My sister just bought a new computer, and she's going to give me back the one I gave her a long time ago. The cpu is a K6-2 266, and as far as I know, these chips run very cool (they are rated 15w max).

Does anyone know of a good heatsink I could use to cool a socket 7 cpu passively ? One that I could find easily. Would it be possible to use a socket A heatsink ?

triple posted somehow.

don't know how to delete a post, sorry.

For what it's worth, I have a K62-475 with one of the el cheapo GC68 (?) coolers and NMB fan from SVC, and it is nearly impossible to hear from outside the case. Disconnecting the fan altogether started the temp slowly rising to a level I felt uncomfortable with, but there's a chance it still would have been okay.
Now I guess you need to hear from somebody that's got one of the "high end" coolers and a K6-2. (Was going to leave it unsaid, but yes, you can use a Socket A cooler on them.)

Hey Kostik!

FWIW, I built a K6/2 PC from spare parts to run as a print/file server on my home network. This PC has a K6/2-500 running at 400MHz and uses an OEM Athlon XP HSF that came with my retail Palomino. At 5V, the OEM fan runs rather quiet.

Well, I planned on running it fanless, but if I can run it with an undervolted quiet fan and a $5 heatsink, I'll be pleased too

It looks like I won't be able to find SVC heatsinks here though, but as you tell me I can use socket A coolers it shouldn't be difficult to find a cheap heatsink with a 80mm fan. And if I can use socket A heatsinks, I can try a passive zalman CNPS 6000. Has anyone done it ?

Thanks for your advice.

Ok, thank you Colt, too. Looks like using a socket A heatsink shouldn't be a problem. I'll wait until I get the computer back, and make a few tests with the stock heatsink. If it doesn't get too hot, I can probably use a good heatsink and no fan (underclocking and undervolting the cpu if required).

My idea is that if I don't install a hdd, and boot into knoppix from a quiet cd drive, then use a USB key as a dd, the computer can run with a single noise source (the [undervolted] psu fan). I don't have a use for such a setup, but man, that would be amazing.

For the record, Yes, socket A and socket 7 heatsinks are the same, with the exception of the number of lugs.

All Socket A HS's have 3 lugs on each side, but socket 7's only have the center lug. This usually isn't a problem, since most HS's only seem to use the center lug anyway, and the ones that do use all 3, like the SLK's will still fit usually.