my computer has been very steady at 3.6 GHz. the more i think about it, the more i felt that i should’ve refrained myself from my past impulsive buys. the [northbridge] coolers in particular.
the first one i bought, the a normal coolermaster heatsink, was a nice silver aluminum thing. RM 30. came home, realised that the motherboard already has a stock heatsink that’s even BIGGER than the one i bought.
*doh*
the 2nd one i bought, a coolermaster blue ice thingie, was a funky looking thing. looked like an [arcology] from [SimCity]. RM 60. came home, realised that the thing could barely fit onto the motherboard (see previous post).
*doh*
that’s just the beginning though. was playing doom 3 a while ago when i hear a distinct pop sound from the computer. immediately i thought something blew, but the game did not halt or jerk or show whatever sign of a burnt component. well, i had to investigate it anyway, so i saved the game, and exited to windows. only then did the expected blue-screen appear.
restarted the pc. nothing. checked the memory sticks. nothing. after looking here and there and sniffing about for any metallic smell, i finally found the cause: one of the hooks holding the heatsink down had snapped, lifting the heatsink from the surface of the chip. so basically, the chip overheated, and forced the system to shut down. thank Intel for all the internal failsafe mechanisms!
*sigh* i knew i shouldn’t have tightened those mounting clips too much. the thing is already wedged beneath the CPU heatsink, so it was only a matter of holding it in place. the pc is running fine now, but i’ve yet to secure the heatsink properly. hope i don’t break any more clips!