AMD vs Pentium (1 Viewer)

[Wayne Bundrick]

Two years ago Tom's Hardware Guide demonstrated that the first generation of motherboards designed specifically for the Palomino core Athlons to make use of its thermal diode could not react quickly enough to a sudden huge change in temperature, such as would happen if the heatsink breaks off. The CPU began showing symptoms in less than a second and very quickly fried itself at almost 700 degrees F.

A few weeks later AMD showed Tom's Hardware Guide that it was adding to the motherboard specification a circuit that would be able to react quickly enough to save the chip from damage. However, it reacts by signalling the power supply to shut off.

I have seen this circuit in action, when the fan on my coworker's AMD seized. He replaced the fan and all is well. I don't know why he wasn't running some software to detect the fan failure.

 

[Kevin P]

I have seen this circuit in action, when the fan on my coworker's AMD seized. He replaced the fan and all is well. I don't know why he wasn't running some software to detect the fan failure.

A fan failure won't lead to instant release of magic smoke from the CPU. The heat sink will absorb the heat for a minute or so before it gets too hot, or maybe longer if a case fan is pulling air over the heat sink. If there's a thermal protection circuit on the motherboard, it should be able to react to this situation. BUT, if the heat sink falls off completely, the CPU needs to shut down within a second to avoid damage. The Intels will shut down or throttle back instantly in response to a heat emergency; the AthlonXP has a heat sensor but I've read it's too slow to respond to a heat sink falling off. The original Athlon had no thermal protection and would release its magic smoke if the HSF fell off.

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

What I just described is that AMD has made the heat sensor circuit fast enough to react. But I'm not going to risk a chip to find out. Even if it isn't a problem anymore, I'm not happy with the idea of killing the power and losing data if it should happen. It's one of the reasons I prefer the P4. And like Brett I prefer a stable Intel motherboard because I have no interest in overclocking.

 

[Eric Martello]

I currently have a Pentium 4 2.4C running at 3.0 GHz in an Asus P4P800. Stock voltages, stock cooling. My CPU temp is around 39 degrees C, my case is about 37 degrees C. My CPU does not creep past 45 degrees under load.

Current Intel systems feature very fast dual-channel DDR memory, which is smokes the fastest on the AMD side. Does this matter? You can see the benefit of having 4-5 GB/s of memory bandwidth WITHOUT overclocking the memory.

AMD systems are great because of their price. A 2500+ Barton is the way to go for a competent system, but pay a bit more for Intel if you want the current best.

 

[Ammon]

Just thought I'd add a little something to this thread. I noticed people talking about Half Life 2 and upgrading their CPU's when the game comes out. The video card is where your first upgrade should be. That will have 70% of the impact on your game playing. Not to mention that HL2 is said to be playable (and supposedly smoothly) on a 700mhz with a 32mb card. I'm running an AMD 2600+ with an Nvidia geForce Ti4200 video card. DirectX 9 games do not run as well with this video card as compared when I tried the Nvidia FX5600. However, I scratched getting the FX5600 and thinking of going with the ATI 9700. My point is, if you are runing a 2500+, upgrade your video card when HL2 and Doom 3 come out, not your CPU.

 

[Jonny K]

I'm going to upgrade both my video card and CPU for Half-Life 2 and Doom 3. CPUs are cheap.


Jonny K.

 

[Eric Martello]

Best video cards currently available are no doubt the Radeon 9700 or 9800 series. NVIDIA's GeForceFX runs hotter (read noisier) and performs worse than the ATI counterparts.

 

[Neil Joseph]

Update- as far as CPU's frying themselves because of faulty HSF's, Motherboard Monitor can be used to monitor the various temperatures of your system. I downloaded this utility on both of my computers. It can be user set to shutdown if the temperatures get too high. I set mine 10 Celcius above normal operating conditions.

Regarding mounting the HSF's on the AMD, I would have to agree that it can be surgery. It takes delicate treatment but once its on there, it ain't going anywhere.

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

I wouldn't depend on software to tell me something is wrong with the CPU because the software depends on the CPU in question and therefore can't be expected to function at all if something really is wrong. It's like the veterinarian asking the dog where the pain is. Sure it's fine for detecting a dead or dying fan, but catestrophic thermal failure such as the HSF falling off requires dedicated hardware on the motherboard to detect it and shut off the power supply.