Looks like the AMD cpu has zero thermal protection in instances where the heatsink separates from its position. Like less than a second and your cpu is fried, any longer the mobo can go and there is even a reported risk of fire.

Check out the test and video at Toms. Intel cpu's seem to be protected from such dangers it would seem from the article.

Might be time to open your box and make sure all is secure gents.

wha?? so even if i installed the heatsink correctly, it could still fry!?

Provided it stays in place, he mentions the chances that on some clips the heatsink can become dislodged (being moved about to and from lans for example). Seems the AMD cpu has f*** all thermal tolerance.

well s***.

so... what you paid is what you got?

zero thermal tollerance = less material = cheaper chips

I have only ever bought Intel cpu's, I know they are more expensive and the AMD goive a good price/performance ratio but its kinda like the ol' Ford/Holden choice thing. Personal choice . I just like Intel cpu's and their stability ect..

OMFG!!! I JUST REALISED THAT MY COMPUTER WAS ON FIRE!!!
THAT DAMN HEAT SINK!!!

Meh. You only fry the new athlons if the heatsink gets completely removed - if the fan falls off, the heat stuff in it shuts the PC off (it's just the thermometer on the chip samples every second, so if it gets to a critical temp in under a second, then you're screwed)

ford/holden??? please explain, they are both the same sorta, cept ford ownz holden

Capto thats probably why AMD cant crack the 'server' market just yet due to their possible failure exposure. It was a pretty good article on Toms and was interesting to see that its just about impossible to fry the P4 cpu's. They will continue to run and function even if the HS is off completely.

it is to my understadning that intel run their cpu's ina 50C room without fans but heat sinks. If they survive then they are ready to roll. otherwise it is back to the drawing board? correct me if i am wrong. Ther eis nothing wrong with intel cept the price

lol..

I miss the old schoolyard Holden vs Ford fights.

swapping them for Intel vs Amd just isn't the same

=P

That the thing SprayNwipe, it would seem that the AMD's and even the new Athlons reach that critical temp in under a second.

Im not baggin AMD chips I just thought it a community service thing to let a lot of fellow gamers know about this issue. A LOT of people hardly ever look inside their box, let alone do a regular check to make sure all their fans are clean and working effectively.

Holdens rock and always will.

:)

(Just bought a new Berlina Wagon)

my heatsink and fan fell off my celeron once, it just locked up instantly.

watch the video of it see the smoke come outta the amd cpu's

That the thing SprayNwipe, it would seem that the AMD's and even the new Athlons reach that critical temp in under a second.

Spray's point was that this only happens iff the heatsink falls off. Sure, _maybe_ fans stop working after a long time (I haven't heard of anyone having this problem with a CPU fan), but a heatsink just "popping off"? When was the last time you heard of such a thing happening? Sure, that article says "it could happen when you're moving your puter around", but I've moved my puter heaps, and never had that problem. Nor have I even _heard_ of that problem.

This kind of thing is typical a) Intel and b) Intel consumer FUD, spread by Intel who's losing the consumer CPU war, and Intel consumers who would rather feed one American company a lot more than some other company for an equal product.

I, for one, am willing to accept that if my heatsink "pops off my CPU" while I'm doing something CPU intensive, there's every likelihood that my CPU will fry. Personally, I think the odds of that happening are less than the ole Pentium FDIV bug. That could happen a couple of times, and I'd _still_ be ahead on monetary cost.

I would rather have a lock-up than an inferno inside my case.
Yeah, the video was an interesting watch ;-)

Personally, i will always go Intel, if anything just by past choice. They have never done me wrong yet.

haha

blahnana, your cpu will fry even if you are not doing something intensive, get an old p3 or something liekthat and try it with out a fan, put it in, turn on the machine andfeel the temp go up instantly. CPU's get hot and get hot realy realy fast.

CPU fan's don't just fall off, it isbecuase of incompitence of computer store technicians or the home user not attaching it correctly.

but the bottom line is, cpu's get hot realy quick even under 0% utalisation when the macibhe is on

Ok, fine. Leave it to dangles to have had it happen.

However, it popped off his Intel Celeron, probably because it didn't want to be nailed to a piece of crud like that any more.

If anyone's got a story from the wild that they want to share, about their heatsink popping off their Athlon, which proceeded to burst into flames, please... share it with us.

Also, I'd like to point out that that heatsink that fell off dangles' cpu probably wasn't properly fastened, and probably wasn't because the heatsink mounts failed in any way. Care to comment, dangles?

yeah i dont think it was fastened properly but im not sure one second im playing q3, then CLUNK (Fan and Heatsink falling off :D) comp locks up i go WTF, turn off comp and look in case and there was my fan and heatsink hehe

that happened over a year and a half ago, it hasnt happened again.

when i move my comp i always check to see if my fans are working on my cpu and my vid card.

Capt0, a) that's not really the point I was making

b) The likelihood of your heatsink just jumping off your cpu while you're using it (when your computer is likely to be stable) is next to zero. You could possibly knock the heatsink/fan off whilst working on your computer, and you could possibly somehow f$*k it up while moving your computer, and though both seem unlikely given how secure the mounts are, even if they do occur, will cause the computer to lock up as it climbs toward higher temps.

The "bottom line" as you call it is this: The tests that Tom's hardware did _don't_ reflect what happens in the wild. Yes, one building will collapse if you fly a 767 into it, and another one mightn't. That doesn't mean that it's going to happen, or that it's necessary relevant to the operating conditions of the buildings.

That's it dangles, keep gutting me as I write up another post. :P

In any case, we're still waiting for an Athlon owner who's had this happen to post, and there's plenty out there.

Hahaha... I mean... there's plenty of Athlon owners out there, but noone's posted because there's noone who's had this... ah forget it. I'm going to bed.

Psycho! managed to forget to mention the fact that they did this after a looping q3 demo had been run for a bit, so the CPU was under a decent load for a little bit.

The only reason the heatsink/fan would fall off is if the retention mechanism on the socket itself snapped, which would only happen if you damaged it yourself when installing a heatsink/fan, or if you've attached a heatsink heavier than AMD's maximum recommended weight.

As was mentioned, in moving a pc to and from lans it could fall off, that would only really happen if you literally threw/moved the case around with such violent movements that you are asking for something to happen.

So unless you've somehow damaged the socket, and are throwing your machine around like its a tennis ball, I dont think you'd be in such great risk of it happening.

*falls off chair*

blahana, i have know the plastic clips on mobo's for the cpu fan to snap in transport. i have seen it happen, i did a bit of work at a comp store a while nback and we did get 2 or 3 customers come in iwith that problem

my GTS is running at 50 degrees atm.
i could allow dynamic cooling which would prob take it too about 30 degrees but i cbf

i dunno cyth, the way some ppl drive over speed bumps with puters in their cars, that can do it

Ok... one more thing... I couldn't let this one go...

I just like Intel cpu's and their stability ect..

You like their stability? I run an athlon 1G at home, and 7 or so athlons at work, and we've _never_ had stability issues with them. We run them pretty much constantly day in and day out, and some of our guys leave them for weeks without rebooting. (Until ordered to by a network admin who believes rebooting cures everything (yes, that's me)).

Not to mention my Duron firewall, which has the best uptime of any of the firewalls I've run.

So... what does this all mean? Say all you want... Intel backers are all the same... they clutch at _anything_ to try and prove to themselves that their money was well spent. Fact of the matter is... your video card is where your money should be spent these days. Amd CPU's are the average punters holy grail.

blahana, i have know the plastic clips on mobo's for the cpu fan to snap in transport

When they snap in transport, the cpu heats up much more slowly, and the lockup will happen before the cpu burns.

"Hahaha... I mean... there's plenty of Athlon owners out there, but noone's posted because there's noone who's had this... ah forget it."

Not from my experience mate. Just how many hundred Amd cpu's have you sold ? How many have you seen come back due to I.D.Ten-T errors?

there's plenty of Athlon owners out there who aren't gamers, so obviously won't post on this board, but have taken their shiny new Athlon-based computers home, bumping away in the back of the car all the way home.

Then comes the phonecall...

I've sold you a peice of what?

Amd's have a reputation of being fragile - and in more ways than just one.


An Amd is (obviously) an excellent choice for gaming purposes, but it you think this is how they gain market share and presteige, you're gravely mistaken.

Sif you'd trust an Amd in a server or a workstation.

that's what i said today to someone

if i was getting a comp for business for server i'd get intel but for games i'd get amd

blahnana, I dunno why your getting your back up about this. As I said I didnt post this as an AMD bagging session just as an item of interest to those that do have AMD cpu's.

Say all you want... Intel backers are all the same... they clutch at _anything_ to try and prove to themselves that their money was well spent. Fact of the matter is... your video card is where your money should be spent these days.

I dont have to clutch at anything to justify how my money's spent cpu or vid card wise. I spend what I like on hardware, hell I have spent over 3 grand on vid cards alone in the last 3 years.

As i mentioned I can see why the AMD price point /performance ratio is attractive to many people.

As for stability, I think that many post I have seen here and on other forums relating to comp probs involve AMD cpus and VIA chipsets they run on. Having to upgrade VIA drivers every few months just to maintain performance/stability ect.

a lot of office type ppl wont buy amd cause INTEL has a better rep, at work, its a rare day now if we sell AMD, mostly pentiums are sold.

very odd.

im not sure what relevance this is, but im tired, have to start work earlier tommorow, and im going to bed

I dont think I have much of a chance of that happening to me, that clip is a bitch to get off :D

pentium 3 clips are a arsehole to get on, well the last one i put on was anyway.

the music in that video rocks!

yeh its was pretty good hey.

:)

Those Germans.

How quickly do the AMD chips burn, gawd !! Even if the machine did shutdown the damage is already done hahaha. I knew Intel was superior... I will probably buy AMD for my next computer though (one day) just because of the price thing.

heh, i only just realised why my computer kept crashing. My 2 fans on my chunky amd werent working so it kinda overheated every now and then... felt like a f***ing heater in my room but my computer still works fine :)

How quickly do the AMD chips burn, gawd !! Even if the machine did shutdown the damage is already done hahaha. I knew Intel was superior...

yeah, intel chips are so superior. in price tag. oh, and in drawing clueless people into buying them. oh and sure, amd chips run hot, but thats because they are uber chips.

UBER!

who gives a flying f**k!, sif that article isnt biased towards intel :P

my fs dropped to 40 from 120 in q3 because my cpu was running at 70 degrese just sitting there with a FOP 38 spinning at 6800 rpm average... only clocked 50 htz
i had to put the voltage all the way down, it even has arctic silver paste

when I purchased my amd 1.4g I could have purchased 5 of them for the same price as one 1.4g p4 (not even considering ram at the time either)...

P4s are the better chip ... if you can validate spending the vast sums of money on cpu and ram (its much cheaper now but its still in the realm of ouch)...

Other wise you can purchase one amd chip and if one blows out you still under costs when you replace it ...

Hmm