First post, by Chadti99
- Rank
- Oldbie
Hey guys, wanted to start a thread around testing coolers meant for other sockets on socket 3. Most but not all socket 3 boards have a couple tabs on the socket itself allowing for some type of retention mechanism for a cooler. Now most socket 3 CPU’s don’t even require cooling but once you get up to 66MHz or better it quickly becomes a requirement. Most of the coolers sold during this time simply attached to the CPU via plastic clips. This is well and fine if you aren’t pushing the CPU but if you need something a bit more it becomes a problem to attach something larger.
I understand this is fairly niche but it’s something I’m interested and want to collaborate on.
I’ve got a couple use-cases where I have two AMD 5x86 CPU’s that happily run at 180MHz+ but need a bit more cooling than the clip on style. Eventually I’d like to experiment with Cyrix 586 and Intel overdrive processors as well. If I were to use a desktop style horizontal case some of this becomes mute, as the cooler would be held with gravity, thermal paste, and maybe a drop or two of glue. But who has the room for desktop style cases? Mostly kidding but my builds usually end up in vertical tower case.
So far I’ve only tried one cooler intended for another socket but whose retention bracket looks to match up with the socket 3 tabs.
This guy got pretty close, it’s an Adaptec branded unit intended for socket 370. Unfortunately the bracket is just a bit too wide, and it has no articulation to allow for adjustment. Maybe bending it around a bit would get it closer. But this gives you an idea of what I’m testing.
I’ve also tested my own homemade solution bending a paper clip to fit my needs. It actually seems to work fairly well but needs long term testing. Another obstacle is component placing around the socket which can make it difficult to mount the larger heatsinks. This can be overcome in some instances by recapping with shorter caps or simply using the retention clip with a smaller heat sink.
I’ve spotted a few more coolers I want to try and I’ll share my experiments here. Would love to hear from anyone else that’s tried similar.