Fastest processor you've ever seen with no heatsink/fan?

[Arkaign]

Thought this would be interesting. Remember the days when most CPUs didn't even come with heatsinks, let alone fans? Anyway, was wondering what the fastest cpu that yall have seen running with no HS/fan.

Me :

About eight or nine years ago, I drove from DFW out to Wichita Falls, TX to upgrade a HD on a server for a beer distributorship that recorded all of their shipping/etc. It was a no-name clone tower running Novell 3.12, and it was the typical nasty yellowed plastic of a machine that has been running in a tough environment for a very long time. The thing still worked 100%, it was just full and needed the drive upgraded. Imagine my shock when I saw a Cyrix/IBM Pr166 cpu running with no heatsink whatsoever. The HS/fan assembly had long, long ago fallen right off the thing, and was buried on the bottom of the case under a super thick layer of grey and black dust/dirt. How that thing was stable I'll never know. I replaced it with a Pentium 166 and oversized copper heatsink just for the heck of it, upgraded the drive, and that system lasted until it was replaced by an LRT wireless setup in 2007, so I guess another 5-6 years or so.

So that's me, what bout u? Seen one of those Crusoes or super low-power procs running bare?

 

[bobsmith1492]

TI OMAP processor with an ARM core at 600MHz...

 

[Gillbot]

depends, i've seen plenty of systems under watercoolers and LN2, ETC.

 

[Arkaign]

depends, i've seen plenty of systems under watercoolers and LN2, ETC.

lulz that's cheating!

 

[Concillian]

depends, i've seen plenty of systems under watercoolers and LN2, ETC.

I believe a waterblock qualifies as a "heatsink"

In my stash I have a 386-16MHz that used no heatsink. My 486s I think had heatsinks (but no fan until 133 MHz). Those were the days where people were making a big deal because CPUs started using multipliers and since they were "out of sync" with the RAM performance was going to be relatively crappy.

I accidentally ran an AthlonXP with no heatsink... but that wasn't for very long.

 

[Fallengod]

Cant say ive ever cared, bothered to or come in contact with a CPU without a heatsink.

And watercooling would be cheating.

 

[TJCS]

Haven't seen one without a heatsink, but this pc is completely immersed in gallons of oil and it runs 3dmark06 pretty good.

 

[fffblackmage]

I believe a waterblock qualifies as a "heatsink"

A waterblock is a heatsink. Any piece of crap you could attach to a processor could be a heatsink, even if it's not a very effective one....

And unfortunately, I'm not old enough to have seen a cpu that didn't have a heatsink. I didn't wander my way into the computer world until the first Celerons came out. And even then, I was just a computer newb. I didn't know what the insides of a computer looked like.

Other than computers, there are plenty of low power microprocessors that don't need heatsinks.

 

[jvroig]

I accidentally ran an AthlonXP with no heatsink... but that wasn't for very long.

Reminds me of the videos (I believe it was from Tom's Hardware) about what happens to processors when you remove the heatsink while under load (they were playing games). The Athlons in the video literally got friend and smoked to death.

I can't be sure as this was too long ago, but I think my ancient 386SX CPU didn't have a heatsink. I could be wrong though, as that's really several several years ago. That's pretty much the only thing I remember that didn't seem to have a heatsink. (Did CPUs in that era even need heatsinks at all?)

 

[VirtualLarry]

I think that the fastest I've seen was a 486SX-25. Also 386DX-40.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

rawr

teh search worketh

that thread mentions a nekked 1GHz core solo as well as a nekked Opty 165/170 @ 1GHz (dual core)

I might just have to dig up my own old opty 165 and play with it a bit

 

[ther00kie16]

Yea, my guess is a low powered modern cpu. Hell, would an atom be considered faster than the 1ghz cpus mentioned?
Also, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqu9qs4blZQ

 

[jvroig]

Hell, would an atom be considered faster than the 1ghz cpus mentioned?

I don't think so... if I remember correctly, it was estimated that clock for clock an Intel Atom was half of a Pentium M... so 1.6GHz Atom = 800MHz Pentium M. I can't be sure without looking it up, but I distinctly remember something along those lines.

 

[Gillbot]

I believe a waterblock qualifies as a "heatsink"

It was a joke.....

lulz that's cheating!

at least someone got it.

 

[SpeedEng66]

back in the day I had a athlon 1200 with no heatsink on

FRIED/SMOKED in less than a second lol

does that count?

 

[Arkaign]

back in the day I had a athlon 1200 with no heatsink on

FRIED/SMOKED in less than a second lol

does that count?

hahah it totally counts those f*ckers were hot. I had a Athlon 1400 (not 1400+, just Athlon 1.4ghz), and the sucker was unstable at stock volts and settings, had to underclock it to run it stably.

 

[Zap]

(pssst, right click on the image and "save as")

 

[aigomorla]

what if you submerged it in mineral oil?

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I never understood the Athlon 1.0-1.4ghz. The TDPs were lower than what i7s are now, but what made them so crazy hot? People say they fry in no time and didn't Toms have some video where they used an IR sensor to report that the CPU was 800 degrees temperature after they removed the heatsink and let it burn for a bit?

So shouldn't an i7 be a steaming pile of lava instead or any 130W TDP CPU for that matter?

 

[TuxDave]

I never understood the Athlon 1.0-1.4ghz. The TDPs were lower than what i7s are now, but what made them so crazy hot? People say they fry in no time and didn't Toms have some video where they used an IR sensor to report that the CPU was 800 degrees temperature after they removed the heatsink and let it burn for a bit?

So shouldn't an i7 be a steaming pile of lava instead or any 130W TDP CPU for that matter?

Except that the CPUs these days throttle themselves if it detects a sudden heat event.

 

[MagickMan]

My 386DX40 didn't have one at first, but I put one on after a couple months. Without the HS it would get hot enough to blister your fingertip.

 

[Arkaign]

Except that the CPUs these days throttle themselves if it detects a sudden heat event.

Also those Athlons had no IHS, so all of the heat from the die had to escape off of that little bitty die

 

[bobsmith1492]

I never understood the Athlon 1.0-1.4ghz. The TDPs were lower than what i7s are now, but what made them so crazy hot? People say they fry in no time and didn't Toms have some video where they used an IR sensor to report that the CPU was 800 degrees temperature after they removed the heatsink and let it burn for a bit?

So shouldn't an i7 be a steaming pile of lava instead or any 130W TDP CPU for that matter?

Heatsinks are huge now in comparison and have more fins.

 

[CrimsonWolf]

Also those Athlons had no IHS, so all of the heat from the die had to escape off of that little bitty die

And thanks to the fully exposed die, accidentally setting the HSF on at an angle could chip a piece off the die. Good times.

Those old Athlons were amazing, but today's chips are much more rugged.

I ran across the HSF I used to overclock my old Pentium 3 600Mhz Coppermine. It's ridiculously puny compared to today's cooling.

 

[Zap]

(pssst, right click on the image and "save as")

Did anyone check this out? Hint: It is a link to a video disguised as a thumbnail image.