While we follow customer demand in general, there are also times where system builders use their expertise to sell what is best for the consumer, even when that bucks the general trend. My views on RAID are a good example. If AMD had a CPU that was compelling enough, you bet that we'd be pushing it in front of our customers. But I have to admit that I know very little about AMD's current processor performance.

Yes, this is a system builder, that does not pay attention to processor performance. Now, techically we build systems here at Tek Republik, but since we are so busy with game console repair, I don't even advertise it. In this story at Tom's Hardware Chris "mindfreak" Angelini sets up story from a system builder who does not pay attention to processor performance. I find that hard to believe. Sorry, but if you don't pay attention, I don't know how you know what to build. I guess that was Dell's excuse for all those years wasn't it?

The story is some setup on the EU ruling against Intel it appears. Apparently because AMD does not march a rep up to this system builder face to face, they don't know anything about AMD CPU performance. Funny, but it was almost a year since I talked to someone at AMD, actually at AMD this past Thursday, but I never didn't know what performance looked like becuase of that. Oh, and I know what Intel performance is, and they have never, ever briefed us in 11 plus years. I find this excuse incredibly lame. Sorry. That's how I roll.

Then I read this.

The bottom line is that AMD CPUs are far more likely to be unseated during shipping. When the package in transit hits a large bump, the mounts of the heatsink can flex, and the heatsink pulls away from the motherboard. The thermal paste acts to provide suction, so the heatink pulls the processor with it. What's worse, if the bump is large enough, the CPU can pull completely out of socket. When the heatsink retention pulls everything back together, it mashes the CPU pins, effectively destroying the CPU in most cases. The solution is to use a smaller, more sturdy heatsink, which limits the product we can offer.

I seem to remember, over 3 years ago, building 20 computers for a TXGF lan with AMD CPUs. I seem to remember using Coolermaster coolers, that used the mounting holes to attach to the other side of the board. Moving to and from the lan party none of them fell off. In 3 years plus of use none of them fell off here at Tek Republik. In fact none of the CPUs, or the boards have failed, or overheated. I'm typeless.