Help Cooling K6-3 450

[jg38141]

Hey- I have a retail k6-3 450 running at 475, woa!! Major performance gain there!!! Anyway, what I want to know, is there a way to seperate the chip from the heat sink it came with so I can put a better heat sink on there and up the performance a bit more?



"Are you saying that I can dodge bullets?"<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by jg38141 on 11/30/00 05:28 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[gregorarch]

If it's an OEM setup then there probably isn't anything holding the sink to the CPU other that the socket clips. These can be a bit tricky to remove depending on the design, but it's usually a question of applying downward pressure to the clip (say with a flathead screwdriver) and flipping the clip off its lug. Get yourself a decent sink and some thermal compound, apply a very thin, even layer of compound and attach your new sink. It's really pretty easy, you just have to be careful with the clips. At least with the K6-3 there isn't much danger of actually damaging the chip, because it's capped.

For info, I've got a K6-2 450, on which I've mounted a generic "high efficiency" heat sink. It's nowhere near Alpha/GlobalWin standard, but it does the job and got me up to 500 MHz. I then lapped the contact surface to a mirror finish and changed my white silicon thermal compound for Acrtic Silver, which got me upto 550 MHz and it still runs pretty cool. I did have to add extra case fans because a better heatsink dumps more heat into the case.

 

[jg38141]

Notice I said a RETAIL K6-3, so not an OEM. I've built enough computers... Anyway, I found out that if I gently pry the chip from the base of the heat sink with a screw driver, it's just held on by thermal tape so all is well. Thanks for the help though


"Are you saying that I can dodge bullets?"

 

[gregorarch]

Ah - the dreaded thermal tape. Get that stuff off and replece it with a proper thermal compound. The tape's lousy.

 

[jg38141]

Actually what I've found out is that it is more than a thermal tape, it is a thermal cement. Others have the same problem with their k6-3 retails. The only soultion is to spend hours with a razor blade slowely working through the cement. Then you have to scour the metal plate to get the remnants of it off and then you can go about putting another heat sink on. I may just leave it on there.

"Are you saying that I can dodge bullets?"