Heat from CPU on Blizzard 1230

dougal

Active member
AmiBayer
Joined
Nov 25, 2009
Posts
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Country
Malta
My Blizzard 1230IV has always been flawless. I simply installed it and never looked back.

Yesterday my A1200 was having problems starting up, no idea why and its fine now. Could have been something loose inside the case.

Anyway, I opened it up and did the usual pushing of the kickstarts into their sockets, checking hdd cables etc and it booted up perfectly. Used it a bit to test before assembling the case again.

While assembling it I touched the 68030 CPU and it was really hot. Almost too hot to touch.

Is this normal ? ... The A1200 is working perfectly with the Blizzard and i've left it on for hours without issue.

BTW, its a desktop normal A1200 (not towered) and its got a 20gb real HDD, Blizzard 1230IV with FPU and 64mb ram and Kickstart 3.1.

Cheers
 
my Blizzard 1230 mk II is the same, cpu too hot to touch, very stable and no crashing but thought this to be normal on an early revision 030 ?
 
I dont know if mine has an early version 030 cpu. Its a 50Mhz 68030. Not the black ones but the grey ceramic? with gold plate on top.

my Blizzard 1230 mk II is the same, cpu too hot to touch, very stable and no crashing but thought this to be normal on an early revision 030 ?
 
well, you can try to install a low profile cooler on cpu I think. It will not hurt...
 
They must have been designed to work with the trap door closed. I don't remember my gvp 030 40mhz even getting warm but that was over 25yrs ago (omg 25yrs).
 
I've never opened it after installing it years ago, so as far as I know it has always been like that. Its stable, works perfectly.
 
All CPU run hot, this is normal. If you are worried you can buy an IR thermometer and check it vs the spec sheet for your CPU. Some cooling or leaving the trapdoor off for prolonged sessions won't hurt, they are getting older of course.
 
I notice mine gets hot but more so during the summer months if not enough air is moving about! On my first Blizzard years ago, I put on a copper heatsink from an old pc motherboard and raised the 1200 on some thick rubber feet. I plan to the same on the 1200 and Blizzard I have now.
 
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Could be all the lovely weather we've been having raising the ambient temperature. :)
 
Ambient temperature is a big issue in my computer area. Its upstairs and can get as hot as 35 degrees at its worst. But i've used the A1200 with Blizzy for hours on end in that heat and it never misses a beat :)

My PC on the other hand is not super stable in summer when overclocked from 2.4ghz to 3.0 despite a huge coolermaster fan. Thumbs up to those Motorolla 030's :)
 
I do a similar thing to ElectroBlaster, I run my A1200/Blizzard 030 with the trap door off and I put thick rubber feet on my A1200 to raise the height and allow air flow under the computer. I might also put a low profile heat sink on it to be on the safe side.
 
030 CPUs (and FPUs) run around 65C. If you can hold your finger at least a few seconds on the surface without burning it then it's about this temperature and it's perfectly normal. They are designed to run at 70C ambient and I think 85C case temperature.
 
I have often underclocked to keep heat down - gives me the performance I need with the benefit of not being too hot (it may prolong the life of the card/system too).
 
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