What if Your CPU Cooler Fails?

noblekitty

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To those who used to bash Intel method of TDP measuring, what do you have to say about the fact that the E2160 (65W) can complete 10 benchmarks vs 2 with the BE-2350(45W) with the fan off?
 

xeoph

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Hey I just wanted to post a testament to new technology.
I have the nicer of the EVGA 650i ULTRA chipset motherboards (non sli) and an Intel Core 2 Duo E6850.

When I bought the processor nearly a month ago now I had a major problem and a miracle. I installed the processor and was installing the heatsink and had my first real problem with Intel's heatsink design (I have never liked Intel's designs). The heatsink rested on the really nice metallic capacitors and not on the processor, although everything looked fine. I turned my PC on and checked the BIOS to ensure the processor had detected without any difficulty because a firmware upgrade was required. I restarted the PC and it BSOD on startup. I check the BIOS once again and I see the multiplier is 6 and not 8 as well as the processor speed is 2ghz not 2.66. I pull the heatsink off and behold; my dab of Arctic Silver compound wasn't even compressed in the least (I remove stock compound).

So, either a combination of a good processor technology that underclocks itself in problems and motherboard with the same perks or extreme luck. Re-installed the heatsink, which I was worried wasnt seated right again because I couldnt tell, but it worked this time and I'm still using the processor now with the 8x multiplier and at 2.66ghz.
 

fishnet

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I have a 4200X2 where the plastic tab on the motherboard cooler mounting bracket broke off. The cooler fell down in the case, but the fan kept running. Of course, the computer shut down. Replaced the bracket, and the computer works fine - it currently has 125 days of continuous uptime.
 
Very interesting article. I was anticipating performance skewed in favor of AMD because of the mobo difference, but that was not the case at all.
Would it make a difference if the CPUs were overclocked, or would they just slow down / shut down more quickly?
Bizarre that I had a dream of OC-ing my e6750 last night...
 

BobLafleur

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This article repeatedly makes statements like "the processor will shut off timers to reduce heat dissipation", etc. The term "dissipation" is incorrect in these types of statements. It should be something like heat CREATION. If heat dissipation were reduced, it means the heat would be spread less - in other words, the processor woudl get hotter!

- Bob
 

sailer

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The results of the test were better than I expected, to be honest. I do wonder how well the CPUs would work if a good heatsink, such as a Tuniq Tower, was used and then the fan cut off. Would the heatsink on it own disipate enough heat to keep the CPU running, or would the CPU throttle back or fail anyway? Sure would like to see a test with the tower installed.
 
G

Guest

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Yes, I was kind of hoping to see the Tuniq Tower or my TR Ultra-120 Extreme tested as well. One can only hope that they would perform better w/out a fan than the stock HSFs though.
 
I'd like to see such an additional test with a bigger / better heat sink as well. After all, aren't fans optional on some of them? And yes, HSFs dissipate heat, CPUs create it.
And, how much difference would it make if, instead of in open air, the tests were run in a closed case with a typical minimal 80mm rear exhaust?
 

onestar

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I wonder what difference using the same heatsink on both the AMD and Intel processors would make.

If the Intel HS was more efficient than AMDs, that could make a considerable impact upon the test.
 

nickc07

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This is a pretty nice artical. A couple of things I would like to see in a follow up test.

1. OC the computers! Lets be real with this 95% of the people that read all the stuff on THG OCs or wants to OC but doesnt know how yet.

2. Lets use aftermark coolers. I would say get about 5 of the most common coolers people suggest. Maybe even setup a poll and let the users vote which ones they would like tested.
 

sailer

Splendid
1. There's already a lot of articles on overclocking, and will probably be more in the future as new CPUs and motherboards are released. This article wasn't about overclocking, and an overclocked CPU would just fail faster.

2. That's a good idea, one which a number of people have already suggested, except for the polling part. There are way too many coolers available to make that a reasonable request. But a comparative test using say a Zalman 9700, a Tuniq Tower, a Thermalrite 120 and a couple others would be useful. And such a test wouldn't use water coolers or TEC coolers, because without power, they wouldn't provide much, if any, cooling.
 

wrenrd007

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03flat4

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Or water cooler failure on an OCed system...more extreme :ouch: Being that I am water cooled, I'd like to see that happen. pump fails, water stops flowing.
 

03flat4

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I agree with that...but I'd still like to see the result on a PC that isn't mine :D
 

KyleSTL

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Dissipation is the correct term. Energy is delivered to the processor in the form of an electrical current. The vast majority of that energy is given off because of electrical resistance in the form of heat. When the processor throttles its clock speed back, less energy is consumed by the processor, which results in less energy needing to be dissipated by the heatsink (or without) in the form of radiant and convective heat.
 

drysocks

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I think Bob is correct. The processor creates heat. If you want to use "dissipation", the article should have instead said, "the processor will shut off timers to reduce the energy that is required to be dissipated". Or something like that. Of course, all heat will/needs to be dissipated and dosn't say anything to forward the article. So creation would have been better. JMO
 
This is a pretty nice artical. A couple of things I would like to see in a follow up test.

1. OC the computers! Lets be real with this 95% of the people that read all the stuff on THG OCs or wants to OC but doesnt know how yet.

Eh, I would say that's not true. More than 1 in 20 choose to run their computers at stock speed for stability reasons (they run a production/work machine) or have a server or HTPC that needs to run cool and power doesn't matter. Plus almost every laptop user here can't overclock even if they wanted to. I'd put the figure much lower. Hey, I have an idea- I'll put a survey in this section and get some numbers.

2. Lets use aftermark coolers. I would say get about 5 of the most common coolers people suggest. Maybe even setup a poll and let the users vote which ones they would like tested.

Aftermarket coolers have more mass and probably a better thermal dissipation profile than the stock coolers. This will let them both take longer to heat up from cold as well as dissipating heat better while they are heating up, letting the CPUs run longer. Some like the Tuniq Tower probably can even be run without the fan on the BE-2150 and Pentium Dual Core indefinitely as long as there is some air going over the heatsink from the case fans.

This article makes me feel old as I remember when CPUs didn't even have a heatsink at all, let alone one weighing a pound and actively cooled by a fan. It wasn't *that* long ago that they didn't need them, something a little over ten years ago (most 486s didn't need a heatsink, but the Pentiums did.)
 
I was hoping to see another yank off the heatsink video with quake II(or III) in the background :) and maybe some smoke.....

Its rather impressive for stock heat sinks in open air. The results in a case would be far better.

EDIT
sirrobin4ever beat me to it
 

sojrner

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From dictionary.com-

Dissipate:
1. to scatter in various directions; disperse; dispel.
2. to spend or use wastefully or extravagantly; squander; deplete: to dissipate one's talents; to dissipate a fortune on high living.

Create:
1. to cause to come into being, as something unique that would not naturally evolve or that is not made by ordinary processes.
2. to evolve from one's own thought or imagination, as a work of art or an invention.

KyleSTL is the correct one. CPU's do not create energy at all. They have electricity delivered to them through the mobo and they dissipate some of that into work done on the system... a vast amount of it however is dissipated into heat. The heatsink is in direct contact with the proc to pick that heat up and further dissipate it into the case or ambient space near it. Basic physics going on here. ;)
 

T8RR8R

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The e2160 would be totally kick but if you had a passive cooler that was well designed or one of those silent zalman water coolers(not that I like them though)
 

KyleSTL

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Thank you sojrner, at least one person on this forum knows energy cannot be created nor destroyed. "Converted", "transfered", "changed" are all good words when referring to energy.
 

joex444

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I think that, mainly due to Patrick's participation on this article, the entire article was misguided.

It's good to know that if the stock heatsink is properly installed and at some point the fan fails, your system will not be damaged. But, look, I just summarized your 15 page article in a line.

What this article really should have covered isn't fan failures. It should have covered what heatsinks can run fanless with what CPUs.

I'm sure one of the very large Thermalright heatsinks could run the E2160 fanless. But I'd want to see this. Fanless computing has the advantage of exactly 0 dB output by the CPU. Using some very quiet fans, it should be possible to create a near silent PC. This is what you should've talked about and what your article should've tried to tell us.

I'm glad the CPUs don't burn up, but with the stock coolers, that's all you can expect. I want to know fanless computing. Please rewrite your article and cover this topic, then I won't be so disappointed in the utter uselessness of the article.