after crushing 2 cores....

[Richard Cranium]

On the installation of HS/Fans on my Socket A CPU's I use a piece of 1/4" SS tubing with a Tee fitting on the end.

Instead of a flat blade screwdriver, which "can" slip off and damage the mobo, this has a Positive Fit and makes the job a snap.

The tubing allows me to easily pull the retainer clip over the plastic tab with precision.. Neat job and no busted tabs OR cores.

[aznlurkerz]

Good idea.

[lost-and-found]

ah, I feel your pain, I killed my t-birdie that way I like the idea of the heat spreaders, but weren't they actually bad at spreading heat? I thought that they were more of an insulator than a heat remover.

[jrock]

I totally crushed one of mine the same way! Invest in a shim. It may seem overly simple, but at 5 bucks, it is an item I will never go without again on. They offer copper and non-conductive shims. I overclocked my XP and tried both, couldn't see any difference, but I put my money in the non-conductive. It seems too ricky to put a conductive shim that close to the L connectors.

-jrock

[Bullion]

Thats all well and good to use a shim but there is some thought that if the shim is slightly to think the hsf will not make good contact with the core and higer temps result. A shim is a low cost item that is manufactured to very small tolerances. To thin and whats the point of a shim?? Personally I will not use a shim ever (yes even after crushing the cores ) I was careless, and didnt take the proper care. but ive learnt my lesson now

[sugardaddy]

I've taken the cpu out and in many time and had never crushed anything. don't know how you guy can do that so easily with little effort. could this be that the heaksink/fan combo you're using is too rough on the cpu, like it is putting too much pressure on it or not enough room between cpu and fan?

[chris64]

Originally posted by sugardaddy
I've taken the cpu out and in many time and had never crushed anything. don't know how you guy can do that so easily with little effort. could this be that the heaksink/fan combo you're using is too rough on the cpu, like it is putting too much pressure on it or not enough room between cpu and fan?

What kind of proccesor are you using.

[joxsfunk]

yeah! bring on the heat spreaders! a lot of crushed cores and crushed hearts here in the philippines! good thing, im not one of them.

[Theophylact]

It's all too easy to put the heat sink on backwards: and that'll do it, two times out of three.

It never ceases to amaze me how many critical parts are designed without elementary failure-proofing. The AT power connector to the motherboard is all too easy to put in the wrong way, frying the board. The floppy cable connector has nothing to prevent it from being put on upside down. The motherboard headers for USB cables are non-standard, and the wrong pinout can fry the motherboard.

[bhess]

Originally posted by DanU
Ouch !

I wonder if AMD is going to put heat spreaders/die protectors on their CPUs like Intel did with the P4 (and AMD used to do with the K6).

The thing is, how do they even know how many are getting crushed unless you let them know or complain? I would send it to them and try to get a new chip or atleast voice your complaint about how fragale they are. Just think if everyone did that instead of making keychains from them they might do something.