* IBM Heat Sinks

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Feb 18, 2004 10:20 pm

Big Blue makes the best heat sinks! Why? You don't need a FAN on top of them!!!!!!

I have an IBM Pentium 1 and only a giant black heat sink is on top of the CPU. NO OVERHEATING PROBLEMS IN YEARS!!!!!!

Folks, what do you think?

Unknown_K · Post by **Unknown_K** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 9:37 am

IBM machines have an airflow path designed into the system that passes over the large heatsink they used. Using the exact same heatsink in another system without a well though out airflow plan will result in a dead cpu sooner or later. Fans allow the use of smaller heatsinks because they move the air around the heatsink better then the draft you get from the power supply fan. Its all a tradeoff between heatsink size and CFM of airflow. Pentium 1 cpus didnt reall have much of a cooling problem compared to new cpus.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 7:47 pm

The heat sink in my IBM Pentium is approx. 2 inches long, 2 inches wide, and 1 inch tall. The spikes are about 5 mm thick.

Using IBM's awesome airflow system, what size of a heat sink would I need to keep a Pentium 4 cool?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 7:03 am

Correction:

The heat sink is approx. 2.5 inches long and 2.5 inches wide

johpower · Post by **johpower** » Sun Feb 22, 2004 9:03 am

It's not so much a question of size as effectiveness. ALL CPU's run faster and more reliably if kept cool.

The fan's were more common as after market in the 486's. It was the 5 volt Pentium 60-66's (socket 4) that really needed the first attention to cooling. Intel wasn't very happy with the returned items. Lower voltages helped control "thermal runaway" but about 233mhz it rose again and several statagies had to be used. The old sinks were soft, cheap aluminum. They are getting much more sophisticated in material and design. There are refrigerated systems for the really serious. I use thermal compound on (nearly) every CPU that goes out my door. It helps transfer heat 20-40% faster. There are little dry H/T pads that are less messy too. Ducting makes a diff. Dell, IBM, Compaq and Gateway boxes have had tham longer than others. Servers MUST use careful cooling systems. They heat rooms with the heat given off. Heat transfer also drives curcuit board design.

Newer chips can produce heat so fast, a passive sink won't carry away the heat soon enough (esp in the middle of an intensive video game) and you could experience an expensive toasting. And they stay hot too. A few of us techs have gotten little square burns on our index fingers.

Remember that CPU cooling didn't become common till the late 486's (DX-50's nearly always had 'em, and DX-2 66's 2/3 the time). Still, you could get sinks for 8088's.

Interon · Post by **Interon** » Sun Feb 29, 2004 12:17 am

But it's nice to avoid a fan whenever possible because heat sinks are WAY WAY more reliable than fans.