Testing the 500E FC-PGA

With this Coppermine we saw some really exciting stuff. First of all the MSI-6163 is an amazingly stable board. Just about every FSB for the Celeron proved stable, and with the 500E we just plain ran out of FSB's to choose from... I know one particular Aopen AX63-pro which has never even been able to get this same heatsink and Coppermine above 667Mhz!

Moving forward, we strapped on the CuPins Heatsink to the silicon die of the CopperMine 500E with a bit of silicon thermal compound. While it was a bit hard to get it to sit nice and flat, we managed to tighten the wires enough that this was resolved. I think in the case of the CopperMine a better attachment method is necessary however.

The heatsink and thermistor were set up in the exact same manner as in the previous test, ambient temperature in this test was a bit lower at 23.1 C.

Seeing nothing more then a 3 degree raise in temperature coming about from a 275Mhz increase in speed is just... well something I expect from copper. Keep in mind that the CuPins heatsink was being cooled by only a small fan. Stability of the Pentium III was good, with not one crash.

In each of the two tests the computer was loaded and allowed to just sit there for about 10-20 minutes doing nothing in particular.

Conclusions

This type of pin heatsink made from solid copper seems to work out very well with even the most basic of fans. A little more thought should have gone into our design with regards to attaching the heatsink to the slots, but other then that all seems to be well and it performs to our expectations.

What do you think of the Frosty CuPins Heatsink? Speak your mind and let us know!