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OEM: mass-producing inefficiency

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  • OEM: mass-producing inefficiency

    I have just recently been in contact with setting up more and more OEM machines for people I know, and I can say that the OEM cooling included with many PCs is outrageous, most not even considering the heat produced by internal components...

    i think this is mainly a rant, but here is the example of what was placed in front of me:

    1x Athlon XP 1600 w/ 512Mb DDR
    1x IBM 60GXP 40Gb 7200rpm drive
    1x 32x16x12 CDRW
    1x Geforce2 MX400 w/orb lookalike

    there were other components, but these are you heat-sources, think about how much heat this thing would be creating, just idling...

    now, strapped on to that lovely new CPU was some fukn takeoff of a Tt ORB from a company called Agilent, as seen in the picture on this page, but it wasn't, much the same as a Tt Mini Super Orb, and we all know how ****e they are...anyway, the only other fan in the system was that of the PSU (300W, another hot one) all this sitting in a neatly routed midi-tower case.
    plug this baby in, turn her on, and after 10 minutes idle, we had a lovely 45 C (case temp 32). so I waited a little while longer, ran some burn-in proggie, and i got the temp to 58, a bloody disgrace, suffice to say, the best i could do for them in the short term was to wack in an intake and exhaust fan, and tell them to keep regular backups of their HD cos it'll prolly die from the heat in that box! (extra fans bought the idle temps to 42, case temp to a nice 22 - that cooler just couldn't cut it!)

    i was just wondering if anyone else is an OEM or receives OEM goods and can tell me if they are seeing the same trend? even the HSF strapped on a P4 is pretty measly, and it runs hot too!

  • #2
    This is a pretty common practice for OEM type equipment. As a rule, the main concern when bundling up an OEM package is to get the largest profit margin possible. Normally, they throw on a simple (aka CHEAP) HSF unit and give it a chance to survive past the standard 30 day warranty period that is common for OEM's to use. Anything after that will generally be the consumer's problem, and they have made a nice profit.

    Sad, but true. And what's worse is that a lot of the people who end up with machines like this are folks who have no earthly idea what goes on within the case. To a majority of these folks, it's nothing more than a box with parts, and if it doesn't work anymore? Well, we'll just put in a call to those IT people who don't know anything.

    Sound familiar? ;)
    Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill
    My Toys

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    • #3
      Originally posted by skullshot

      now, strapped on to that lovely new CPU was some fukn takeoff of a Tt ORB from a company called Agilent, as seen in the picture on this page, but it wasn't, much the same as a Tt Mini Super Orb, and we all know how ****e they are...
      I whole heartedly agree with the part of your post i neglected to quote. But felt i just had to chime in with one piece on info

      Agilent is a company that has been producing Orb style coolers for a lot longer than Thermaltake. Their radial coolers have always been used in Hewlett Packard workstations using PA-RISC CPU's.

      Tt's ORbs are a rip off of Agilent's coolers actually.

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      • #4
        Weren't those the ones that a dude over at Overclockers Australia cut his finger with? Or am I thinking of a different one?

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        • #5
          The two places that I buy CPU's from don't even bother askin' me anymore if I want a HSF to go as well. Maybe they just don't want to be laughed at anymore. :D
          <center></center>

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          • #6
            i rember the good old ibm 486 that was our first computer first and ownly bright computer oem.

            now i just make up my own ones:)

            ok it was slow it didnt make to much heat but f**k it had a good cooling system

            every worm peace of it was some how contected to the case which accted like a big heat sink didnt have any fans in it excpet for the psu but it was cool its a bit of a ***** to take to bits though cose of all those bits

            i think that case is just an earlyer virson of the lian li in its design it was brilant

            these days if you want a good case you need to spend at least NZ$300 to get good cooling or biuld one your self... :hammer:


            ps i love these smiles
            :afro: :wave: :snip:

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            • #7
              Yeah it's a sad state, but let's face it - the majority of systems in use are OEM built, and companies like AMD these days don't even take things like cooling into consideration! At least Intel provides a heatsink with their boxed CPUs (which states: to be built by competent system integrators only or some other garb) so there's the assumption that the sink offers sufficient cooling. AMD just specifies what criteria aftermarket sinks should meet, and its' up to these 3rd parties to comply. So when things go sour, they can point the finger at each other - and the consumer ultimately loses.

              It's sad that even when selling for $500+ for a GF3 vid card, the makers don't bother applying thermal paste properly on the GPU and some even just glue on the sinks to the RAM with nothing inbetween.

              When one buys a new car, we don't expect to have to strip down half the interior trim and re-build it ourselves to get rid of the poor fit and squeeks.

              That being said, if you ask any retailers - the majority of returns they get are from amateurs who failed to take adequate precautions while assembling the parts, and hence blame it on faulty manufacturing.
              Onyx

              TweakTown
              OCAU - Overclockers Australia
              CPF - CandlePower Forums

              Antec 1080AMG with 430W TruePower

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              • #8
                OK guys - I'm a small-scale OEM and here's my view on things:

                Firstly, I target a different market segment. I chase the higher margin custom systems market, and have many repeat customers who buy because of the proven reliability of my systems. Here's what I do for cooling:

                Most of my customers are concerned about noise. For all Intel CPU's I use the standard Intel HSF. My customers don't overclock, so that suits them just fine. I usually place one or two 80mm case fans in, one blowing in and when a second one is present one blowing out.

                AMD systems are a different kettle of fish. My main supplier has signed a big deal with ThermalTake......... they were saying that the Volcano II was the ideal HSF for a 1.4GHz T-Bird :eek: I never bought heatsinks from them, I went elsewhere and got something like a FOP32-1 for a Duron or low-end Athlon, and moved up to larger heatsinks for high-end T-Birds (remember my customers care about noise - FOP38's are out of the question). I use a larger case such as the AOpen H600A which has more room to play with, and 5 fan bays. I would normally fill 2 bays for a Duron, or 3 for an Athlon.

                I also schedule 6 or 12 monthly maintainence visits for my customers. Usually they want to upgrade anyway, so I take the opportunity to clean all the crap out of the fans and oil the case fans. The systems still work impeccably - one customer has his system running Win98SE, for 18 hours a day, 7 days a week and only very rarely (about once a month) has a crash. And that's under very heavy system loading.

                But many of my fellow OEM's target the home user who knows nothing - except price. I let them put on the Volcano II's and make money when the computer crashes and they can't work out why :D

                One good one I saw was a Celeron 300A where the thermal protective pad hadn't been removed - plastic is a bad conductor of heat. The system locked up more and more as spring progressed, and it was only after I removed the heatsink that I saw this. Company went bust, and deserved to after this.

                So this is my $0.02 worth on the matter :)
                What came first - Insanity or Society?

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