P3 370 heatsink dying quick

geminiguy

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Oct 8, 2001
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I'm working with a few computers at the moment and the heatsink on my P3 733 is making alot of noise and it killed the last 733 in there.
Can anyone make a suggestion of a good heatsink and where to purchase it? I normally buy from
http://www.macena.com
due to the fact their about 15 min's away from my house. They don't have any copper or silver ones though. Any suggestions for this?
Any input would really be helpfull. I don't want to run that system until that is taken care of.

Thnx,
Gem
 

Crashman

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Former Staff
My suggestion is a STOCK INTEL RETAIL BOXED heatsink, one of the large ones (they also had a few small ones). You can find the stock heatsink for around $10 at various retailers, and it's supremely durable (has a long bearing life).

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>
 

geminiguy

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Crash, I was told by one of my tech buds to get a copper base for this to ensure it won't burn out another one again. Do you think I should just go with the stock one insted? I appreciate the help, I have had that system just lying around for about a week now.

Gem
 

geminiguy

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I hear ya Teq, I just want to make sure that the cpu is not going to burn out on me again. Like I replied earlier, should I go stock or copper based?

Gem
 

Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
Putting a copper base cooler on there is like putting a Viper radiator in a Mazda, it will work, but is definately overkill. Your cooler failures are caused by the fan, not the heatsink. Intel retail boxed processors cary a 3-year factory warranty if you use the included cooler. That means Intel is 100% confident the fan their cooler uses will last at least 3 years.

Intel packaged the small cooler with every CPU under 800MHz I believe. So if yours was retail, it would probably still be surviving on the small cooler. But I recommend the large cooler because...It's like putting a Buick V8 radiator in a Buick V6 car, not so much overkill as precautionary. I'm recommending the Intel coolers because they have quiet, long life fans.

<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>
 

skligmund

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I would reccomend a stock one, they seem to have worked for years. You could go buy a copper one, but you can't be sure it is worth a damn or not, until you use it. Like I said, go with a stock one, it is proven technology.

My Duron 1300 eats P4's for dinner. Oh, the Celerons make a nice snack too.
 

Teq

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Hi Geminguy,

First off, let me agree with the others that the intel-supplied HSF obviously gave you a couple of years of good service and it would not be wrong to by one as a repair part to put on your CPU. I will, however, suggest that there are better coolers that can most often be purchased cheaper than the Intel part.

Copper based HSF units (like those for AMD) do cool the CPU better, but they are also heavier and have stronger springs in their mounting clips. They can put too much strain on the plastic tabs of a the S370 ZIF socket which was not designed for the added stress.

If you want a better-than-stock cooler for your CPU take a look at the Spire coolers. One of these should do a bang up job without making a lot of noise...

<A HREF="http://www.spirecooler.com/asp/fcc.asp?ProdID=74" target="_new">http://www.spirecooler.com/asp/fcc.asp?ProdID=74</A>
<A HREF="http://www.spirecooler.com/asp/fcc.asp?ProdID=72" target="_new">http://www.spirecooler.com/asp/fcc.asp?ProdID=72</A>

As with all coolers I strongly recommend removing the rubbery gunk on the bottom and using a good quality heat sink grease. Radio Shack (if they are in your area) has an excellent product they sell in small tubes, Arctic Silver is also very good (but far more expensive)...

Usage instructions for heat sink grease can be found here:

<A HREF="http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm" target="_new">http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm</A>

Although these instructions are for Arctic Silver, the same method should be used no matter what brand of grease you choose. (You may also find usefull information in my recent posting in the thread "Thermal Compounds", where I describe how I prepare the HSF and CPU for installation.)

Good luck... and don't leave this till you end up frying another expensive chip.




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