How durable are the pins?

[Miller]

Well, to put a long story short, in the process of pulling my Zalman 7700Cu off my 3800+X2, I yanked the processor up with it. I bent a few pins near one of the corners (there are two corners lacking a few pins, as I recall, and it was the corner without the arrow). By sheer luck there were only maybe 4 or 5 pins bent, and they weren't bent too bad - 35 or 40 degrees at most.

After some careful bending and a couple trial inserts into the socket, I got it back in without losing any pins at all, and it still operates perfectly. But for peace of mind, I would just like to know: would you really have to wiggle those pins pretty hard to pop one off? My friend has a 3500+, and he actually, in a similar event, bent an entire side row a tiny bit, as well as one pin going a full 90º to touch the side. His processor, too, is working just fine. Does the locking mechanism straighten the pins out again? Is there any risk they could pop off in the future (I don't plan to take it out again unless I'm replacing it) through heat or something? (My guess is no, but remember, this is just for the sake of peace of mind ). Any risks of overclocking, or any risks at all?

Thanks. Kind of a scary event, I'm just glad none of them were seriously bent.

 

[magnuspah]

I have done the same thing and bent the same pin 2-3 times. I was careful and nothing happened. Removing the CPU later did not show the overclocking or heat "Pop" the pin off. However, next time when you remove the hs/f, gently press down the hs/f while twisting it side to side a few times to break the bond the thermal goop has between the hs/f and the cpu's ihs (lid). In doing so, I have not hot one incident of taking out the waterblock with the cpu still attached.
I think I might have read somewhere (probably at xtremesystems.org forum) where someone broke off one pin and the cpu still work. Not sure if it was a myth or fact though. Don't want to find out either.

 

[Miller]

Well, yes, evidently it is possible to use the CPU if a couple pins have broken off (I've read the same thing; I'd be willing to bet it's not just any random pin, though). In any case, I feel much better. Thanks for the reassurance. I think next time I'll actually have the computer on for a little while before I go removing heatsinks.