I hate 478

[ratdude747]

Re: I hate 478

.but as a rule, the standard 478 mechanisms were crap. I cant tell you how many I've seen with broken tabs that made the sink come loose, and cause all kinds of thermal issues and cooking things......

Maybe it has to do with bracket/cooler brands... I have only seen one broken, and it was broken when I got it... perhaps if the cooler clamps ovetightned the bracket when the lever cams were at BDC (bottom dead center)... but otherwise 478 seemed to be a good design... The easiest cooler installation, that's for sure.

[brethin]

Re: I hate 478

I've taken 478 chips with every singe pin bent and fixed them for use. A razor blade works wonders on them. LGA sockets are flimsy piles of shit, I'd take ZIF sockets any day.

I agree 100% ZIF sockets are the best.

^
I have to agree. S939 and S940 are really the best when it came to this. Metal reinforcement brackets underneath prevent a massively warped board and guarantee a good solid contact. Intel S423, S603, and S604 sockets also had a similar cooling solution...but whoever thought that plastic retention bracket on the topside of the PCB with nothing on the bottom side for the S478 needs to be sweeping the floor of the warehouse, not participating in any design projects

Any 478 board I really cared much about also got this bracket/plate on the underside of the board so its not so much as a socket thing really as much as it is a higher quality mounting solution.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: I hate 478

LGA sockets are flimsy piles of shit, I'd take ZIF sockets any day.

QFT, when it comes to the push-pin heatsink mounts!

I couldn't get it on right the first time when I build my first 775-based system on September 24, 2008.

I changed it to a screw-on heatsink, which has a back bracket. It was pulled from an OEM PC, haha.

The Foxconn screw on heatsink, which comes with a duct, is better for cold air OC'ing.

The pipe-type heatsinks seem BS-ish.

I never had a problem getting a 478 heatsink on.

[mariushm]

Re: I hate 478

The problem with Socket 478 is a lot of the boards develop a problem with the cooler retainer... simply put the plastic on those handles keeping the cooler pressed on the cpu "dries" up and just breaks after a year or two of use.

I saw this happen on two motherboards, when someone attempted to change the thermal paste.

I personally hate the Socket 775 coolers on which you have to twist each leg. I believe I know my English very well, yet on my first Socket 775 fan I managed to twist one of the legs in such a way the leg wouldn't stay tightened anymore.

Replaced that one with a Schyte... Katana 2 I believe... now I have a Zerocool FZ120 - both are with bottom plates and regular screws.

[Mad_Professor]

Re: I hate 478

The problem with Socket 478 is a lot of the boards develop a problem with the cooler retainer... simply put the plastic on those handles keeping the cooler pressed on the cpu "dries" up and just breaks after a year or two of use.

I saw this happen on two motherboards, when someone attempted to change the thermal paste.

I personally hate the Socket 775 coolers on which you have to twist each leg. I believe I know my English very well, yet on my first Socket 775 fan I managed to twist one of the legs in such a way the leg wouldn't stay tightened anymore.

Replaced that one with a Schyte... Katana 2 I believe... now I have a Zerocool FZ120 - both are with bottom plates and regular screws.

You don't twist the legs when inserted. The push tabs/legs have to be out then you twist the tab to where the groove is pointed towards the heat sink, then place heatsink on cpu and push each tab/leg down. You should hear a click or pop ensuring that it has secured itself to the board.

[mariushm]

Re: I hate 478

I know NOW... back then, I read the explanations in the small booklet several times and still didn't get it right.

[Mad_Professor]

Re: I hate 478

I know NOW... back then, I read the explanations in the small booklet several times and still didn't get it right.

Same here, took me 3 builds before I realized that.

[momaka]

Re: I hate 478

Can't say I hate socket 478. It has some downfalls, but overall it's okay.
The early Willamate P4 CPUs are both hot and slow. I don't like those.
The Prescott has okay performance but still runs too hot and eats too much power. With good cooling, they are quite decent CPUs.
Northwood CPUs are my favorite, though (from the P4 line, that is). Decent enough performance (especially those with HT) and they run much cooler than the Prescotts.

That aside, I agree that most S478 coolers aren't that well designed. I too found snapped heat sink tabs on a PC I found in the trash. 2 paper clips and 20 minutes later and all was well. Fortunately, the board had a plastic back plate support (yeah, I know plastic isn't that great, but it's better than nothing) so the board had almost no warping. Another P4 PC I got from the trash had severe board warping because the heat sink mounting mechanism didn't have a back plate for the board.
S478 coolers are indeed very easy to remove and put back, but without a proper back plate they warp the motherboard quite a lot.

When it comes to heat sink retention mechanisms, my vote too goes for the AMD 754/939/940/AMx stuff. The S462 weren't bad either, but some coolers were quite hard to put on (due to very stiff springs). I never broke one either, but the amount of pressure I have to put always worries me a bit. Intel's S370 were similar to S462, but I often find their springs are too loose and it's easy to move the heat sink around even with the heat sink installed on the CPU.

The LGA775 and 1155 pushpin design is the biggest PITA IMO. Can't remove easily if the board is not out of the computer and the heat sink warps the board too much. What was Intel thinking/smoking? The fragile LGA sockets are only an added insult to that. Had a friend bend 2 pins on one (luckily they were on the edge). Fixed it after a lot of squinting and playing with the tweezers. Don't want to do that again. Way too fragile stuff. CPUs with bent/broken pins are way easier to fix. Just had an S939 AMD CPU with pretty much all of the pins bent (and 2 broken off) given to me about 2 weeks ago. Fixed the bent/broken pins, and it works great now.

I am glad that the socket370 and socket 462 days are gone...I was so tired of getting really good boards in for repair, just to discover the socket tabs were broken off, and the board was unusable.

Most likely damaged if the boards were shipped with the coolers or if the PC was dropped. Either that or the heat sink was too heavy or the spring on the cooler was too tight.