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How do you properly cool a Pentium III ? These days most custom PC enthusiasts, tend to use some sort of third party Heat Sink and Fan combination for proper cooling of their CPU. Stock Heat Sink / Fans from Intel and other CPU vendors are usually only adequate for operation of the CPU within normal specs. Obviously, this is not something the average "overclocker" will be satisfied with. Until now, there really haven't been many good cooling solutions for the new Pentium III processor. TennMax, a well known cooling solutions provider, has designed a new product for the Pentium III that follows in the footsteps of their many other innovative cooling products. Click the image for a closer look.
As you can see, this unit appears to be constructed of very high quality polished aluminum. It also has nice retention clips that push through the original Pentium III front shell and lock into the body of the sink. Just for reference, see my custom Pentium III cooling project here for instructions on how to remove your stock retail P3 heat sink. All you then have to do is push the pins (make sure you have slipped the supplied plastic washers over the pins first) of the retention clips through the case and into the body of the sink. You may have to drill or push out the old plastic Intel retention clips if the tips are still stuck in the casing. This is a VERY easy task however. The black pad on the sink makes solid contact with the CPU chip itself. This pad is made of some sort of highly conformable polymer material that actually bonds the sink to the chip when heat is generated. It makes for an excellent thermal junction with the sink and works very well. Click image for a larger view.
The unit itself is a very dense pin construction and has two 5K RPM fans mounted on the top. These fans are harnessed together into one three pin intelligent power connector that plugs right into an available header on your motherboard. This is a much neater solution than the standard pig tail set ups you usually get with dual fan models these days. As you can see in the above picture, on either side of the CPU contact plate the sink is hollowed out so it doesn't make contact with the CPU board or cache chips. I actually used some Gap Pad to make contact with the cache chips and the sink. <-----(This link also shows Gap Pad in action on a P3) As you might guess, the P3 TF Cooler from TennMax is a much more elegant cooling solution for your P3 than my custom approach in the above linked article. Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say, and it was all I had to work with, at that time. Thanks TennMax for providing the creativity and ingenuity of this product. So how does it perform you ask???? Here's a snapshot... |
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I hate to admit this but it seems I've been beaten... :-) These readings were taken from the CPU Temp Sensor on our motherboard and "Motherboard Monitor Version 4.07. We used a stock Pentium III 450 for this test. I feel this is a fairly accurate reading but you may in fact get different results. Also, keep in mind that, during testing, ambient room temp was 78 F. It is getting hot up here in Massachusetts! Thanks to the TennMax P3 TF, our P3-450 overclocked to 558 is just a little cooler now. We give the P3-TF from TennMax a Hot Hardware Temp-O-Meter Rating of...
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