Athlon II Passive cooling?

[Adarion]

I'm pretty sure you can't really kill a cpu by undervolting. You will start getting errors and crashes if you go to low though.

Yep. It should not harm anything. The voltage the CPU is made/specified for is the Voltage where it is guaranteed by the mfg. that all transistors will shift and switch around. If you lower the voltage the power consumption will drop (I forgot the damn formula with frq. and voltage), without a loss of computing power. What can happen is, that not all transistors will switch and so you will get more or less severe errors. It is a matter of experiment but one should try to set the lowest specified voltage in every case, that should be safe. If your own CPU was produced on a nice day you might be able to go lower, if it was produced on a rainy monday... well. Not much capacity in undervolting.

Please note that not all BIOSes are genius and so if your box hangs after underclocking or undvervolting (or over~) you will have to reset the BIOS/CMOS by jumper so it will forget the settings a go back to failsafe defaults.
Some errors will not happen during P.O.S.T. but later when the OS kicks in or if you just stress your CPU. Then you can enter your BIOS setup and regulate the setings back to a safe position.

more on topic: @ kbios
If you ever happen to have some spare money, that thing was 35 Euros, in case you live e.g. in the US it should be cheaper (all electronics is more expensive in Europe, don't ask me why).
Though the boxed coolers aren't that noisy, esp. when you put them to a regulated fan port so it will regulate fan speed according to the temp. sensors. And a phenom cooler should always have the capacity for Athlons.

[movieman]

http://www.lostcircuits.com/forum/vi...3&t=2703#p4963

Okay I've found it. I really don't know...

Ouch: looks like the undervolted IMC state machine is getting confused and committing suicide.

[chefkoch]

Wow.. that's new to me. I take that back then.

[movieman]

Wow.. that's new to me. I take that back then.

News to me too, and I used to work for a company that built chips with IMCs .

[Adarion]

One should not write long post b4 seeing what other might have posted meantime. :/
Umm, that sounds really strange that they damaged the IMC. I would not expected that to have happened. Dead IMC p.o.s.t. code. Uh, sound horrible. Just some beeps and a number maybe and then it's over. Maybe someone from AMD could shed some light on it how to damage something by undervolting? Or on this "current sink" thesis from the thread?

[curaga]

Looks like he went a little too low with 1.088.

[kbios]

Just received the motherboard and set everything up. Well, it works great! With the Phenom II heatsink and no thermal paste, the Athlon idles (bios) at 50°. Can I expect a much better result with some paste? (Just not to open everything up again in vain). Thanks

[Fer Servadu]

Can I expect a much better result with some paste?

I would say so, yes. The paste provides for better contact between the heatsink and processor in the event that there are any irregularities on either surface.

Out of curiosity, why didn't you use it in the first place? Or did I miss something?

[kbios]

Hi, thanks for your reply. Since I am using a Phenom II heatsink (which I previously used on another processor) I have removed the original paste to use a new one. I'll now try putting it on again and post the results.

[Zhick]

You didn't use _any_ paste? Then I'd expect improvements of 10°C or even more. Paste is very important.