real dumb question: what is a pb heat sink?

[California]

Specifically, what does a heat sink on a Tibook or ibook do and will the laptop function without one? I am confused because it looks like a friend's 500 Tibook should have a heatsink but it doesn't (put together from parts) and I'm wondering if it should be added. Dumbie question but there you go.

 

[munkle]

Maybe somebody will take a better stab at this than me.

Wikipedia has a good explanation of what a heat sink is, basically the heat sink is the way in which the PB dissipates heat. A laptop should theoretically function without one but it will run awfully hot, which is not a good thing and could cause internal parts to overheat.

So yeah, add one if you can.

 

[topgunn]

A heatsink is a VITAL part of todays computers. It is a way to increase the surface area by which the processor disappates heat. 10-15 years ago processors required heatsinks. As processors speed up, they require more power which means more heat. Modern processors require substaintial cooling. I highly doubt that a G3/G4 could operate for long without a heatsink and 95% will also need a fan to move more air over the fins of the heatsink. In some laptop that have especially cool processors, the case will be used to disappate heat.

Are you sure that it is the CPU that doesn't have a heatsink? There are a number of other chips that may or may not have heatsinks and operate just fine.

Check out http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20010917/ for information about what happens to "modern" CPU's when the heatsink is removed. Keep in mind that the PIII is very frugal power/heat wise compared to the P4.

 

[California]

Thanks guys. I'll let you know after the Apple techs have at it.

 

[generik]

Isn't the whole PB a heatsink in itself?

I sure know mine gets quite toasty...