Can An AM2-Era Cooler Tame the Beast? AMD Ryzen 9 7950X

[cageymaru]

Gordon Mah Ung of PCWorld and Maximum PC fame has installed a Thermaltake AMD AM2 cooler from circa 2004 - 2007 onto a modern 16C/32T AMD Ryzen 9 7950X. Watch him work through various thermal issues as he attempts to get the system to achieve stability for benchmarks. His detailed history of the AM2 motherboard featuring an NVIDIA GeForce 6100 + nForce 400 chipset and its advanced silky-smooth audio capabilities hits all the nostalgia feelings of the targeted audience. What part of the video resonated with you during this trip down memory lane with a true pioneer of the PC hardware industry?



For the love of science, Gordon decides to try and cool the monster Ryzen 9 7950x with a cooler from the AM2 era, and learns a few things along the way. Will it work? Grab some popcorn and find out!

 

[GiGaBiTe]

Did the guy even look at what he had before he started recording? LOL. None of the specs he listed are even remotely close to what he was actually looking at.

That's an A8N-VM CSM, a socket 939 board. It has an ADA4600DAA5CD in it (Athlon 64 x2 4600+) that has a 110W TDP. All of that stuff is from 2005.

Even if it wasn't possible to see the CPU model, it's blatantly obvious that's a 939 board from the DDR slots. AM2 was DDR2. I mean the socket even says 939 on it, and the second guy holding the camera even mentioned it once.

I would give a pass to an average Youtuber that wasn't versed in old tech, but this guy gets a FAIL. He has no excuses if he's been around computer hardware since the 90s.

That's not even the beefiest blow down cooler from that era. There's a four heatpipe version of that same cooler that would have fared better.

 

[Randall Stephens]

Waiting for the alpha pal 8045 testing…. Also the cooler needs a 6000 rpm delta fan swap that we’ll control with one of those digital dock 5.25 bay controllers.

 

[Mchart]

Did the guy even look at what he had before he started recording? LOL. None of the specs he listed are even remotely close to what he was actually looking at.

That's an A8N-VM CSM, a socket 939 board. It has an ADA4600DAA5CD in it (Athlon 64 x2 4600+) that has a 110W TDP. All of that stuff is from 2005.

Even if it wasn't possible to see the CPU model, it's blatantly obvious that's a 939 board from the DDR slots. AM2 was DDR2. I mean the socket even says 939 on it, and the second guy holding the camera even mentioned it once.

I would give a pass to an average Youtuber that wasn't versed in old tech, but this guy gets a FAIL. He has no excuses if he's been around computer hardware since the 90s.

That's not even the beefiest blow down cooler from that era. There's a four heatpipe version of that same cooler that would have fared better.

Makes you wonder how awful these journalists were back in the MaxPC glory days, and if they were always this bad - But we didn't know better.

 

[whateverer]

Ii doubt it, as all Thermaltake cooler have always been gimmick knockoffs (even the original Gorb was the same overrated mess)

 

[CAD4466HK]

He got called out more than half way down the comment list lmao, and still acted like a doubting Thomas smh.
I don't know which is worse, Gordon not catching it or his subscribers?

 

[GiGaBiTe]

Makes you wonder how awful these journalists were back in the MaxPC glory days, and if they were always this bad - But we didn't know better.

I think Google Books has most of Maximum PC's backlog archived going back to 1998.

 

[pendragon1]

Can An AM2-Era Cooler Tame the Beast?​

no. also, see all the above.
ps: this isnt tech news.

 

[LigTasm]

Ii doubt it, as all Thermaltake cooler have always been gimmick knockoffs (even the original Gorb was the same overrated mess)

You called?

 

[Red Falcon]

Makes you wonder how awful these journalists were back in the MaxPC glory days, and if they were always this bad - But we didn't know better.

They weren't this bad back then, but this was a complete fail, and Gordon should have known better on all of this.
It does make one wonder if they had people with actual technology skills doing all of the work as they just wrote the final "tech" puff pieces.

Gordon called the north bridge a CPU; at least he later corrected himself, wow.
The camera person appeared to not even know that NVIDIA once made chipsets.

He states that the memory controller wasn't integrated into the CPU until the Core i7 - that's correct for Intel CPUs, but AMD had integrated the memory controller into the CPU as far back as Socket 754 in 2003 with the original Athlon 64, which is older than this 939 board from 2004/2005.
I will try and give him a break and just say that maybe he is getting too old for this...

Did the guy even look at what he had before he started recording? LOL. None of the specs he listed are even remotely close to what he was actually looking at.

That's an A8N-VM CSM, a socket 939 board. It has an ADA4600DAA5CD in it (Athlon 64 x2 4600+) that has a 110W TDP. All of that stuff is from 2005.

Even if it wasn't possible to see the CPU model, it's blatantly obvious that's a 939 board from the DDR slots. AM2 was DDR2. I mean the socket even says 939 on it, and the second guy holding the camera even mentioned it once.

I would give a pass to an average Youtuber that wasn't versed in old tech, but this guy gets a FAIL. He has no excuses if he's been around computer hardware since the 90s.

That's not even the beefiest blow down cooler from that era. There's a four heatpipe version of that same cooler that would have fared better.

Came here to say all of this, and I couldn't have said it better myself.
939 only went up to the 4800+ X2 or FX-60, and the 6000+ was only on AM2.

 

[Starfalcon]

Waiting for the alpha pal 8045 testing…. Also the cooler needs a 6000 rpm delta fan swap that we’ll control with one of those digital dock 5.25 bay controllers.

Had one of those Alpha PAL 8045s on my XP2500 mobile chip with the required delta high speed fan. Did not have any spped control on it though, just ran it full bore and got used to the noise. It did keep the cpu nice and cool though, was the best cooler back then before heatpipes were a thing in coolers.

 

[crazycrave]

I sold my Abit KN8 - SLi / 3800x2 / Nvidia 7600GS to my father inlaw back around 2005, I spoken to him afew weeks ago and I did ask about the old system, it is still running fine on Window XP just like I built it way back when I played MOHAA around 2003 era, he wants to find away to run different windows on it.

He has all my real old hardware still, like my FX 5900 XT

 

[Twisted Kidney]

I have a couple of old Alpha 60mm heatsyncs. Maybe I should pop the Delta 60mm fans on them and enjoy the high-pitched whine.

 

[GiGaBiTe]

Had one of those Alpha PAL 8045s on my XP2500 mobile chip with the required delta high speed fan. Did not have any spped control on it though, just ran it full bore and got used to the noise. It did keep the cpu nice and cool though, was the best cooler back then before heatpipes were a thing in coolers.

Naah. There were large copper finned coolers with 80mm fans that didn't sound like a jet engine and they were great. I actually just picked one up at the junk yard, along with an A7N8X-E. I used to have similar coolers back in the day, bought them after I got tired of the stock AMD fans screaming 24/7 and not really cooling that well. I'd recommend a shim to avoid cracking the die.

I sold my Abit KN8 - SLi / 3800x2 / Nvidia 7600GS to my father inlaw back around 2005, I spoken to him afew weeks ago and I did ask about the old system, it is still running fine on Window XP just like I built it way back when I played MOHAA around 2003 era, he wants to find away to run different windows on it.

He has all my real old hardware still, like my FX 5900 XT

Latest version of Windows it will run is Windows 7. Windows 8 and up require CMPXCHG16b for the 64 bit versions. It can probably run 32 bit, but it's going to be painful. Drivers will be another issue, the last driver for the FX 5000 series was for Windows Vista back in 2006.

 

[Starfalcon]

Naah. There were large copper finned coolers with 80mm fans that didn't sound like a jet engine and they were great. I actually just picked one up at the junk yard, along with an A7N8X-E. I used to have similar coolers back in the day, bought them after I got tired of the stock AMD fans screaming 24/7 and not really cooling that well. I'd recommend a shim to avoid cracking the die.


View attachment 528044




Latest version of Windows it will run is Windows 7. Windows 8 and up require CMPXCHG16b for the 64 bit versions. It can probably run 32 bit, but it's going to be painful. Drivers will be another issue, the last driver for the FX 5000 series was for Windows Vista back in 2006.

The Alpha PAL used the 4 holes around the socket, and did not clip onto the socket. So it was pretty much impossible to crack the core with it. Plus I used a Delta FFB0812EHE and that kept my cpu under 50C, and it was loud as hell...likely I couldnt stand it anymore.

 

[CAD4466HK]

Naah. There were large copper finned coolers with 80mm fans that didn't sound like a jet engine and they were great. I actually just picked one up at the junk yard, along with an A7N8X-E. I used to have similar coolers back in the day, bought them after I got tired of the stock AMD fans screaming 24/7 and not really cooling that well. I'd recommend a shim to avoid cracking the die.


View attachment 528044




Latest version of Windows it will run is Windows 7. Windows 8 and up require CMPXCHG16b for the 64 bit versions. It can probably run 32 bit, but it's going to be painful. Drivers will be another issue, the last driver for the FX 5000 series was for Windows Vista back in 2006.

I use to run one of these on my 2500+ & 3000+ Bartons. At 7000RPM it sounded just like a Delta. Loud AF.

https://www.overclockers.com/thermaltake-volcano-7/

 

[Fenris_Ulf]

A Scythe Ninja 1000 might be the only cooler from 2005 that stands a chance. I've got a few of those dual heatpipe type coolers from that era, and they do fine on i3 level cpus but you have to fabricobble mounting hardware for newer sockets. I have a first generation Ninja on a i5 Haswell and it's only ever a few degrees over ambient. A 7950 is a completely different beast, but it's probably the best from that era.

 

[idiomatic]

Am I .... old?

 

[Starfalcon]

Am I .... old?

Maybe....But I know I am. Most of my retro hardware is younger than me.