Socket 478 Heatsink woes

[Kal-El]

Hey gang,

So I bought a new heatsink fan for my Socket478 Pentium 4 and found out that the thermal monitoring works . . .

My old heatsink fan (stock Intel one included with proc) had ridges on the edges of the block that faced the retention clip. This was to accomodate the little raised white bumps from the plastic studs you have to use to attach the retention clip to the motherboard. The bottom of the heatsink I purchased is totally flat, and when I mounted it on the retention clip, it sat on top of the white bumps instead of the die of the processor. Needless to say, I heard a terrible alarm sound and my computer shut down after breaching 70 degrees celsius due to their being no heatsink fan on it. I took it off and it definetly did not make contact with the die (none of the letters could be seen in the paste, nor the outline).

Has anyone else had this problem? Is there something I'm missing; should it have come with a different retention clip to fit the heatsink?

[nanook105]

I just replaced my 478 heat-sink a couple of weeks ago, and removed those plastic studs as part of the installation process.

[Kal-El]

You removed them? If you do, then what keeps the retention clip on?

From what I can tell you have a post that fits in from the back of the motherboard through the holes and into the retention clip; then, you have to put those white posts in to secure the retention clip into the posts. It looks like if those were taken out the retention clip would fall off.

[nanook105]

My new heat-sink came with a plate (with screw holes) that I attached to the bottom/underside of the MB. The bracket was then attached to the plate with screws.

[Kal-El]

Aaaah, that's why. See, mine didn't come with one and doesn't have screw holes. It's supposed to attach like the stock one to the stock retention clip. However, those little white posts that hold it in are blocking it. I'm going to hit up a hardware store today or tomorrow and look at their other heatsinks to see if all the ones that are supposed to be compatible with the stock retention clip have those little insets on the edge of the block to compensate. I emailed the company but haven't heard back yet.

[nanook105]

I'm not sure what you bought, but I bought one of these:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...&sku=C283-1038

And I couldn't be happier. Idle CPU temp went from 55 to 40, and pegged CPU temp went from 70 to 50.

[Kal-El]

i bought this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835151122

more for the quiet factor than anything (19dbA)

edit: omg, yours is only 16dBA???? is it really that quiet nanook? if it is maybe i'll splurge for one of those; i'd be able to move it to a newer processor too i see.

[nanook105]

Originally Posted by Kal-El

i bought this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835151122

more for the quiet factor than anything (19dbA)

edit: omg, yours is only 16dBA???? is it really that quiet nanook? if it is maybe i'll splurge for one of those; i'd be able to move it to a newer processor too i see.

Well, I don't know how you define "really that quiet", but it is significantly quieter than the original heat-sink. Actually, I bought it based on the recomendation in the Godzilla article in the Snapstream Blog:

http://blogs.snapstream.com/2006/01/18/godzilla-pvr/

[Kal-El]

From Intels site:

These white bumps:


Which come from installing the studs here:




Those white pertrusions on the corners from the studs are what the heatsink ends up hitting. I followed their guide online, just as simple as sitting it inside of the retention clip. I did that and it wouldn't make contact cause it sat above it.

[nanook105]

Yep - I removed them

[Tybalt]

You might look at this cooler. It's quiet and self-regulated. I have used it on all of the socket 478 systems I build.


http://www.arctic-cooling.com/cpu2.php?idx=23&disc=

T.