Do Retail CPUs include a heatsink pre-installed?

[FreakyOCR]

If you are not overclocking use the thermal pad. It lasts better over time (according to AMD) Once the pad is exposed... put it on right away.. dust or exposure to the air can react with the pad (or compound) and make it less effective. Once it's done it's done. There may be some temperatures fluctuations the first few days as the stuff sets in.

Burn-In Period is where you push all the hardware to the limit for a set amount of time. This will make sure you have no weak or faulty hardware. If it does fail then it's still under warranty. And you can get it repalced. Better to find it out in the burn-in period than after your warranty has expired.

[MikeGn]

Originally posted by FreakyOCR
If you are not overclocking use the thermal pad. It lasts better over time (according to AMD) Once the pad is exposed... put it on right away.. dust or exposure to the air can react with the pad (or compound) and make it less effective. Once it's done it's done. There may be some temperatures fluctuations the first few days as the stuff sets in.

Burn-In Period is where you push all the hardware to the limit for a set amount of time. This will make sure you have no weak or faulty hardware. If it does fail then it's still under warranty. And you can get it repalced. Better to find it out in the burn-in period than after your warranty has expired.

Thank you for the helpful reply.

What is the best way to burn-in a system? Maybe a combination of 3DMark2001 and SANDRA?

Thanks,
Mike Gnitecki

[Marc04]

The best way to burn it in, IMO, is to join one or more of TechIMO's Distributed computing teams. I prefer UD cancer project and ECCP. The client programs will run your processor at 100%, but will give back the cpu cycles to other applications when you want to do other things on your computer. Then you'll get addicted to distributed computing and want to build more computers to do more.

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Marc

[ragtop]

I usually use Sandra for 100 or so loops on the various tests - then loop 3D Mark for a few hours. If everything stays stable, then I install and run ECCp 109.