Athlon Cracking
To overclock your Athlon you need to crack
it open. If you don't crack it open, you don't get to play with the golden
fingers. Everyone wants to play with the golden fingers, and there are
quite a few variations on how to open the Slot A package to get
at the goods. So indulge just one more description on the 'best' way to do
this little procedure - dremels are tempting but this is sooo much easier. I
tried removing cases once before with an unlucky PII-233, and can at least say
this method is much, much, simpler to. So here it goes:
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Tools:
- Screw Driver (I like the
Torque Master
pictured here from Canadian Tire ;-)
- One Freezer
- Small pliers / screwdriver
12 Steps:
Okay so only two of these tools are needed for this
particular method of cracking the Athlon open. The first step is to put
the Athlon into the freezer for a few minutes. This does two things, first
it stiffens up the plastic and makes it a bit more brittle then it would
be a room temperature, and secondly, it minutely causes the small metal
pins to decrease in diameter, enabling them to separate from the plastic
slightly easier.
Remove the Athlon from the freezer, and hold it with a
towel so the warmth of your hands does not cause it to increase in
temperature right away. Take a flat ended screw driver and wedge it in
between the plastic and the aluminum heatspreader. This may take a few
tries to get right, as the force will make it will want to pop out. Only
the very tip of the screw driver should be inserted, and only far enough
so as not to come close to the
PCB.
Once it is in the space work the edge of the screwdriver over towards the middle of that
side of the cartridge and then angle the screwdriver so it's near parallel
to the processor. Next rotate the screwdriver 90 degrees. The effect of the screwdriver being rotated will force the plastic away from the aluminum and pop out two
of the metal pins from the plastic which hold the cover on.
It works best if you do the turning part quickly to overstress the
joint and ensure quick separation.
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With one side of the plastic cover popped
off its time to put the Athlon back into the freezer for a few minutes to allow
it to cool again. When removed, the same process should be used on the opposite
side to remove the last two pins holding the processor and heatspreader to the
plastic cover. I found the second set a bit more difficult to remove, but after
two or three attempts the plastic popped off easily.
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