My old processor

Last week I finally tore apart my old non-working desktop computer. It had been sitting around for over a year, while I occasionally robbed parts off of it. I decided it was time to go through it and decide what was worth keeping, and then throw the rest away.

The processor is one of the parts that I decided needs to be thrown away. It has two bent pins, and I don’t think its worth the effort to try to straighten it back up. It is/was an AMD 64 3000 processor. A 64 bit CPU running at 2 ghz, with a 512kb L2 cache. Quite a good little processor in its day, but its day is now past. My current laptop can run circles around it.

This isn’t the only time it had bent pins. One time I was cleaning my case out, and I decided to get thorough, so I pulled the heatsink off so I could clean all the dust out of it. For some reason, the processor came out too. That was not good. The CPU is locked into the socket, and it was forced out with being released, and about half a dozen pins in the one corner got bent. I think the thermal paste “glued” it to the heat sink. I really didn’t want to buy a new processor, so I got a magnifying glass, a tweezers, and a small pliers, and got to work. I actually managed to straighten the pins up, and it kept on working for a long time after that.

So anyways… I took some pictures of it. It has been awhile since I got my camera out and shot anything; I felt a bit rusty.

For the above picture I used a flash with a CTO (color temperature orange) gel, and a snoot, on it. The two bent pins are right in the front corner For this next picture I used the snooted-orange-gelled flash from the one side, and then had a CTB (color temperature blue) gel on a flash with a small softbox up above.

By the way, the processor measures 4×4 cm. I bought it in December of 2004, and paid $148.00 for it. Most of the components of that computer are still in use. The hard drive, CD drives, and monitor are all in Dad’s computer. I was 16 when I built that computer. It was a great machine for me back then. I learned a lot from it.

Goodnight,

- Aaron

~ by Aaron on May 5, 2009.