Unknown to me at the time (I wasn't even yet an adult) is that the heatsink was of an incorrect model, so it wasn't making good contact and doing the job proper

Unknown to me at the time (I wasn't even yet an adult) is that the heatsink was of an incorrect model, so it wasn't making good contact and doing the job properly. This wouldn't have been a problem if the CPU thermal throttled; that would immediately cause a performance problem that I would have been curious about. No, instead they just died, over the course of about 2 years. Changing platform wasn't my choice, my mother bought a new desktop and it had a Pentium. I don't remember the model.