Reply 20 of 27, by Jorpho
- Rank
- l33t++
wrote:I have not done much reading on the pentium 3 coppermine series.
whats with the elevated center on the cpu?
do I need a special heatsink/fan because a generic flat heatsink/fan will not sit flush and contact all of the CPU.
Early versions have an exposed die, whereas later versions have an integrated heat spreader (IHS) to improve contact between the die and the heatsink. This in itself did not improve thermal conductivity, since it added another layer of metal and thermal paste between the die and the heatsink, but it greatly assisted in holding the heatsink flat against the die. Earlier Coppermines without the IHS made heatsink mounting challenging.[7] If the heatsink was not flat against the die, heat transfer efficiency was greatly reduced. Some heatsink manufacturers began providing pads on their products, similar to what AMD did with the "Thunderbird" Athlon to ensure that the heatsink was mounted flatly. The enthusiast community went so far as to create shims to assist in maintaining a flat interface.