MatureTech wrote:Anybody tried Sonic Tower with just case fans blowing at a 1.4 GHz Athlon? If a Prescott can survive it then I would think that a 1.4 GHz Athlon would be a cakewalk, but "hot as hell" doesn't inspire confidence.
No idea about that one, but my SI-97 cannot run an AthlonXP without a fan mounted on it (but the fan can be pretty wimpy (read: quiet)). Full passive cooling requires substantial sinking - as far as I'm aware only the NoFan CR95 is really capable of attempting it with higher TDP CPUs; even the new Thermalright (which is also hilariously huge) didn't fare so well in an SPCR review (it failed the long-term load test if I remember right). If you can find the spec TDP for the chip you're interested in, it can help quite a bit for determining its sinking needs - if memory serves even the later AthlonXPs are only in the 60-70W range though (that's "a lot" compared to something like a Pentium III or 486, but it's "low average" compared to a modern CPU).
I'd suggest an SI-97 for Socket A or 370 if you can still find one; they weigh substantially less than the various solid-copper models, and remember that Socket A takes all of the heatsink weight on the clips - you can rip the socket (and CPU) off the board with a heavy heatsink and a good rattle.
On the Sonic Tower - I have the fan version of that, Big Typhoon, it works pretty well, but I wouldn't even attempt running it without a fan. It's on a Core 2 Quad (95W TDP).