AMD Duron Mechanical Sample

A clean looking AMD Duron. Note that it never had the four rubber pads on each side to prevent the heatsink from tilting during installation.

Mechanical samples usually appear like a real CPU but often don't work. I never tested mine (there is a risk of burning the CPU and/or motherboard) but it looks like it has a real Duron 'Spitfire' core. Some mechanical samples don't have real or working CPU-cores inside.

The mechanical samples are used to test dimensions of the motherboard, socket and especially cooling systems. Manufacturers of cooling systems have to make sure that the pressure on the CPU 'die' is correct and that cooling systems have proper airflow to ensure cooling of motherboard components like voltage regulators.