Have a look at this article and video if you haven't seen it before. This is
why I was saying the AMD was a hot processor.
http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20010917/heatvideo-05.html
Michael Culley.
Yeah the Athlons have no catastrophic failure protection for
overheating like the Pents have : But I think they run hotter on avg
though I might be wrong. The newest ones defintely run hot.
The thing about catastrophic failure from not having the CPU heatsink
fan on or heatsink on - the boards now check for that and actually
work in that regard even for the AMDs. They dont have any protection
for insufficient contact with a heatsink. Many would no doubt say
thats idiot proofing it as usual but it would be nice to have . As one
article said though I think Toms Hardware is overstating the case.
about clips breaking off and having to check it montly and all that.
Ive NEVER had a problem with heatsinks except in two instances and its
on the idiot level -- you dont clip it properly , you think its on but
you cant quite see it and you think its on and after setting it up and
running it you move the system and SPOING ! - the heatsink flies off
and your CPU burns up just like in the video in seconds.
The other one is you are really a newbie and you put the heatsink on
backwards , you know you have this indentation that fits with the
ledge on the plastic foundation. This one guy put it on backwards and
there was a gap and the CPU burned up.
Still I wouldnt mind having that protection built in for
idiotproofing. Never hurts. Ive done a few idiotic things.
I looked some stuff up :
Heres some stuff about older Athlons - there was significant
improvement in running temps obviously with the newer Athlons.
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Heat
There isn't any arguement here, as AMD Athlons do run hotter than
their Pentium 4 (and 3) counterparts, and therefore the market
explosion for aftermarket heatsinks. Now, the cooling fans on these
heatsinks tend to be extremely fast spinning, thus loud. The same can
be said for Pentium 4s however, but because the P4 does run cooler, it
is possible to run the CPU with only passive cooling, assuming the
case cooling is efficient. Dell does this, as does many other OEMs.
Result? Cooler = Quieter.
Is there any hope for Athlon owners? Well, Athlon XPs consume up to
20% less power than the Thunderbirds, and thus runs cooler. If you buy
a retail Athlon, it comes with a heatsink/fan sanctioned by AMD. These
coolers are fairly quiet, when compared to the big monsters we're used
to seeing. With the upcoming "Thoroughbred" processor, and the .13m
fab process, we should see a significant drop in temperatures. Not
overclocking is another option, as overclocked CPUs, no matter the
manufacturer, run hotter.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Is Intel's Prescott P4 too hot to handle?
Evidence mounts of mounting evidence
By Mario Rodrigues: Thursday 01 July 2004, 10:58
SINCE INTEL introduced its latest Pentium 4 processor, instances of
Prescott thermal concerns have been popping up all over the Web.
We should all know by now that Prescott, Intel's 90 nanometre desktop
processor, did not deliver the clock-for-clock performance gains that
Northwood did over Willamette. However, because of its much longer
pipeline, Intel's newest core should scale much higher in frequency
than its predecessor.
Turning up the heat
One side effect of Intel’s 90 nm process is a marked increase in
thermal levels. X-bit labs noted this when it compared Prescott to its
fellow 3.2 GHz brethren.
Processor state - Idle/Burn (deg C)
P4 Prescott - 45/61
P4 Northwood - 30/48
P4 Gallatin - 32/51
The reviewer wasn't too charitable when he said: "I don't think I need
to comment on these numbers. Prescott processors warm up much more
during active work than their predecessors. Note that we measured the
CPU performance during the tests carried out in an open testbed. I am
scared to imagine what happens to Prescott when we close the system
case…" (1).
Well, Sudhian Media did just that, but it went one stage further. It
tested Prescott in a small form factor case (Shuttle SFF), which is
probably the toughest thermal environment that the chip will
experience. Its article headline tells you what’s coming: "Intel's
Prescott Meets SFF – What’s That Burning Smell?" The fifth graphic
tells the whole story. (2).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pents :
All Intel processors starting from Pentium Pro have a temperature
sensor and an analog comparison circuit meant for detecting
catastrophic overheating. This sensor, like a thermal diode, is a
diode-connected transistor but now based on a reverse-biased p-n
junction and a dependence of the junction reverse current on
temperature. Diode's current is measured with a comparator with a
reference source current which is adjusted so that the comparator
would react on a definite temperature value. A response time of such
circuit is just several hundreds nanoseconds, that is why it can be
found out quickly if a temperature exceeds the limits. As a result, if
a temperature of an Intel CPU is more than 125-135°C, this comparison
circuit stops sending clocks to all processor nodes, the THERMTRIP#
signal reports on catastrophic overheating and the processor VRM turns
off.
The engineers working on the Pentium 4 decided to make such circuit
more flexible and developed the Thermal Monitor technology. The
thermal sensor, thus, moved to the most heat-loaded region of rapid
integer ALUs of the Pentium 4 and got an additional comparison circuit
and necessary logic. This resulted in a one more die's temperature
threshold (85-90°C depending on a processor model), Thermal Control
Circuit and several new MSR registers.
When the die temperature exceeds the threshold value the processor
doesn't get turned off, but from time to time the clock signal stops,
i.e. a duty cycle takes place.
Athlon :
The Athlon XP has no any catastrophic overheating protection. Why
didn't AMD provide such protection as it isn't beyond their power? The
Athlon XP can be easily damaged when a cooling system can fail
(thermal power of top model of the Athlon XP is 60-70 W and is almost
equal to that of the Pentium 4).
http://www.digit-life.com/articles/pentium4athlonxpthermalmanagement/
)