Slashdot Mirror
AMD Ships Heavy Duty Cooling With Latest Processor
jmke writes "With the increasing heat output of recent processors both Intel and AMD are shipping larger and heavier heatsink/fan combo's to cool them down. AMD has now incorporated heat pipe technology, which is usually only found in more expensive third party CPU cooling solutions. This test compares the new heatsink to a popular 3rd party product and it turns out that the new AMD unit is very impressive: high performance and silent operation from a free CPU cooler? AMD has done it! Now if only Intel would follow."
That's cool (sorry).
Got sushi? The Sushi FAQ
Yes, but I like using my pc as a space heater.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
...when do we hit the hit wall. I know that we can got for liquid cooling etc etc but we must surely be approaching the point where processors can't get much fast simply because the cooling solutions are becoming impractical.
Fair enough there will be some people that will be happy to have cryo units strapped to the side of their boxen but I think most computers are already a little on the large side considering what's in them.
I suppose one thing that hasn't been done on a large scale yet is ducted inputs and outputs. I imagine having the ability to draw in cooler air from outside the case would make for a fair advantage but this would require a redesign of the basic case which manufacturers are loathed to do.
I would be interested to know if anyone has studied this problem and come to any conculsions about whether will will hit the limit of Moore's law first or just be unable to cool a processor first.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
So I take it this person has never looked at the price difference between retail package and oem(bare) processors. You're definitely paying for the packaging and the heatsink/fan, though maybe not as much as a nice 3rd party unit.
Current generation Athlon 64 X2's are already like this. Externally, they look like a big heat spreader. The heat sink makes contact with a very large area, and the retail cooling solution is surprisingly quiet and efficient. Certainly cools a lot better than the stuff they shipped with Athlon XP 3200+.
Just go down to your local discount retailer and buy one of those cheap mini-refrigerators. Stick your CPU in there.
I don't think there will be a wall soon, even if we hit it eventually.
While processors have been increasing in heat recently, over time, cooling has become better. Early computers were the size of whole, air conditioned rooms!
I know that we're talking 20-30 years ago, but the idea is the same; for the most part, technology has become smaller and previous solutions are still suitable. One example is the cell phone. And computers have been getting more powerful and smaller as well; laptops as thin as your finger (with the battery!) and mobile processors that run cool and fast.
Of course, the opposite is true; heat has increased in other fields. Fanless graphics cards are becoming a rarer sight.
Many thing are similarly affected by unseen factors. What appears irrational is usually just ignorance of factors.
I want to see a chip that integrates a heat spreader directly into the package, so you have some more space to interface for a bigger, more bad-ass heatsink or even heat pipe.
Let me guess... You haven't bought a new CPU in over two years...
Both the Athlon 64s and Pentium 4 processors do exactly that, and have since those particular product lines were introduced.
I'm sure Newegg will soon be full of reviews about how high you can overclock an Athlon using this retail heatsink. It almost seems like AMD is encouraging them... and I wouldn't be surprised if the Athlon's widespread fame as an excellent overclocker contributes to the increased market share that AMD is enjoying. But I also wouldn't be surprised if overclocking eats into the sales AMD's higher-margin models.
Maybe the solution is to bundle these fancy heatsinks only with their upmarket processors ($350 and up) so as to allow even them to run at a substantial overclock.
I bought an x2 4400+ a couple months ago and it came with this heat sink. This is nothing new.
With AMD banning retail sale of OEM processors, they're getting harder and more expensive to find. Most places here sell retail at or below OEM prices, so I think it is correct to say that the cooler is essentially free.
It has a 5,200 RPM fan on top of it. It's not silent, unless you're already deaf.
The fan has a temp sensor that will slow the fan down if it doesn't need full RPM. It was in the article you were supposed to have read.
Uh, better hope the moisture doesn't build up in there when your cheap freezer hits the defrost part of the cycle. Moisture is not our computers friend, senior.
What would Richard Feynman do, if he were here right now? He'd do some math and he'd follow through!
Replace the stock fan with an aftermarket solution like a Vantec stealth for 5$. A fan is a lot cheaper than an entire aftermarket heatsink. For even better performance hook the fan to a fan speed controller and adjust to your ears content.
What would Richard Feynman do, if he were here right now? He'd do some math and he'd follow through!
Couldn't the need for this be designed with better chip design? Intel has similar power with less . . .
**Ducks**
In a lot of cases the hardware has exceeded the performance of the software. We see that in poorly written games, un-optimized hardware drivers and that company in Redmond who gets slammed here all the time.. What's their name again? Micro-something?
AMD and Intel both have reached the point where speed doesn't matter so much. You can have as many Gigahertz as you want, the software is still going to constrain the performance. Add in networking bottlenecks and people who have no problem with using dial-up at home and heat and Moore's law starts to move further down the list.
Is it important for servers. Absolutely. The home PC user may very well tap out at 30 or 40 Gigahertz core clock speed sometime in the future or maybe 8 individual cores. And new ways of moving charged particles (photonics and electron traps) may very well render the whole current technology totally irrelevant. The software has to improve and provide new capabilities in order for the hardware constraints to really have meaning.
What would Richard Feynman do, if he were here right now? He'd do some math and he'd follow through!
The article says the thing is 50db when the CPU is under load, when measured 18" in front of a closed case. It also says Dispite the misleading Slashdot article summary, this is not a solution for people looking for a "silent" PC.
read the link, then come back, no crack here baby ;-)
Compared to previous stock cooling offerings from Intel/AMD this heatsink packs enough punch to have it's fan not run full speed to keep to CPU cool enough. The fan will only go towards 5200rpm when you are hitting 70+C and that's not something which will happen in a second, even when gaming. So while it's certainly not an "extremely" silent solution, for being a freeby with a retail CPU it's pretty darn impressve ;-)
Thinking my new Athlon64 3200+ system would run as hot as the Pentium 3 and P4 lines, I went ahead and bought the XP-120 (http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/main_product_x p120.htm) and a nice, quiet 120mm Panaflo fan (model FBA12G12L1A, the one recommended for use w/ the XP-120) along with all the other parts.
Imagine my annoyance/glee when I discovered that, not only do I not need the XP-120/120mm fan, but I am *unable* to get the CPU to go above 100F, even when running at a 145-155%% overclock (I have PC4400 TCCD memory in here) and under heavy load (rendering and recoding video, Half-Life 2, etc.). Try doing that on an Intel P4. On most systems I've seen, at ~125% overclock and even with the best memory, the heat build-up in the P4 core is quite likely to take the system down, unless you're doing watercooling.
I'm now in the process of killing off most of my Intel-based systems and moving to AMD. (Pentium III RAID5 box will stay, only because I'd be tempted to look at moving off the Adaptec 2400A RAID and to a SATA RAID5 solution.) They're clearly cooler (this room has been a cooling problem in spring/summer for years because of it), use about 1/2 to 2/3 the power (measured this as well, so it's not anecdotal), and definitely run quieter due to the lack of high-speed cooling fans.
Anyone want to buy a new/unused XP-120 heatpipe cooler and Panaflo L1A-120?
i'm curious if anyone here knows anything about adoption of DDR2 or 3 RAM by AMD in the near future? i know intel has adopted it but AMD appears to be sticking with DDR1, citing concerns over high latency i think.
Do companies like Thermaltake, Coolermaster, Zalman, etc cringe when they see news like this. There will always be the 'tweaker' who will buy a CPU then throw the OEM out to replace with thier favourite brand, but will this damage the HSF aftermarket?
The other side would be that it could make the aftermarket more competitive, driving prices down and technology up so they could compete with the OEM.
Any thoughts?
You moved your mouse. Please restart Windows for changes to take effect.