Do I need the faceplate on my Slot a Bird?

[sobek]

I have a GFD and was wondering if I could leave the faceplate off my Athlon Tbird without any consequences? I recently noticed my 950Bird supports 650MHz-1.2GHz so I had to get the GFD to take advantage of the speed. I have the golden orb secc HSF. Is that sufficient with a chassis fan or do I need better cooling? Many Thanks.

[kunsunoke]

sobek (Jan 16, 2001 11:56 a.m.):
I have a GFD and was wondering if I could leave the faceplate off my Athlon Tbird without any consequences? I recently noticed my 950Bird supports 650MHz-1.2GHz so I had to get the GFD to take advantage of the speed. I have the golden orb secc HSF. Is that sufficient with a chassis fan or do I need better cooling? Many Thanks.

By "faceplate", am assuming you mean the plastic cover or the heat spreader for the CPU. If the plastic cover is what you mean then yes you can run without it. This is SOP for anybody using a GFD.

As for cooling, the SECC Gorb isn't gonna do it for you. Would recommend you grab any Alpha P7125 HSF combo you can get your hands on, since these are awesome coolers with the AMD heat spreader OR without after suitable modifications.

I would not recommend taking the heat spreader off unless you know what you're doing or have the cash to buy another CPU if you mess this one up. If you still have the urge to try it here's a link -

http://www.thetechzone.com/articles/how_to/athlon_case_removal/index.html

It was originally written during the Athlon Classic period but should still be valid for the Slot A TBird.