You all just know I'm “dying” to see Deerslayer’s pictures or his computer case and Baybus…Meanwhile, I have been working on a 1.1 Ghz Athlon all day. The reason it is going so slow is that I'm taking pictures of every thing with my new camera for a couple of articles, and …
I figured out a new way (perhaps) to apply heat sink compound. One naturally wants to use an index finger to apply the stuff, but it makes a mess and according to Artic Silver (http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm -- I’m not using Artic Silver for this one), the resulting skin cells, etc. in the goop can actually hinder thermal efficiency. They suggest using the edge of an old credit card to spread the stuff on, among other things. Well, socket 7 and slotted CPUs are easy, but the T-Bird die is so small it is hard to apply it that way. It/I made a mess. I tried a small, throwaway Teflon putty knife. Another mess. A small sponge rubber paint applicator... Yes, another mess and a thick, uneven application. I tried making my own plastic application tool by cutting a piece of plastic about the same size as the die out of some fairly heavy packaging material. The final mess—darn stuff is akin to mudding dry wall! Well I cleaned up everything several times with isopropyl rubbing alcohol, as suggested by Artic Silver, and managed to dislodge two of those rubber stand-offs on the CPU (sigh!), which I reattached--terrible design. And then I started thinking the heck with the skin cells, my finger is the only way I am going to stand a chance of getting the stuff on that little die before I kill the CPU from cleaning gunk off from it too many times. A light bulb went off... I used some disposable rubber gloves, put some gunk on the end of my finger, and lightly dabbed the stuff on the CPU. Worked great. Got thin, even coverage. The gloves are also a good, lintless way of cleaning the top of the die with Alcohol before glopping it. Larry
