian (and heatsinks)
On Thu, 27 Nov 1997, Frank Sergeant wrote: [ snip ] : : Does anyone have any experience with this? In : the old days, voltage regulators and power transistors : and such hot-running ICs usually were not just attached : to their heatsinks bare, but were smeared with : heatsink/thermal compound first in order to provide better : heat transfer than a bare connection would provide. A 300W RF amp built without using thermal compound will fail in a hurry (and smell bad, too :) : : However, I have gathered that the typical CPU : heatsink is just put on bare. Is this just laziness : on the part of assemblers or is there some legitimate : reason to think the heatsink compound is not needed : with CPUs? Other than cost, no good reason whatsoever. Most techs I've been around have no idea that thermal compound exists, but I don't consider ignorance a legitimate excuse in this case. Personally, I've got a tube of compound at my desk; any PC I end up fiddling with gets its heatsink checked. -- Nathan Norman MidcoNet - 410 South Phillips Avenue - Sioux Falls, SD 57104 phone: (605) 334-4454 fax: (605) 335-1173 mailto://[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.midco.net PGP Key ID: 0xA33B86E9 - Public key available at keyservers PGP Key fingerprint: CE03 10AF 3281 1858 9D32 C2AB 936D C472 -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: K6 and Debian (and heatsinks)
Rick Hawkins [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote They work wonderfully. I have a k6-166 running at 210/83 quite happilly. However, it needs some cooling at this speed; until i get something more than this cheesy $2 fan, I need to keep the side off to compile (but not at 166/66). How is the heatsink (between the fan and the CPU, right?) attached to the CPU? Are you using heatsink compound (thermal compound, heatsink grease) between the heatsink and the CPU? Does anyone have any experience with this? In the old days, voltage regulators and power transistors and such hot-running ICs usually were not just attached to their heatsinks bare, but were smeared with heatsink/thermal compound first in order to provide better heat transfer than a bare connection would provide. However, I have gathered that the typical CPU heatsink is just put on bare. Is this just laziness on the part of assemblers or is there some legitimate reason to think the heatsink compound is not needed with CPUs? -- Frank [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
Re: K6 and Debian (and heatsinks)
Most CPU fans I've seen come with a pad of conductive [something] which goes between the processor and the heatsink. I would think that something like this would be essential, given that the surfaces are probably not perfectly flat (on a nano scale). On Thu, 27 Nov 1997, Frank Sergeant wrote: Does anyone have any experience with this? In the old days, voltage regulators and power transistors and such hot-running ICs usually were not just attached to their heatsinks bare, but were smeared with heatsink/thermal compound first in order to provide better heat transfer than a bare connection would provide. However, I have gathered that the typical CPU heatsink is just put on bare. Is this just laziness on the part of assemblers or is there some legitimate reason to think the heatsink compound is not needed with CPUs? -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word unsubscribe to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
