Does Socket A heatsinks fit old Socket 7 boards!?

Cooling Processors quietly

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Mikael
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Does Socket A heatsinks fit old Socket 7 boards!?

Post by Mikael » Fri Jun 03, 2005 9:44 am

I'm pretty certain that any Socket A heatsink will do, but I've got to make sure before buying one! I have this old "nostalgia system" for running older games and stuff. It's a Pentium 200 MMX cooled by a very low speed 80mm fan mounted some 6 cm away from the current heatsink. The problem is that I'm using the stock Pentium heatink, which has a very low fin count and is about 1.5 cm high. Not very good, even for a fairly low power chip like the Pentium MMX. So, can I put a more modern cooler on it? Will the there be any problems with the higher clip pressure of the more modern Socket A heatsinks?

Off topic, but kind of interesting: Putting a Seagate 7200.7 40GB in an old Pentium and enabling UltraDMA mode really speeds things up. It's kind of like working on a fairly modern computer now, compared to the chug and grind fest it was before (using an old 5400RPM Seagate drive in PIO mode 4).

Voodoo Rufus
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Post by Voodoo Rufus » Fri Jun 03, 2005 10:38 am

Both Socket A and Socket 7 at 50mmx50mm, only difference in mounting is that S7 has 2 lugs on each side. But, it should be fine to put any modern cooler on it.

alglove
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Post by alglove » Fri Jun 03, 2005 10:38 am

I don't think there would be a problem from the higher pressure clips, as most heatsink manufacturers these days lump their Socket A heatsinks in the same group as Socket 370 and Socket 7. I know of some people who have put Athlon heatsinks on K6-2's without any problems.

Mikael
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Post by Mikael » Fri Jun 03, 2005 11:01 am

Okay, sounds nice! Now, where's that SI-97... :P

Anyway, do you think I have a chance of running this thing on passive cooling? It outputs around 10W, if I remember correctly and the case has zero cooling. Well, I suppose the 80mm fan running ~900RPM in the PSU cools the case somewhat, but it hardly has any effect...

POLIST8
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Post by POLIST8 » Fri Jun 03, 2005 11:35 am

I've run 150s-233MMXs passively with minute heatsinks. If you're going to throw a Socket A Heatsink on it, it should be fine - especially if you have that 80mm fan on.

Mikael
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Post by Mikael » Fri Jun 03, 2005 12:22 pm

POLIST8 wrote:I've run 150s-233MMXs passively with minute heatsinks. If you're going to throw a Socket A Heatsink on it, it should be fine - especially if you have that 80mm fan on.
Yeah, I might as well keep the fan. The Seagate drive, although reasonably quiet, easily drowns its noise.

Does anybody know how good these Pentium MMX CPUs are at undervolting? Stock Vcore is 2.8V and the mobo can go as low as 2V. I'm a little hesistant at trying lower voltages, since Windows98 seems to mess up easily (tried undervolting with an old P166 and it went poo-poo... :P ).

perikooo
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Post by perikooo » Sat Jun 04, 2005 12:39 am

Hello:

I have a PIII 600EB passively cooled with an old heatsink from an Athlon XP (with tha fan removed), the only fan in the case is on the PSU.

This PIII outputs arround 16 watts, so your Pentium MMX could be passively cooled easily.

niels007
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Post by niels007 » Sat Jun 04, 2005 2:23 am

most socket 7 boards aren't spacey around the socket so you might run into capacitors etc...

tay
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Post by tay » Sat Jun 04, 2005 5:34 am

niels007 wrote:most socket 7 boards aren't spacey around the socket so you might run into capacitors etc...
Yes. The 2500+ Athlon retail heatsinks fit perfectly as they have a small footprint, the 2800+ retail heatsink bearly fits, and may run into capacitors on your board. Best to measure before you buy.

Mikael
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Post by Mikael » Sat Jun 04, 2005 11:16 am

I was just cleaning out old computer stuff from my drawer and what do I find? A retail Celeron S370 heatsink! 8) It has a small footprint and doesn't extend outside the socket. Most importantly, it's got way larger fins.

Here's a pic of the insides of the computer.

The fin count is still low, as you can see from the pic, but they're more than twice as high. I also lowered the Vcore from 2.8V to 2.6V and it seems stable. Ran Prime95 for 15 minutes and the heatsink hardly got warm at all...

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