[geeks] Ahh, the smell of Athlon's burning up

[Joshua D Boyd]

On Wed, May 22, 2002 at 12:30:08PM -0700, Rick Hamell wrote:
> > > 	Then you're in the 10% of the problems that aren't related to the
> > > MB. :) Overheating is a problem granted. The problem is that the normal PC
> > > was not meant to efficently cooled, yet another design flaw from the
> > > start. (But then who ever thought in the early 80's that it WOULD be a
> > > problem some day?)
> > 
> > What does the heat disipation desicions of the 80s PC have to do with today's
> > machines overheating?
> 
> 	They weren't thought of at all. If so the standards would have
> been changed make cables be fastened down and routed along the side of the
> case. Or the cards would have been installed horizontally to the MB
> instead of vertical.
> 	Look inside a Sparc 20 for instance... think those short cables
> with the guides to keep it down are to just make it look pretty? The same
> with the vents on the sides near the PS and by the cards. 
> 	The standard that created a PC was a stop-gap measure, not meant
> to actually get into production, and certainly not for more then a couple
> of years, let alone 20+ years later.
> 	Otherwise IBM would have done a MUCH better job designing it.

But those are all issues that could easily have been put in the ATX spec.

Further, well designed ATX cases can deal with it for most ATX mother boards
by moving drives away from the motherboard (ala HP Netservers from the PPro
era).  

And then there are round cables, which aren't perfect, but don't really block 
airflow.

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd