Loogie and I were totally amazed by a recent (6 days old) video and article at Tom’s Hardware. I never realized what would happen if somehow the heatsink fell off of the processor. It’s a rather likely chance that a heatsink could come off of the processor, given that some HSFs are very heavy and are dealing with the forces of gravity; yet, the effects are devistating for AMD processors. Read the article here and then make sure you pick up the video.
The video was what really blew me away. The Pentium 4 actually slowed down to compensate for the added heat and as soon as the HSF was placed (not even attached, just placed) back on the P4, Quake3 returned to a decent frame-rate. You AMD Socket A people better make sure that your HSFs are attached well. If it falls off or isn’t making contact, it won’t necessarily detach the fan power and the Fan-Off Control won’t catch the error, then. 8)
Here’s a couple screens from the video which is very well done and of high quality:
