When a socket-and-CPU combination
isn't the shape that the cooler designers expected, the cooler will try
to rectify the situation. This is bad.
When the first of the new "Coppermine"
Socket 370 processors came out, their radically smaller contact patch meant
that various aftermarket CPU coolers that worked fine with the much bigger
contact patch of the earlier Celerons were badly unsuited to the new ones.
When a cooler isn't made for
a small-contact-patch CPU, it can end up mounted on a tilt like this, with
all of the clip force pushing down on one edge of the contact patch and
practically no real thermal contact at all. Do this and you'll have a CPU
that overheats and causes crashes shortly after turn-on. You'll also be
applying all of the force from the mounting clip to the contacted edge.
Which is bad.
Coppermine-type CPUs are amazingly
tolerant of physical abuse, at least as far as poorly installed coolers
go. The bonding material on the top of the Coppermine die is very tough,
so the CPU can put up with this mistreatment surprisingly well.
AMD's Socket A CPUs are different.
They've got a similarly small contact patch, but their bonding material
is much more brittle. Push a metal thing onto one corner of the top of the
CPU, and you'll grind that corner right off.
On the plus side, the Socket
A Durons and Athlons have four little rubber stand-off dots installed as
standard, to support the CPU cooler and stop it from tilting. But the fragile
contact patch means it's very easy to break the corners off, or crack the
whole die.
Just because you've busted off
some of the bonding material doesn't mean you've killed the processor, but
plenty of people have managed to. Various CPU coolers that work perfectly
with Socket 370 are a recipe for disaster on Socket A.
Here, ladies and gentlemen,
is Public Enemy Number One as far as the cruel and unusual mangulation of
Durons and Socket A Athlons goes. It's the original model $RM60 Thermaltake
Golden Orb, from which have evolved the slot-CPU versions.
This Orb has an impressively
straightforward twist-on retention mechanism that lets you easily clamp
it onto a CPU. Hook on the ends of the clip, turn cooler firmly, presto.
Unfortunately, clamp-type retention
mechanisms deal poorly with slight differences in the things they're clamped
onto. The Socket A Duron/Athlon die stands higher, relative to the hooks
on the side of the socket, than do the tops of Socket 370 CPUs. So any cooler
that fits both sockets will clamp harder onto Socket A.
A simple spring clip just holds
harder and harder the more it's been flexed. But a clamp has one distinct
"engaged" position, and when it's clamped onto something taller than usual
has to take up the extra in the clip arms on either side. These arms aren't
meant to bend, so they pull mightily on the socket hooks, and the cooler
pushes mightily on the top of the CPU.
If an overenthusiastic clamp
rips the hook right off the side of your Socket A - tough.
In case you're wondering, by
the way, the extra hooks on either side of the broken one in this picture
are standard equipment on Socket A, but not on Socket 370. Unfortunately,
no coolers on the market seem to use the extra hooks. So if you lose the
middle hook on one side, it doesn't matter that the socket's still got five
intact hooks left. You're still not going to clip anything onto it.
It's not a dead loss, mind you.
You can still attach your CPU cooler with double-sided thermal tape, or
something, if you can't replace the socket yourself. Paying someone to replace
the socket for you will probably cost more than a new motherboard.
Hook-ripping's fairly rare,
though. More commonly, overpowered cooler clips on Socket A CPUs just smush
the top of the CPU. And twist-lock Orbs could have been made to do it.
The Golden Orb has an unusual
circular base, which is plenty big enough to cover the whole contact point
of a Socket A CPU, but is too small to be supported by the little spacer
dots. So it wobbles around while it's being installed, and is only supported
by the die itself once you've got it onto the CPU.
This, combined with the fact
that the smaller hooks on the Socket A socket can make it tricky to get
the Orb attached in the first place, means that various hapless souls have
managed to do horrible violence to Socket A CPUs with Golden Orbs.
You can get around the problem
by bending the ends of the clip down a bit to reduce the pressure. Then,
all you have to worry about is something smacking the cooler after it's
been installed, and crunching the CPU that way. It's not a very elegant
solution.
