Last Intel CPU i've touched was a P3, since then I've only built Athlon based computers. This weekend I'll be building a P4 computer for a friend of a friend (no tech support will be offered he purchased the parts not me. Anyway, I know theres all this stuff with retention brackets and what not, and just want to get an idea of how to approach mounting the HS since I've never done a P4 before.
How hard is it to mount P4 heatsink?
- Thread starter Corsairpro
- Start date
Its not very hard at all. You will need a long narrow screwdriver (flathead) though to pop the clips off if you want to re-adjust or something.
Wolfsraider
Diamond Member
- Jan 27, 2002
- 8,305
- 0
- 76
yes sir i recently found out the "fun" of the athlon heatsink.the p-4's are a snap compared to them lol
Installing my first p4 2.6c retail. HS are one of the few installs I do rarely. Is it really that simple? It seemed so easy I got a litttle worried especially since the HS is like a large brick on this little cpu. You just set it on there carefully and lock clamps so HS goes down & the other part goes up. The clamps seem to exert pressure on the CPU which was what got me nervous. After the AMD problems I am probably being overly cautious, but thought I would check. The silver foil seems encredibly delicate tho(what is that for anyway?... looks, protection) I didn't fully install it, but I did notice the top is delicate little silver coming off and slight marks from thermal pad just from placing it there. Which made me think even more I better check around. Honestly, I wonder how many CPU's get damaged just from putting on a HS...seems silly.
Retail P4 heatsinks are much easier than AMD and the old P3 heatsinks.
Like the P3 you use a pre-attached thermal pad instead of messing with thermal grease, but unlike the P3 you aren't stretching a little spring clip with a screwdriver hoping you don't lose control and gouge a chunk out of your motherboard.
Like the P3 you use a pre-attached thermal pad instead of messing with thermal grease, but unlike the P3 you aren't stretching a little spring clip with a screwdriver hoping you don't lose control and gouge a chunk out of your motherboard.
I just did a dual Xeon install over the weekend and it was fairly easy and virtually the same as a p4 install.
This is what I did:
1, install fan on to heat sink
2, install plastic heatsink holders on to motherboard
3, open processor arm all the way, carefully drop in processor and close arm securely
4, squirt a small glob of thermal compound on to processor
5, place the heatsink on to processor where you want it
6, gently pull it back off and smear the thermal compound evenly on the heatsink where it will touch processor
7, smear the compound that is on the processor so it a nice even thin coat and wipe off any excess that may have gotten any where but processor!
8, place the heatsink back on the processor and gently snap on the retaining clips!
That?s it!
This is what I did:
1, install fan on to heat sink
2, install plastic heatsink holders on to motherboard
3, open processor arm all the way, carefully drop in processor and close arm securely
4, squirt a small glob of thermal compound on to processor
5, place the heatsink on to processor where you want it
6, gently pull it back off and smear the thermal compound evenly on the heatsink where it will touch processor
7, smear the compound that is on the processor so it a nice even thin coat and wipe off any excess that may have gotten any where but processor!
8, place the heatsink back on the processor and gently snap on the retaining clips!
That?s it!
CuriousGeeorge said:
"The silver foil seems encredibly delicate tho(what is that for anyway?... looks, protection) I didn't fully install it, but I did notice the top is delicate little silver coming off and slight marks from thermal pad just from placing it there"
The silver foil is a heat transfer pad with a waxy type of substance on it . It is very easy to scratch off the material and if you mess it up too much, it can affect how well the heat is transfered to the heatsink. Intel has instructions on how to install the heatsink and basically, the idea is to not move it around when you clamp the levers down. The material is "one time use" and if you remove the heatsink, it needs to be replaced. In that case, just remove the pad and use some heatsink compound.
"The silver foil seems encredibly delicate tho(what is that for anyway?... looks, protection) I didn't fully install it, but I did notice the top is delicate little silver coming off and slight marks from thermal pad just from placing it there"
The silver foil is a heat transfer pad with a waxy type of substance on it . It is very easy to scratch off the material and if you mess it up too much, it can affect how well the heat is transfered to the heatsink. Intel has instructions on how to install the heatsink and basically, the idea is to not move it around when you clamp the levers down. The material is "one time use" and if you remove the heatsink, it needs to be replaced. In that case, just remove the pad and use some heatsink compound.
Isn't the silver foil supposed to be removed before installing. THe black stuff under that scratches off is the actual heat pad.
It may be same purpose, but just wanted clarification about silver foil. I thought it might be for thermal transfer since that is really the only thing w/ CPU. I am talking about the CPU coating. The thermal pad is black, I know that is a thermal wax. But once I put the sink partially on, meaning not locked just set it on there. It pulled some silver off edges of CPU and transferred to pad. I am idle at 38C(cpu) w/ cover off according to MB so we shall see. I really don't want to have to take this off again w/o good reason. The cooler was put on exactly the same so I would assume the pad will "melt" to cover this. Just having to push on the edges and let it snap together and then to lock it w/ what seemed like some pressure for a little chip made me nervous. Altho I am sure the pressure is necessary to seal everything. It can do more harm than good to keep messing. I can't see taking it off unless, like I said I have heat issues. I am not going to be overclocking so It seems like it would be more detrimental to mess w/ it for a perfect ideal. Tho I "hate mounting HS's" so avoid it, I haven't had any not live a long life.(Knock on wood 
) Intel's info was horrible. It was a diagram..that's it. No real help and couldn't find info on their site either. This was by far the least fun of building this pc.
If the HS was ever replaced, I assume you would just clean CPU(safe solvent) and put compund on it. The silver foil on CPU is not something you are going to want to remove.
) Intel's info was horrible. It was a diagram..that's it. No real help and couldn't find info on their site either. This was by far the least fun of building this pc. If the HS was ever replaced, I assume you would just clean CPU(safe solvent) and put compund on it. The silver foil on CPU is not something you are going to want to remove.
That's correct. The silver foil protects the black stuff (thermal pad) from being scratched off. Remove it before you install the CPU.
Well I didn't. According to all info I have gotten about these boxed CPU's. Nobody says remove it. Obviously it is easily removeable tho. Intel sure didn't unless they say so somewhere I haven't found. I have checked many places where did you get that info? Thanks.
I'm trying to figure out what you guys are talking about. I had a 1.6 retail and I never saw any foil over the CPU. Today, I installed a new 2.6c retail into my system and I didn't notice any type of foil over the CPU. The only thing I saw was the usual silver foil with the black "wax" on the heatsink. I looked at the CPU before install and only saw the dull grey top with the CPU info printed on it. Maybe I am missing something here, but I don't want to pull the CPU out to ckeck it. Right now my 2.6c CPU is running at 25C with the stock retail heatsink. Earlier I ran a burn in test of 3Dmark01 for about an hour of loops and it only reached about 38C as I recall. I'll have to follow this thread to see what everyone says, since I've never heard of this before. Could it be that some retail CPU's have this and some don't?
That silver foil is what I was talking about on the heatsink. It is the thermal interface material but I used some AS3.
I said if you need to re-adjust you would want a screwdriver. At least I need something long/narrow to pop the clips.
The silver I am talking about is the cpu coating...you may be calling it gray. It does have printing on it. At least it looks like a coating to me. Assuming the black thermal wax is black all the way thru. It may be the black wax is covering a silver thermal pad, which sounds like the case. I am running 39c idle(CPU), which appears to be the norm. I haven't heard of anybody running 25C w/ stock cooler are you sure that is right? I have not seen thermal issues, but like I said can't see tearing it down, may make it a bigger issue and major headache. The intel manual like I said was a few pics, for retail seems a little sparce. Compared to the AMD CPU's which were a nightmare it was much simplier.
neutralizer
Lifer
- Oct 4, 2001
- 11,552
- 1
- 0
I just razored off the silver foil and the thermal pad and used AS3 instead. Then I got a CNPS-7000Cu that was really annoying to install because I had to line up the holes.
To quote myself, "Right now my 2.6c CPU is running at 25C with the stock retail heatsink," that was what is being reported by Asus Probe. I checked in the BIOS and it is actually reading higher, at 29C. This is a new mobo/CPU for me, only a day old so I'm still getting used to things. Hey, but I can live with 29C with a stock HS w/heat transfer pad. Sorry about the mis-info guys!
kamper
Diamond Member
- Mar 18, 2003
- 5,513
- 0
- 0
I usually read about 36 in the bios and its still that hot just after loading windows but then it quickly drops down if I let it sit so I think 25 is an accurate number for you. Maybe the bios just doesn't have the ability to idle the processor that windows does?
Well I don't have raid setup w/ xp on it yet, but my temps start at 32-36C often then go to 38-41C this is in bios I don't have other software to go by yet only been running memory test. That just sounded very low w/ stock stuff for 2.6c. I have not stress test anything, but from what I can tell those temps seem fine w/ no problems so far. Only time will tell. People using AS5 and better coolers get better temps. Intels mention of 40C being the max for a 2.4-2.8 seemed strange to me. I have to think they mean at start up or something. It seems most keep below 50C, but 40C seems hard to do consistently. They show 75C somewhere else tho. I know their site has some really good info on it, but the "retail kits" seem to lack compared to other PC documentation especially considering delicate nature of this stuff, processors are the easiest thing to screw up. I know it is just the way processors are sold, but seems silly. I am glad to see the casing on the core tho unlike earlier chips. There is info on thermal pad(it doesn't seem to give detailed info on it's makeup tho) on the site that should have been included in kit. There was no wording at all. I have gotten mice w/ better info. Their pics show locking levers one at a time and many people say do them at same time, which makes more sense. If they weren't so expensive and so delicate it wouldn't matter. Makes for grey hair
It just so happened that I was dealing w/ that stress on the same day I got the base system together w/ all new parts in new case(tons of variables there) and it was totally dead upon testing. Luckily I have enough experience w/ that kind of thing so I solved it quickly, but I was not havin a good day then. When building full systems it really pays to have a full testing bench, which I don't...just a partial.The Intel P4's are hard to destroy. The 1st time I installed one, I thought I was going to break something for sure. From what I read somewhere, the spec calls for the mobo to "flex around the CPU X-amount, when clamped down. I put a slight wipe of a lube under the clamps before closing them, as this makes the job easier. Also, I read somewhere that the P4 is designed to shut itself down if it gets too hot. Essentially the P4 is pretty tough.
kamper
Diamond Member
- Mar 18, 2003
- 5,513
- 0
- 0
Yes it will shut itself down automatically but this is usually an option in the bios. Mine was not set to throttle itself by default and I'm told most aren't. There is a discussion in this thread with some good links.
TRENDING THREADS
-
Discussion Zen 5 Speculation (EPYC Turin and Strix Point/Granite Ridge - Ryzen 9000)- Started by DisEnchantment
- Replies: 25K
-
Discussion Intel Meteor, Arrow, Lunar & Panther Lakes + WCL Discussion Threads
- Started by Tigerick
- Replies: 23K
-
Discussion Intel current and future Lakes & Rapids thread- Started by TheF34RChannel
- Replies: 23K
-
-
Facebook
Twitter