Going Passive on a socket 7 mobo...

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jchedley
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Going Passive on a socket 7 mobo...

Post by jchedley » Sat Dec 07, 2002 8:46 am

hello,
ive just found this website and its nice to see people interested in this topic.

i have an old (super)socket 7 mobo - a gigabyte ga5-AX, with a k63-400 cpu. right now it has a pretty small heatsink on it, with the fan (60mm)running on 7 volts. the computer is the internet server for the house here, so doesnt do anything too vigorous.

id like to get rid of the fan comnpletely, but im not confident in the small heatsink going it alone. so what i was wondering is if i can use more modern socket A heatsinks on the socket7 board - are the socket and mounting lugs the same?? is the clip okay for both applications?? ive looked at a cooler from each socket side by side, and the clips certainly look similar in size, but its hard to tell about pressure etc.

also, id probably underclock it to 300mhz so shouldnt be too much of a heat issue.

many thanks in advance,

john.

MikeC
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Post by MikeC » Sat Dec 07, 2002 9:03 am

Those older CPUs are much tougher than new ones, don't worry too much about pressure. I'd pick up the cheapest socket 370 type HS and try it fanless. 350 & 7 are compatible. You'll find cheap aluminum HS at some stores for under $5. Like this one:
http://store.yahoo.com/svcompucycle/svcgc21.html

Easy enough to tell if the CPU runs too hot -- your system will get unstable.

jchedley
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Post by jchedley » Sat Dec 07, 2002 11:25 am

thanks for the info mike, theres some pretty cheap aluminium coolers locally, but nothing going as cheap as 4$ (im in sweden).

ive done a bit of reading, and it looks like socket 7, 370, and A use the same HSF lugs on the ziff socket and are compatible. theyve just become bigger as cpus get hotter.

ill give one of these a try. i take it lowering the voltage aswell as underclocking should do the trick. time to find that dusty mb manual...

thanks,
john.

quokked
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Post by quokked » Sun Dec 08, 2002 6:55 am

or u could hunt the manual down from the gigabyte website ^_^
http://www.giga-byte.com/support/msuper7.htm#5ax

jchedley
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Post by jchedley » Sun Dec 08, 2002 11:09 am

ive been playing wround and got the voltage down to 1.9 from 2.2 running fine, and lowered the multiplier a little from 4 to 3.5...

however im having trouble getting a big enough heatsink to go passive that will fit into the socket 7 - several capacitors in the way. looks like i may have to get out the hacksaw.

does anyone know how low the voltage will go on these old chips? i have options down to 1.3v.

thanks to all (i got the manual from the website :)

john.

damitamit2
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Post by damitamit2 » Fri Dec 27, 2002 7:17 am

ive got that mobo!

been mucking bout with a k6-2 500 on it the past few days.

at the mo, ive got it passive(with the stock heatsink) underclocked to 300mhz and undervolted to 2.0v. The undervolting really makes a difference in the heat. By touch, the heatsink is much cooler now. Need to try some lower voltages, get it even cooler.

Now all i need is to quiet my noisy old fujitsu hd, and my mp3-box is quiet!

Amit

Rusty075
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Post by Rusty075 » Fri Dec 27, 2002 10:04 am

I note on the lug compatibility of Socket 7's:

It's the same as Socket A's, but only for the center lug. Socket 7's don't have 3 lugs, just 1 in the center and a big fat one next to it.

damitamit2
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Post by damitamit2 » Thu Jan 09, 2003 12:32 pm

update: ive been running the k6-2 now for about 2 weeks at 300Mhz and 1.9V. The heatsink does get hot when in use, but is cold when the pc is in Standby.
Only fan is a YS-Tech Silent in the power supply (soon to be 7 volted)

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Post by TheMuffinMan » Thu Jan 09, 2003 1:28 pm

I had a K6-2 350 MHz, and I forgot to plug in the fan after changing something. The thing was fine for months after I had unplugged it. No voltage changes or anything. The only fan in the computer was the PSU fan (which I had replaced with a quiet one). So other than the hard drive, the computer was completely silent, and ran for months with no problems.

I sold it a few months ago, so I finally plugged in the fan.

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Post by Rusty075 » Thu Jan 09, 2003 1:51 pm

I recently discovered that we had been running a K6-2 400 fanless at work for months. The CPU HSF was so clogged with dust bunnies that the bearings had completely seized. I can't even get the fan to spin by pushing the blades. The PSU fan appears to have died many months ago, judging by the cobwebs that have grown around it.

Although warm, the machine had been up running stablily for at least the past 6 months.

Not that I'd recommend this, but it seems no worse for wear.

jchedley
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Post by jchedley » Thu Jan 09, 2003 1:59 pm

Rusty075 wrote:I recently discovered that we had been running a K6-2 400 fanless at work for months. The CPU HSF was so clogged with dust bunnies that the bearings had completely seized. I can't even get the fan to spin by pushing the blades. The PSU fan appears to have died many months ago, judging by the cobwebs that have grown around it.

Although warm, the machine had been up running stablily for at least the past 6 months.

Not that I'd recommend this, but it seems no worse for wear.
Interesting stuff! seems like theres room to play around here... thanks for all the replies :)

ive got some work to do with resintalling an OS and other bits, but ill be onto the cpu project asap.

thanks again,
john.

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