Exploding Processors For Real

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3whIm282X0]

After we posted the “High explosives pc case” earlier we saw a resounding outcry in the comments for combustible destruction. Oddly enough, we got a submission of something along just those lines. [tazzik] has taken the heat sink off of his athlon 1400+ and covered the poor processor in potassium chlorate. As you can see in the video, this was not a very effective heat management decision. It is definitely fun, but nowhere near as explosive as our thermite shenanigans.

[thanks Steve]

57 thoughts on “Exploding Processors For Real

  1. dumdum, you are asking the wrong questions here.
    The correct one would be: can we make this any more fiery? Or alternatively: What would happen if we used another processor type+potassiumchlorate?

  2. 1.Benchmark it.
    Time how long till the fire starts when run at stock clocks, then (with a different identical setup) time it while overclocked.

    2.Post results
    3.????
    4.PROFIT!!

  3. @anyone bitching about how this is not hacking: hacking is making something do something it is not intended to do. Last time i checked, computers weren’t made to start fires.

  4. A few years ago I had some old ECL Chips from the 1970’s, I hooked ’em up right across 120VAC and they smoked pretty good. Despite the higher voltage and current, it looked just like Physic.dude’s video above.

    While we’re on the subject… back in High School I used to like to sharpen both ends of pencils and hook ’em up across 120VAC, they go pretty good too! Graphite is one of the few materials with a negative resistance coefficient, so the hotter it gets, the hotter it gets (the lower the resistance, the higher the current.)

    And don’t get me started about hooking speakers across 120VAC…

  5. If this is suitable content for hackaday, you guys could probably just start dumping 75% of the content of Youtube. Who cares about hacks? Let’s just watch things explode. /s

  6. Yawn, typical internet whining. For those of us who have seven or eight PC’s sitting around, and who’ve saturated the friends and family with refurbs over the years…

    It’s pretty soul satisfying to take that one computer that had intrinsic problems, bus timing issues and general bad engineering and totally destroy the piece of junk so no one else has to suffer the indignity of owning it.

    Ta ta!!

  7. It does accurately demonstrate the actual NEED of heat sinks and thermal compounds in a way I have never seen before. the follow up post also demonstrate that a hard drive will NOT stop a bullet and therefore will not save your life if you get shot at. not sure how useful the 555 timer was, I figured it couldn’t handle 30 amp pouring through it, but hey, I guess the information is useful to some one.

  8. >It does accurately demonstrate the actual NEED of
    >heat sinks and thermal compounds in a way I have
    >never seen before.

    I agree! Think about this… the cigarette lighter in a car (12V) has a 25A Fuse and glows red in a few seconds; I just ordered a new High-End PC with an nVidia GTX-295 Video card that draws 40A @ 12V – so no wonder they recommend good cooling!.

  9. Damned if you do, Damned if you don’t eh HaD. Never mind, some of us took it as lightly amusing, others saw it as the thin end of the wedge towards youtube cloning. Instead of bitching and moaning you’d think at least one of the many commenters would start their own site covering exactly the niche area they prefer, wouldn’t you?

  10. I have an Athlon… want to buy it from me? its barley 1.2 GHz.

    I did some crazy shit to a pentium 1 but nothing funny ever happened, it was snowing outside, and I believe the computer still would of been working.

  11. If the Anon’s did not like this, then they definitely will never appreciate the “Is It A Good Idea To Microwave” series on youtube.

    Check them out you will not be disappointed.

  12. So, as I understand it, potassium chlorate or
    KClO3, is supposed to be flammable in the presence of heat and other combustible materials (including dust, or sugar in this case), but there is no mentioning of any potassium in the clip – the guy is using sodium chlorate. Did I miss anything ?

  13. Not a hack, but a lot of fun to watch. Somehow I like the clip with the 50 cal better :P

    To those complaining about hardware being destroyed, as it was said before, some people will pay to see it happen. I personally wouldn’t do it, as I consider it a waste, but other people won’t mind. Remember those sites with people collecting money to destroy an iPod, iPhone, PS3, 360 and Wii? Fun to watch the fanboys cry on launch day, when those dudes took a sledgehammer to the hardware.

  14. @Jynx,
    marginally more amusing. It would be funnier if you were *on topic*.

    How about “this thread is just FLAME bait” or “you should be FIRED for posting that” how about ” aw man, that’s a bitter sweet ending” … get it?

    come on man. you gotta try a little harder.

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