Interesting question...

[FIFO]

Here is a good question that I hope someone can answer/corroborate.

If one were to run an Athlon 1.33 t-bird without a HSF, could it damage the motherboard and not just the CPU?

This actually happened (not by my hand!) and the CPU is toast, but the board that worked fine before this person got his hands on it, appears to now have a dead AGP slot.

Thanks,
Jason.

 

[Nohr]

I can't see how frying the CPU would kill the AGP slot as well, but I guess you never know..

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

it can happen
sometimes psu dies, takes nothing with it
sometimes it dies, takes everything with it
same for cpu ive seen a couple times

 

[SuperPickle]

Yeah, it's a goofy thing. One wouldn't think that a dead CPU would take down the whole ship, but sometimes it happens. A good friend's first attempt at watercooling and his mismount of the Maze3=a smelly keychain and a dead KR7A-R