AMD XP 2500 barton Stock HS/F advice etc

[techwanabe]

I just opened up my 2500+ barton and HS/F... got the Ratail version. Comes with a hefty heat sink with a copper plate on the bottom. There appears to be a soft thermal compound on the bottom similar to the Taisol I bought for my PIII Coppermine. That worked fine on my PIII. Do you guys recommend I scrape off the thermal compound and use a grease instead? (ideally Arctic Silver or somesuch)?

Also, what are the numbers on the chip which indicate the version and build date etc?

 

[MercenaryForHire]

If you plan on staying at stock speeds and volume, that'll be fine. If you want to overclock or silence, get something with a bigger fan (SLK-800/900) and better cooling power.

- M4H

 

[techwanabe]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire
If you plan on staying at stock speeds and volume, that'll be fine. If you want to overclock or silence, get something with a bigger fan (SLK-800/900) and better cooling power.

- M4H

What about that thermal layer on the bottom of the copper heat spreader? Scrape it off or leave it? I'm going to run stock for a while and then get a better HS/F combo later when I'm ready to turn it up.

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: techwanabe

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire
If you plan on staying at stock speeds and volume, that'll be fine. If you want to overclock or silence, get something with a bigger fan (SLK-800/900) and better cooling power.

- M4H

What about that thermal layer on the bottom of the copper heat spreader? Scrape it off or leave it? I'm going to run stock for a while and then get a better HS/F combo later when I'm ready to turn it up.

is it a thermal pad?

 

[techwanabe]

is it a thermal pad?

That is what it appears to be... This is my first ever Athlon CPU. All others have been Intel (at home and at work). Interestingly, my Tually had a black layer on it. I was getting higher than normal temps... I scraped that layer off and put on some thermal paste (generic) and it dropped my temps 6 or 7 degree's into a normal range.

 

[MatthewF01]

its a TIM and its crappy stuff...

good call on replacing it with some thermal paste

 

[Soulkeeper]

they have a copper contact area and the heatsink is pretty large i personally would put as3 on it
would probably work with mild overclocks as long as you don't increase the vcore too much

 

[MatthewF01]

im using the stock 2500+ cooler with Antec thermal compound...

mind you my temps are reading internally around 70c's at 2280mhz 1.825v, but even using my Coolermaster HHC-001 solid copper HSF my temps were really bad, and always have been for some reason

 

[videoclone]

Stock cooling rocks my world .. i'm using the stock cooling with my 2500+ and with default valtage i'm getting 2.2Ghz 200FSB 400FSB DDR

at idle at 42c - 49c under load mind you i replace the fan with a Sunon 4500rpm one thats twice as thick and way quieter i also used the thermal pad that came with the CPU everythings turned out fine with my overclock .....

1 more thing i did was replace my original 2500+ CPU ... as it was one of the first batch..... that i got when the CPU first came out for sale......that thing would only reach 187FSB and give me 2Ghz 366FSB DDR

Not good enough !

All this was done in a Micro ATX case hehe ... with a little modding for an extra 80mm Fan on the top to blow out the hot air that sits on the top of the case.

 

[daweeze02]

ya i got one of the first bartons also, thats probably why i can only take mine to 366 fsb, 2288 mhz

 

[techwanabe]

I'd need a magnifying lense to read the serial number, but I'd be interested to see what batch mine came from and what that means... I just ordered it late last week.

 

[videoclone]

You have a new model 2500+ ... only the new ones come with a Copper Center on the heat sink
the older ones just come with a standard aluminum heat sink without a coper base

the one i got now with the coper based heatsink is giving me 2.2Ghz 400FSB at defaul valt out of with stock cooling few extra case fans

 

[techwanabe]

Originally posted by: videoclone
You have a new model 2500+ ... only the new ones come with a Copper Center on the heat sink
the older ones just come with a standard aluminum heat sink without a coper base

the one i got now with the coper based heatsink is giving me 2.2Ghz 400FSB at defaul valt out of with stock cooling few extra case fans

Awesome! Did you leave on the stock thermal pad? I guess I leave that on and give it a try. Man, there isn't much area for the heatsink to contact! The 2500+ has a small copper looking heat transfere surface on it.

BTW, my 8RDA+ says Rev: 2.1 in the corner... I think that is a newer Rev mobo too.

 

[videoclone]

That board is fine ! .. remember the ram is a limiting factor for overclocking DDR 3200
( 400Mhz ) or faster would be handy .. thats if your going for a FSB overclock .. but as if u wouldnt ... 400FSB is the sweet spot just think you will have a AthlonXP 3200+ 2.2Ghz CPU 400FSB .. for the price of a 2500+ ... good value if u ask me

Yes i did use the pad that came with the CPU.....

well good luck and remember case fans are your friend.

 

[techwanabe]

My case will have one fan, it is an Enlight micro tower.

My memory is a single stick of 512 mb Buffalo PC3200 Winbond... should be arriving in a day or two, then I can fire the thing up and load Windows etc... see how she goes.

 

[videoclone]

Originally posted by: techwanabe
Man, there isn't much area for the heatsink to contact! The 2500+ has a small copper looking heat transfere surface on it.

Thats the CPU core surface your talking about .... AMD doesnt use any Heat Transfere surface or heat spreader on the CPU like Intel does with the Pentium 4 CPU's ...

but AMD will be using a heat spreader for the AMD64 And Opteron CPU's

 

[videoclone]

Is this system an upgrade ..... what was your old system?

remember to set in BIOS the ram too Auto when overclocking so the ram sinks with your CPU ...

IE: ... ram will run at 333 DDR when you Auto it ....

Overclock the CPU's FSB from 166 to 200 and the ram will bump itself up to 400FSB PC3200

if you leave the Ram on SPD then it will default it at 400FSB and when you overclock it will bump up the ram too like 468FSB ... this is bad as your system will not boot because your ram cant run that fast and you will hafta to reset the bios by clearing the Cmos .. the Motherboard book tells you how to do it .... your system will set everything back to default and you can try too overclock again .... the first thing to try is 183FSB and see if your system boots .. your CPU and ram should do this no problem but from then on go up every 5FSB and see if your system loads into windows .. once you reach 200FSB... and are loading into windows constantly check the temp 55c is ok any more then 55c your overclock isnt worth hurting your CPU ... try and reach your peak without adding more electricity ......... as doing that your reaching your CPU's theoretical speed limit. when you'v gotta add more juice thats when your stock cooling should be replaced ... my the overclocking fairies be with you.

 

[techwanabe]

Videoclone,

I was sitting there looking at my mobo on my kitchen table with the CPU mounted on it (bare - no HS on it yet) eating a bowl of cereal for breakfast. I realized - duh - that is the CPU core, not a heat spreader. My Tualy has a spreader and it is a big wide piece of metal mounted over the CPU. Anyway, it struck me that the core is pretty small and there is a lot of heat to xfer to the HSF from a pretty small area!

Hopefully I"ll get my Buffalo PC3200 mem today and I can finish assembly and play.

Thats the CPU core surface your talking about .... AMD doesnt use any Heat Transfere surface or heat spreader on the CPU like Intel does with the Pentium 4 CPU's ...

Is this system an upgrade ..... what was your old system?

This is essentially a system upgrade. My old (present) system is in my sig. I'll be keeping it as a 2nd/backup computer my daughter will use it.

 

[techwanabe]

Buffalo PC3200 arrived today, it is Winbond CH-5. Not as good as BH-5 apparently, but hopefully good enough to take me to 200 FSB and 2200 mhz. First I'm gonna run stock for a while and get burned in etc.

 

[Jeff7181]

I still don't believe in any "burn in period." =)

 

[techwanabe]

Let's just say I like to run stock for a while, that way I can eliminate one more factor as an issue when getting up and running. After I have been running a while... and have recovered from the cost of my new parts/toys! then I'll get a decent HS/F and maybe a more powerful PS... and OC this puppy. That is how I did things with my PIII 550E and my Tualy 1.0A

 

[techwanabe]

Ended up using an Antec Lanboy case since my other case was too small.

My 2500+ is a marked AQXEA 0330

This evening I assembled the whole thing and installed Win 2000... will play some more tomorrow.

I noticed the CPU temps were up near 50 degree's. There is no case fan so I'll be getting one tomorrow.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: techwanabe
Let's just say I like to run stock for a while, that way I can eliminate one more factor as an issue when getting up and running. After I have been running a while... and have recovered from the cost of my new parts/toys! then I'll get a decent HS/F and maybe a more powerful PS... and OC this puppy. That is how I did things with my PIII 550E and my Tualy 1.0A

P3 550E and Tualatin 1.0A's are textbook awesome overclockers. They're right up there in the pantheon of all-time overclockers along with the Celeron 300A (and a lot more Celerons I don't care to list), the Athlon 1.0 GHz AXDA, The P4 1.6A and the later batch 1.8A's, The 1700+ and 2100+ TbredB's and pretty much every low-speed Tbred-B and newer P4 -B and -C .

 

[techwanabe]

Originally posted by: jiffylube1024

Originally posted by: techwanabe
Let's just say I like to run stock for a while, that way I can eliminate one more factor as an issue when getting up and running. After I have been running a while... and have recovered from the cost of my new parts/toys! then I'll get a decent HS/F and maybe a more powerful PS... and OC this puppy. That is how I did things with my PIII 550E and my Tualy 1.0A

P3 550E and Tualatin 1.0A's are textbook awesome overclockers. They're right up there in the pantheon of all-time overclockers along with the Celeron 300A (and a lot more Celerons I don't care to list), the Athlon 1.0 GHz AXDA, The P4 1.6A and the later batch 1.8A's, The 1700+ and 2100+ TbredB's and pretty much every low-speed Tbred-B and newer P4 -B and -C .

I like to read up and try to go with proven O/C friendly CPU's since i don't have cash to experiement with.

BTW, I got my system assembled last night and loaded Windows. In the BIOS health screen, it showed the CPU temps between 47 and 50 degree's at idle - stock speeds (FSB 366/CPU 2500+). My new Altec Lanboy case (Altec 350 blue P/S) didn't have a case fan in it so I blew a table fan at it and the temps dropped to the lower 40's ( it was a hot muggy evenig). I"ll be installing a case fan in it tonight (80 mm) tapped into the P/S. I probably could benefit from a better HS/F combo - so I'll be shopping for one of those soon - naturally I'll have to yank the mobo to install it!

 

[leeperpsu]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
I still don't believe in any "burn in period." =)

so you don't think that the thermal grease settles after being heated up for a while, thus causing slight...slight heat drops. i've had it happen with my chip. think about it theres got to be little air pockets when you first install your heatsink. i think when you heat up your core real good the first time the grease settles and the air pockets go away thus causing better contact