LGA: What a disaster!

[kaborka]

My friend asked me for help with his LGA mobo for a Celeron. I stopped by and looked at it. He bent the pins on the LGA socket when he was removing the CPU. This was the first time I've seen the LGA socket. What a mess. The pins have an s-curve in them to provide some spring when you clamp down the CPU. There seems to be no way to restore the socket if you bend the pins. I had heard of this before, but had never seen it. What a mess!

I think I'll stick to AMD chips with their ZIF sockets. I sincerely hope AMD does not go to an LGA-type CPU. I'm wondering if it's cheaper to mfr the LGA, since the cost of the pins gets shifted to the motherboard mfrs?

 

[Athlex]

AMD is going LGA starting with the Opteron and Socket F. Probably just a matter of time before it trickles down to Athlons and Semprons.

On the plus side, he might be able to replace the motherboard with something that's Core 2 compatible and have an upgrade path for when the celeron doesn't cut it any more...

 

[kaborka]

I'll keep my 939 Opty 165 as long as I can. AM2 requires new HSF, as those for 939 won't work with it. I've got a watercooling heatsink for the Opty, so I'm in no hurry to upgrade. The Core2 CPUs are attractive for their performance, but that LGA socket sounds seriously risky.

 

[Peter]

Some HSFs for socket 754/939/940 do fit on AM2, in particular those that use only the middle tab on the socket, not all three.

OP, confirmed yes, it was clear right from the start that bent pins on LGA sockets would be beyond repair. Mainboard makers feared that Intel would shift the RMA traffic from DIY disasters entirely onto them - but luckily, it appears that these accidents are rare.

 

[krotchy]

the theory behind LGA, is that if you bend a pin its on the mobo, and not the processor. Since processors typically cost a whole lot more than mobo's it saves the end user money when they are replacing a part that is no more than 250 bucks for the most expensive ones. If you bend/break a major pin on a processor this can be over 1000 bucks to replace for the most expensive vareities.

Basically since mobos cost 50-250 bucks for home PC's, and procs cost 50-1200 bucks for a home PC, which would you rather replace?

 

[kaborka]

I'd rather have something that doesn't get bent in the first place, like with a ZIF socket! As I said, I haven't personally installed/removed a LGA-type CPU, so I don't know how easy it is to screw it up -- just saying it seems (to me) like an unnecessary risk.

 

[krotchy]

I have seen tons of people bend pins using ZIF sockets, and I have even seen thermal grease bond strongly enough to rip a processor out of a zif socket with the lever down causing pins to break Nothing is fool proof.