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AMD thermal protection

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coolcpu2

Registered
Joined
Aug 6, 2003
AMD CPU a fire hazard?

It seems to me that the majority of the stories I've read about a chip getting fried are about an AMD chip. I have an AMD Athlon XP system and am concerned about its thermal protection. I have a motherboard that supposedly will shut down the system if the cpu gets too hot (though nobody would tell me exactly at what temp that is). My question is.. is anyone concerned about the AMD athlon XP being a fire hazard? I like the price of the cpu, but I think the Pentium 4 thermal solution is by far better. I'm using the Motherboard Monitor program and supposedly the mobo will shut down the system if the cpu is overheated, but still, I guess after seeing that Tom's Hardware video, that disturbed me. It did seem that it was biased though.. as has been pointed out. It seemed that at least one of those Athlons was already burnt before the heatsink was taken off. I just can't imagine a cpu being approximately 370c without it being a fire hazard. I mean, say you're away from your computer and for some reason or another, although highly unlikely, the heatsink falls off.. it seems that the Pentium 4 would not overheat, but I'd hate to think my Athlon could reach 370c and smoke and ruin my other system components (and who knows what else if it cought something on fire). I have my doubt about that temp anyway, but what I'm fishing for is your thoughts. Basically I have the AMD athlon system as a backup and got it because of its value but now I'm wondering if I should have just gone ahead and gotten another Pentium 4. Really, what is the chance of an AMD Athlon XP catching fire? Anyone know any stories about that?
 
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A pentium 4 will also overheat but it will not fry because of it's protection it will just shutdown. AMD's have no protection and they would definately fry if the HS fails to work, but as you said the mobos have heat protection and you should be able to see and change the settings for it in the Bios settings
 
My mobo doesn't have any bios setting to alter the shut down temp, it's supposedly automatic but I don't know what temperature it's set at. It would be nice if I could lower it. Not sure it's worth getting another mobo for that option though.
 
That is odd, why should they prevent you setting the max temp, I don't know your mobo but it sound unlikely that there is no setting it could be that your mobo does not have this function and maybe it is just using the monitoring program for protection.
 
Supposedly, it has the function. It's an Asrock (which I guess is related to Asus) K7VM2 mobo. It has the U-COP tech, which I guess is an Asus thing.
 
Sorry I donno anything about that board but even if the board does not let you set the shutdown temp the monitor program should be able to do so, you should be pretty safe if you set the shutdown temp to about 65° C, but I recommend you to check the CPU temp in your monitor program when CPU is on full load (depending on your cooling temp should be anything between mid forties and lower fifties), most motherboards don't give you accurate measurements and you may need to adjust the shutdown temp some degrees down.
 
as long as the block/heatsink don't fall off suddenly from it the newer mobo's should be able to handle it, and shutdown.. i know mine does that when waterflow gets interrupted.
 
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