Page 1 : AMD Thunderbird and Golden Orb a lethal combinatio

There has been written a lot about the new AMD Thunderbird and mostly it has been positive, because the Thunderbird is a great performer considering its price. As you might have guessed this article will disclosure a negative side of the new AMD Duron and Thunderbird CPUs.

A friend of mine had just bought a 850 MHz Thunderbird and a Golden Orb cooler. He mounted the cooler but in the process he heard a crunching sound and the computer would not start at all. He took the CPU out of the system and discovered that a part of the core had come off. This is not the first incident I have heard of regarding T-Birds or Durons that have been damaged when mounting a cooler and especially a Golden Orb. There are other examples of how to destroy a CPU (just ask Kyle from HardOCP) and therefore I feel that it is time to issue an alert on which cooler you mount on a AMD socket A CPU.

Click on the image for a larger view

As you can see the 2 corners at the bottom of the core are damaged and that leaves me to conclude that these CPUs are not for use with a Golden Orb cooler. There is also something that suggests that Thermaltake (the manufacturer of these coolers) know this, as the following statement can be found on their homepage

Due to the difference of thickness between Intel ™ Socket 370 and AMD ™ Socket 462/ A, please choose the correct Thermaltake products.
Part#: TFCFR02-1 is designed only for Intel ™ Socket 370.
Part#: TDUFR01 is designed only for AMD ™ Socket 462/ A.

As you an see on Thermaltakes homepage they are also working on a Golden Orb for socket A, that will not crush your CPU so me shure that you get the right cooler for tour T-Bird.

Things you have to look out for.

1. A cooler for FC-PGA doesn’t necessarily fit on a socket A CPU even though they look the same.
2. Be careful mounting coolers as the CPU have 4 rubber spacers and using a wrong cooler these can prevent the cooler from actually contacting the core.
3. The core feels a bit fragile so be very sure that the cooler does not crush the CPU it fit too tight.
4. Never use a Golden Orb for FC-PGA CPUs on a Socket A CPU.

This is not meant to be an “AMD sucks”-article but rather an alert that you have to treat the CPU with a little care when mounting a cooler.

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