P55 Owners -- MUST Read

[OS-Wiz]

OCers beware, burnt pins and sockets: http://anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3661

[r'aggro]

So this isn't happening to the ~4 GHz crowd, just the extreme oc'ers?

At first I thought this only applied to the foxconn boards, until reading that they supply sockets to other manufacturers as well. Thanks for the heads up, maybe the evga sweetness isn't overpriced after all.

[Smythe]

Guess what I just received today? Yup, a P55 motherboard using the Foxconn socket. This really sucks. This isn't for me and it won't be overclocked, but the way I'm reading the issue is that it ultimately won't matter if you overclock or not. The pins aren't making proper contact and using sub-zero cooling for extreme overclocks is only accelerating the problem. It seems to me that it's only a matter of time before more reasonable overclocks start frying and then even people running stock will be affected. Not sure what I want to do here in regards to this new computer. I'm building it for my cousin who lives 1300 miles away so it won't be a simple matter of getting the motherboard and CPU replaced if and when they burn out. Maybe they'll burn out in a few years, but that's the minimum amount of time this system would need to be good for. The parts each have a three year warranty so if we decide to keep it and it does go bad hopefully it's within the first three years and there isn't any hassle getting them replaced. If we decide to return it then I guess I'll have to go back to socket 775 as 1366 would be out of budget. That or try to find a non-Foxconn socket P55 motherboard. Going with 775 wouldn't be that bad, but it's a bit irksome that there wouldn't be that great of a cost saving.

Additional info on the subject can be found at Hardforum, OC forums, XtremeSystems, EVGA, Tom's and probably a few more places by now. However, this post by brom42 over at [H] is really quite telling in how bad the contact is. Look at how the 1366 has indentations in the middle on the majority of the CPU pads with only a few pads missing indents. Then compare it to the 1156 where practically no holes are in the center of the pads and there are a lot of pads with no marks at all.

[Sheff159]

not that I overclock much, and not that I have a P55 mobo, but I did still chalk up the cash for an EVGA, and for that, this article makes me all the happier with my purchase

[Nater]

That only applies if you're doing phase, LN2, and/or dry ice. You're never going to stress the power delivery subsystem of a P55 board to that level with air or water cooling overclocks.

[OS-Wiz]

That only applies if you're doing phase, LN2, and/or dry ice. You're never going to stress the power delivery subsystem of a P55 board to that level with air or water cooling overclocks.

The foxconn socket doesn't even make pin contact on some of the pins, that would scare me even at stock speeds.

[r'aggro]

The foxconn socket doesn't even make pin contact on some of the pins, that would scare me even at stock speeds.

A bunch of the pins, too. I'm no expert on cpu architecture but I'm surprised the chip can run properly under those conditions.

[Nater]

It is surprising that it runs without them. My guess is that they are making contact, just not really tight clamp needed to make indentations in the landing pads.

[PriMaTe]

crazy, I have a p45 and a p35 mobo. Both of them made me feel like i was breaking my proc when clamping down the socket. Now you're going to tell me it's not seated properly? This is going to give me a complex..........