Advice--best P4 heatsink

[Al Kossow]

they exist, i'm looking for one as well for a board I just bought that came without one
http://bitsavers.org/projects/478heatsink

I'll see if I can get over to Excess Solutions. They have a shelf of 20 year old PC heatsinks
What I'm finding on line is mostly sleeve bearing garbage

[luckybob]

The best air coolers to exist for S478 are these: https://www.alphanovatech.com/en/cat_cpuhse.html#so478

I own a few of them, and they look to still be available for sale. The socket 370 ones are also EXCELLENT.

[Chuck(G)]

I opted for the big Dell heat-pipe passive unit. If it gets too warm, I can add a fan. I've got room--it's a 4U case.

In the meanwhile, I'll bodge the stock Intel one with a couple of cable ties and a bracket. Should do for now.

[GiGaBiTe]

Zalman made a super chunky copper fin cooler for socket 478/754/939/940 called the CNPS7000B-CU

https://www.ebay.com/c/1603909614

It's a bit awkward to install, but it has metal retainers that clamp to the PGA478 retainer shell. I've used it with 3.2 GHz Pentium 4s and it keeps them plenty cool.

[Chuck(G)]

While waiting for the Dell unit, I've taken some stainless steel wire and sheet brass and bodged a couple of brackets onto the old fan assembly. Held down to the retention bracket with zip ties. Nothing fancy, but it works for now.

I've seen a number of old P4 boards with broken retention brackets as well, which is another reason I opted for the Dell server heatsink--bolts right to the PCB. I've seen this also on old Socket AM2 boards.

Plastic is going to kill us off. Two days earlier, my portable induction cooker started shedding bits of itself. Fortunately, that was ABS and I repaired that--for now--with good old black ABS cement.

[tipc]

Plastic isn't always a bad thing. It's cheap ultra mass produced plastic that's the problem I'm guessing. To go off topic a bit, the upper intake manifold on my hooptie is plastic. It carries air and coolant. It's not a matter of if but when it'll fail, and potentially hydrolocking the engine. But at 175k it's still doing it's job. Later models use aluminum. But aluminum can also fatigue and crack. Can't expect everything to be made of cast iron or steel. There's a lot of engineering in these boards. Can't expect too much.

[Chuck(G)]

It's materials choice that is so often short sighted. I used to own a Volvo 940 turbo-brick. Great car; good mileage and lots of room, particularly if you put the rear seats down. It had two weaknesses--lead-free solder in the electronics (that could be repaired) and use of plastic everywhere. After about 20 years, the plastic just cracked and broke if you looked cross-eyed at it. At about the same time the turbo was leaking and wiring insulation was starting to develop issues. It was a matter of pouring a bunch of cash into the thing and dealing with the plastic or getting rid of it. I chose the latter.

On the Intel heatsink assembly, the clips retaining the heatsink to the board look to be unreinforced PA6 or PDM. Said plastic does not age well when used at elevated temperatures. A couple of spring clips would have been more robust and lasted indefinitely--and probably would have been cheaper to manufacture.

Ask any museum curator about the long-term suitability of plastics.

[tipc]

Plastic isn't going to last forever, that's a given. But it varies in durability, longevity. Here I am staring at any number of plastic vintage puter items. Some I'm afraid to look at, as the gesture may be taken the wrong way. Other pieces, while yellowed, are as sturdy as ever. All were at least semi mass produced in injection molds. The plastics in my 98 Pontiac are holding up well. The vinyl dashboard not so well. But I've taken no steps to preserve it either. And it isn't horrible. I'm sure agents to diminish harmful uv or ir were inserted at the time of manufacture.

I'm at least attempting to utilize items as old as your p4 board. But I would imagine if you filed a complaint w/the manufacturer regarding the putrid condition of your heatsink retention mechanism, you'd be confronted by a great deal of laughter as a best case scenario. Nothing lasts forever. Look at these bodies. Who made all that?? I want to know where to complain.

I happen to like plastic, in some applications. It's pretty. Around 15 years ago I started collecting these Gundam plastic model kits. Oh they look so nice. I haven't assembled not 1. They just sit in boxes. Colored plastic really is beautiful. And me saying I like them belies that fact that all along my intention was to burn out the originals in lost wax molds. One of these decades.

[Al Kossow]

Ask any museum curator about the long-term suitability of plastics.

We know.
Esp 20+ year old things with plastic tabs holding it together.
We did battery mitigation before I got here, I don't want to tell
them they have to do it for SMD electrolytics as well otherwise
there will be zero chance of restoring things after the traces
near them have rotted.

[Unknown_K]

It's materials choice that is so often short sighted. I used to own a Volvo 940 turbo-brick. Great car; good mileage and lots of room, particularly if you put the rear seats down. It had two weaknesses--lead-free solder in the electronics (that could be repaired) and use of plastic everywhere. After about 20 years, the plastic just cracked and broke if you looked cross-eyed at it. At about the same time the turbo was leaking and wiring insulation was starting to develop issues. It was a matter of pouring a bunch of cash into the thing and dealing with the plastic or getting rid of it. I chose the latter.

On the Intel heatsink assembly, the clips retaining the heatsink to the board look to be unreinforced PA6 or PDM. Said plastic does not age well when used at elevated temperatures. A couple of spring clips would have been more robust and lasted indefinitely--and probably would have been cheaper to manufacture.

Ask any museum curator about the long-term suitability of plastics.

I ordered two dozen replacement clips for LGA775 era heatsinks that had broken bits off ebay for $5.55 shipped last year.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/8Pcs-set-Fa...n/133430344418