Black plastic glue like material in CPU die.

ironk

Senior member
Jun 18, 2001
977
0
76
I bought a used Athlon II (AM3), and I noticed that there is a bead of hard black plastic glue like substance that goes between/around the die and the green portion. I noticed that some of this black material is not uniform so its thicker and is sticking out more in one of the areas of the cpu. Is this normal or should it be uniform all around? The CPU does work, but I don't know if this "black glue" will cause problems later on or if it will melt.

/edit: I also noticed that the area where the glue is thicker, there is a small gap where there is no visible glue. After the gap, the glue has a little bump then its uniform all the way around.

Added example picture:

http://i.imgur.com/hFV0Lan.jpg
 
Last edited:

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
126
Are you sure that you are not talking about an Athlon XP-era CPU? AM3 CPUs do not have exposed dies. They have a heatspreader.
 

Yuriman

Diamond Member
Jun 25, 2004
5,530
141
106
This is what a die looks like:

img860221.jpg
 

ironk

Senior member
Jun 18, 2001
977
0
76
sorry about the wrong wording, I mixed up die and heatspreader..

I meant the desktop version:

http://i.imgur.com/hFV0Lan.jpg (example, not my cpu)


Notice how there is a black substance between the green area and the top? You can barely see it, but that's what I was referring to. I put a red arrow in the area.
 
Last edited:

Yuriman

Diamond Member
Jun 25, 2004
5,530
141
106
The glue will not melt with any temperature you could get the heatspreader to without an oven. If you did somehow manage to melt it, my bet would be that it isn't conductive or capacitive.
 

2is

Diamond Member
Apr 8, 2012
4,281
131
106
I believe that's just some sort of sealant to prevent moisture and thus corrosion from seeping between the die and pcb

The other pic is simply the epoxy used to adhere the heat spreader to the PCB.

Nothing to see here folks
 

sm625

Diamond Member
May 6, 2011
8,172
137
106
I ran an athlon II at 3.4 GHz for 2 years and the thing never once went over 55C. I dont think you have anything to worry about. Regor cores run very cool just like wolfdale.