In a couple of weeks I am about to buy a Athlon 1,4 Ghz processor and I have som questions that I need help with...
1. What kind of fan is required?
2. Do I really need cooling-paste?
3. What voltage is required for this speed?
4. What else do I have to be careful with?

If you have some direct answers to these newbie questions or just some helpful links, I really would appreciate it!
thanks!





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Will you be overclocking???

IF NOT:
1. The Stock HSF will do if you buy the Retail CPU. If you get an OEM, a GLobal Win FOP-32 is a good balance between performance, noise, and price!!
2. No
3. I think its 1.75.
4. Don't be careless when putting the HSF on.

I will let other people answer your question if you DO plan on overclocking since many people will argue with me wheather or not ArticSliverII is better than the thermal pad that comes on HSFs. I also believe spending $50-$80 on a HSF to get an extra 200 mhz is waste.

See a real naked pic of Britney Spears <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/stick_e_mouse" target="_new">here</A>!!!

1.Stick is right, no overclocking stick with the retail hsf.
2> ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS HAVE SOME KIND OF THERMAL TRANSFER MATERIAL, BE IT A STICKEY PAD OR WHATEVER, YOU WILL BURN OUT YOUR CORE IF YOU DO NOT. That said, arctic silver is well worth the 6 bucks it costs even with the standard heatsink, remember kids, a cool processor is a happy crash free processor. Be sure to completly remove the sticker from the hsf if you do purchase the as.
3. 1.75
4. DO NOT SCREW AROUND PUTTING THE HEATSINK ON, be very careful, also be sure to install all the neccicary drivers IE 4 in 1's agp miniport drivers etc, your motherboard manual should inform you what is needed, when you decide on a brand bring it here for our wise assistance.

~Matisaro~
"Friends don't let friends buy Pentiums"
~Tbird1.3@1.55~

Thanks for the help folks!
No, I don´t intend to overclock it, I will leave it as it is.
When it comes to artic silver, do I apply it all over the processor or just the core?
Contact between the heatsink and the cpu, it won´t mess the processor up?
I´m sorry if these questions sound somewhat stupid but I really want to be sure that I´m not going to make any mistakes.
It feels kind of unsecure with Athlons, I mean...they don´t have a thermostat built in and will fry in a matter of seconds if I do something wrong...



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The Arctic Silver gets applied just to the core, about as thick as two sheets of paper. The heatsink should only touch the CPU by its core (which is electrically insulated by a conductive oxide, I believe--whatever, it <i>is</i> electrically insulated) and by the four rubber pads at the corners.

As for removing the thermal pad, it will generally scrape off easily with a razor blade, after which I would clean the traces of the thermal pad off with some rubbing alcohol. Once that's done, apply the thermal grease to the CPU core and set the HSF on top of the CPU. Most HSFs have a notched clip that can be latched in place by using a small flat-tip screwdriver.

I don't know if the retail Athlon HSFs have this, but the FOP32 has a retension clip I rather like. It's bent in such a way that as you're pushing it down, it applies pressure at the very center of the CPU and nowhere else. This helps ensure that the HSF always rests flat on the core and doesn't put force on the corners.

Kelledin

"/join #hackerz. See the Web. DoS interesting people."