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What's the best way to make a CPU keychain?

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red_dragon

Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2004
Location
Berkeley, CA
SO, I recently came into the possesion of two dead processors. One AMD Athlon 64 3200+ and one AMD Athlon FX-53 939 or 940 (can't tell). What's the best way to make a keychain out of these? :)
 
Wow, instead of making that thing a keychain, I'd be reading up on bring processors back to life. FX-53 cpr, got to bring it back to life. :sigh: I wish, good luck with the keychain though. I'm guessing that you could just put the chip in a vice and then get a drill, but that's a complete guess on that one.
 
hmmm bringing processor back to life?!?!?! :)!!! I'll take some pics and see if some people think it's possible.
 
Well, before you try this stuff. I'll buy it off of you for 3 bucks ;) Good deal for a dead chip. Wouldn't want you to waste your time on a dead chip you know.
 
Well, these are from an AMD contact I know. They were quote unquote dead. Dunno how dead they are. On the FX-53 the pins are pretty bent up and on the A64 the IHS is detached. Anyhow, see for yourself. I've attached the pics below. FX-53 is missing 1 pin. You probably can't tell. but one of them is broken off. Is it revivable? It'd be awesome, but chances aren't good I would guess.
 

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Ouch, that's one sick looking FX. Wonder how they did it though ... you don't get those pins bent from forcing it into the socket the wrong way around or by dropping it. The only way to repair it remove (desolder) the damaged pins and replace them by cannibalising some N/C pins from elsewhere on the chip. A jeweler might be able to do it. But the chances of a successful repair on that are very low.

For the A64, I'd say it's beyond repair. The discoloured bit under the die means it's overheated baaaaad.

Now, as for how to keychain them ... :) You'll have to decide whether you want IHS still there or not. There's plenty of stuff on the net about how to remove the IHS if you so desire. To actually keychain it, you'll need to remove the pins, and then drill a hole in it. Removing the pins is easy. If you want to be spectacular you can take them off with a beltsander or a small grinder, but otherwise just whack them with something and they'll fall off. Try not to damage the underside of the package too much :)

Then, it differs for the two chips. The FX (which is a S940 btw) has a ceramic packaging, which can only be drilled using diamond-tipped drills. Trying to do it with something you pick up from a hardware store will either break the drill bit or shatter the packaging. Again, a jeweler can help with this one.

The S754 has organic packaging (so presumably a newcastle, but I'm not 100% sure). This is easily drilled by any drill. Just make sure the package is well attached to something before you start! You'll obviously need a metal drill if you're planning to go through the IHS as well.

Oh, and you've got to love it how they're all carefully packaged up :)
 
yea, totally can't tell if the FX is dead or not inside. Ceramic doesn't show heat marks. That said, even if I did fix it I would have no way to test it (other than buy a socket 940 board :( ) Hmmm, any ideas on how to determine if this thing is really dead or not? These were given to me by my AMD contact, and they were supposedly dead.

Edit: You know what, I bet they're both dead. The pins are bent in such a way that it seems like it's a marking. Looks like some sort of 4-prong device was put in the middle, pressed down and twisted, resulting in the rather neat pattern of bent pins. Also, since this came directly from AMD, I doubt that they haven't tested it already. So, where can I find a jeweler?
 
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hehe, well, I go to Berkeley, and AMD comes to Berkeley a lot. AMD loves Berkeley students apparently (I love AMD too :) ) So yea, that's how I got to know a few of them. He's the manager of the Berkeley recruiting team I believe. He's an awesome guy in general too.
 
red_dragon said:
hehe, well, I go to Berkeley, and AMD comes to Berkeley a lot. AMD loves Berkeley students apparently (I love AMD too :) ) So yea, that's how I got to know a few of them. He's the manager of the Berkeley recruiting team I believe. He's an awesome guy in general too.

Awesome! My dream company and my dream school :bday: I'm a senior in highschool, so you may be seeing me soon :attn:

Anyways, that's a really great deal if you can get it working. FX53 for free? :thup:
 
You better be workin hard in HS. Good grades and good SAT's will get you into EECS (which is where you want to be). It's tough to get in, and seriously, it's even tougher to make it out alive. No joke. I really love this place though. Shoot me a pm or email sometime if you wanna know more.

Chowdy said:
Awesome! My dream company and my dream school :bday: I'm a senior in highschool, so you may be seeing me soon :attn:

Anyways, that's a really great deal if you can get it working. FX53 for free? :thup:
 
A diamond drill will work nicely, but any small masonry-type bit will do. These are used for drilling rock, tile, or with caution, glass. They're commonplace and available at most hardware stores.
 
Nope, masonary drill bits won't do the trick:
http://www.bunkermentality.net/keychain.html

I've also personally tried on a K6/2 with two masonary bits: a cheap one in a "normal" power drill (minor scratching and the tip broke), and an expensive one in a honking great big ~1600W monster drill from a neighbour who's a tiler. One of those nifty ones with the water cooling tip. Well, I didn't actually do the latter one, he did :) Judging by the marks on the single piece of it I found, it got about half way through and then the chip exploded, possibly due to the drill bit catching. If you are going to try to do this, please make sure there's something good and solid (ie: concrete or steel) between you and the chip: the single part of it that I found was embedded about a centimeter into a wooden fence. Of course, this was possibly due to the high-power drill, but I don't want to see anyone ending up in hospital to have CPU fragments removed from their torso ...

It's possible that you can drill ceramic packages with masonary bits (the guy had never drilled a CPU before, funnily enough :) ) but be prepared for a lot of fustration.
 
I'll try my hand with a 3/16" masonry bit today. :cool: How many razor shards of exploding ceramic can my hand take? :cool:

Diamond bits for sure are better, though, and don't cost so much as one might fear. I've seen low quality diamond bits at Daiso for a dollar each.

The soldered-on wire loop solution at http://www.bunkermentality.net/keychain.html is good too.
 
hmmm sounds like a plan. Someone suggested to me to put a window in the IHS :p. That could be interesting. I'd probably like to drill a hole through it, but seems tough with ceramic. Very tough...heh
 
Damn! If I known you can get hookups from AMD @ berkeley I would have went there. Then again, I'm a BIO MAJOR so it doesn't really matter.
 
fldrice said:
Damn! If I known you can get hookups from AMD @ berkeley I would have went there. Then again, I'm a BIO MAJOR so it doesn't really matter.
LOL Where did you end up going anyway?
 
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