[ale] Heatsinks

[Jeff Hubbs]

I have a question pertaining to an Athlon heatsink but I expect that the
issue would apply to other sinilar heatsinks as well.

The original one I had gotten from GIM Computer developed a bad fan (in
only 2-3 months!), so I went back for a replacement.  The original had a
thin square (~1" on a side) piece of a soft grayish metal attached to
the back which would have been in direct contact with the Athlon
module.  The new one had something different.  There was a piece of
transparent blue tape (which I presumed should be removed, which I did),
covering a white ~1"-wide piece of thin plastic with a noticeable
crosshatch pattern of about 2mm pitch in it.

Even though I have redone my fans and am finally able to run my new
computer with the side covers on, I still get lockups and crashes when
running the SETI at home client.  The computer can run the client endlessly
when the covers are off and can sit idle endlessly with the covers off,
so I presume the CPU is running a bit too hot still.

Does the thing with the white square on the new heatsink sound normal to
you, or should I get a more serious heatsink?  I've also wondered if I
should just try to remove the white square and set 2-3 laters of
tighly-pressed aluminim foil in between.  Opinions?

- Jeff

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