If that Intel cooler is flat across the bottom and has no cutout section at one end DON'T put it on the Athlon. It'll be lifted up on the end of the socket that says "socket 462" and won't be sitting flat on the die.

Yeah it's a stock Intel cooler and it's flat bottom, so I guess I won't be using it.

Many years ago I had a cheapy copper cooler for my Thunderbird; desperate for a few more MHz, I decided to lap it. I put the clip on backwards when reassembling it, and this allowed it to move to where it was partially resting on the cam box, with the expected outcome. Did you know that when those old Athlon CPUs burned up they made a weird smell, sort of like burned bananas?

I've seen the infamous video from the early 00's where they compare the pentium iv with the built in safety features and the athlon, where it turns to a crisp, in just a few seconds without the cooler.

Guy wrote on 2025-09-01, 22:47:

I've seen the infamous video from the early 00's where they compare the pentium iv with the built in safety features and the athlon, where it turns to a crisp, in just a few seconds without the cooler.

Funny story about that. In maybe 2003/2004 I helped my brother out with some used computer parts, a Socket A board and CPU. I wrote him a long, detailed email about how careful you had to be with these CPUs (I should know, I killed enough of them), mounting the cooler correctly, etc. and I sent a link to that video. Some time later I talked to him on the phone and he told me about how he tested a CPU but it was apparently dead. He had turned it on with no cooler on it to see if it would POST! I was incredulous, hadn't he read the email I wrote, hadn't he watched the video? No, because he shared an email account with his wife (!) and rarely read anything I sent him. I finally told him that I wasn't going to correspond by email anymore until he got his own account, which he was too lazy to do. We don't talk anymore.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2025-09-01, 23:25:

Guy wrote on 2025-09-01, 22:47:

I've seen the infamous video from the early 00's where they compare the pentium iv with the built in safety features and the athlon, where it turns to a crisp, in just a few seconds without the cooler.

Funny story about that. In maybe 2003/2004 I helped my brother out with some used computer parts, a Socket A board and CPU. I wrote him a long, detailed email about how careful you had to be with these CPUs (I should know, I killed enough of them), mounting the cooler correctly, etc. and I sent a link to that video. Some time later I talked to him on the phone and he told me about how he tested a CPU but it was apparently dead. He had turned it on with no cooler on it to see if it would POST! I was incredulous, hadn't he read the email I wrote, hadn't he watched the video? No, because he shared an email account with his wife (!) and rarely read anything I sent him. I finally told him that I wasn't going to correspond by email anymore until he got his own account, which he was too lazy to do. We don't talk anymore.

Say you forget the cooler and the cpu burns , is the motherboard also toast and useless or is just the cpu?

Guy wrote on 2025-09-02, 14:31:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2025-09-01, 23:25:

Guy wrote on 2025-09-01, 22:47:

I've seen the infamous video from the early 00's where they compare the pentium iv with the built in safety features and the athlon, where it turns to a crisp, in just a few seconds without the cooler.

Funny story about that. In maybe 2003/2004 I helped my brother out with some used computer parts, a Socket A board and CPU. I wrote him a long, detailed email about how careful you had to be with these CPUs (I should know, I killed enough of them), mounting the cooler correctly, etc. and I sent a link to that video. Some time later I talked to him on the phone and he told me about how he tested a CPU but it was apparently dead. He had turned it on with no cooler on it to see if it would POST! I was incredulous, hadn't he read the email I wrote, hadn't he watched the video? No, because he shared an email account with his wife (!) and rarely read anything I sent him. I finally told him that I wasn't going to correspond by email anymore until he got his own account, which he was too lazy to do. We don't talk anymore.

Say you forget the cooler and the cpu burns , is the motherboard also toast and useless or is just the cpu?

MB is fine. Core temperature rises to few hundred degrees of celcius, but only momentarily before the connections in the core burn like fuses and current stops passing through the core. Death of the CPU in this way is so fast that it wont have time to burn anything else.

pete8475 wrote on 2025-09-01, 21:35:

If that Intel cooler is flat across the bottom and has no cutout section at one end DON'T put it on the Athlon. It'll be lifted up on the end of the socket that says "socket 462" and won't be sitting flat on the die.

I wouldn’t use s370 cooler with only one hole in clip in any case. Socket A coolers have tighter fight, hence AMD added three teeth per side and heatsinks have three holes respectively. Back in the day some cheap sA/s370 combo heatsinks had s370 style clip and this lead sA socket tooth cracking due to stress.

CharlieFoxtrot wrote on 2025-09-02, 14:50:

pete8475 wrote on 2025-09-01, 21:35:

If that Intel cooler is flat across the bottom and has no cutout section at one end DON'T put it on the Athlon. It'll be lifted up on the end of the socket that says "socket 462" and won't be sitting flat on the die.

I wouldn’t use s370 cooler with only one hole in clip in any case. Socket A coolers have tighter fight, hence AMD added three teeth per side and heatsinks have three holes respectively. Back in the day some cheap sA/s370 combo heatsinks had s370 style clip and this lead sA socket tooth cracking due to stress.

Yeah I can see the socket has three clips in each side so I'm gonna look for a proper 3 hole cooler.