While the rest of the world is going ga-ga about the none-existent performance difference between the older S939 and the new sAM2 CPU’s displayed below, we like to shed some light on a cooler aspect of the new socket, literally.


We thank Forcom.be for providing the AM2 hardware.




From the outside the CPU has not changed much, there’s one more pin on the back and the open spaces have been shifted around. What has changed remarkably is the CPU mounting bracket and position of the mounting holes:




The new 4 mounting holes will allow a very secure fit of your heatsink or water block; however AMD changed the position of these mounting holes enough for them to have no resemblance to the old S939 system, or the current P4 layout.

In the past heatsinks which rely on the P4 S478 clips have been successfully made compatible with the S939 K8 platform through the use of an altered bracket, companies like Thermalright, Scythe, Zalman, Coolermaster and others provided those to allow their heatsinks to fit on multiple platforms, mum is the word however when it comes to news about an AM2 compatible one.

What about those heatsinks designed for use with the K8 S939 mounting holes? That’s a different story all together ->