Sunday, October 30, 2005

Recommendation: Preferred way to mount new AMD64 heatsink fan on AMD64 cpu.




I would like to suggest the followings:

1. If you are those who buy a new diy pc, fix it up & won't touch it until the pc is dead or obsoleted. Then you should not bother about reading option 2 below. Just mount you heatsink fan on the cpu with the default AMD64 with the default thermal paste on the heatsink & have fun with your new computer.

2. If you are like many of computer hobbyists who like to change cpu every now & then. Let me start by suggesting you do this. When you get your flashy & new heatsink with the thermal pad, don't mount it straight on to the cpu surface. You should use some alcohol or thinner(can buy 1 big bottle from hardware stores for S$2) to slowly dissolve the thermal paste & wipe it clean with cotton buds. Then you should use some softer thermal paste like those soft white paste provided by OEM heatsink fan.

Rationale of doing that is that, many of us experienced difficulty removing the heatsink fan from the cpu, if it's mounted with the hard thermal paste from the default AMD64 heatsink fan. If you apply hard enough force, you can remove the heatsink from the socket. Normally, that will also pull the cpu out from the socket, without the level being lifted loose. So you stand a chance of bending some pins or worse breaking some while ripping the cpu out from the socket.

If you belongs to the 2nd category, I'll suggest you do so. Cos I learnt my lesson. Luckily, no pins were bend or broken. The cpu got pulled out from the socket when I take out my HSF, it stuck so hard to the heatsink fan cos the thermal pad is air-tight. So you are fighting against the atmospheric pressure to seperate the cpu from the heatsink.

Oh and regarding the aircon. I spent S$1793.60 at CarreFour for a system 3 split unit aircon with 20500 btu. And the good thing about CarreFour, it provides 24months interest free installment via credit card. So that's a good S$74.73 per month for the next 2 years. Probably the best deal in town.

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Buying air con

Buying aircon in Singapore is quite different from other countries. Thanks to the Saturday's news paper, it makes buying anything very easy. That's the good thing about city lifestyle.

You just flip open the Saturday's paper & see all the advertisement from supermart like Carrefour, courts(I supposed a local brand in this region) & compare all the prices. They called them 'system 1, 2, 3) here, meant for 1 room, 2 rooms & 3 rooms split unit aircon.

This my first blog. Strange it feels like talking to myself....damn this is not healthy.