[BinarySlave]

As reported by Anandtech, some manufacturers are shelling out badly manufactured boards.

 

[StriderVM]

It could impact the Core i7 buyers who's also planning to limit their budget as well. Or does this apply to all and not just budget P55 motherboards?

 

[n_w95482]

According to the article, it seems to apply to boards using Foxconn sockets. They list some board manufacturers that use sockets made by other companies, those ones don't seem to have any issues.

They mentioned Asus uses Foxconn sockets in all of their P55 boards, I wonder if that's the case with their LGA1366 stuff. I might pull my CPU out this weekend and double check it just to be absolutely sure it's okay.

 

[Cheesus]

It also says that only people who are really at risk are extreme overclockers.

We have not had any problems with air or water cooling overclocking up to 4.3GHz, although we do have a i5/750 that has developed a few dark pads after a thousand hours or so of constant overclocking. However, none of the boards have developed pin problems so we feel very safe in saying that any problems will probably occur only in extreme overclocking scenarios.

 

[n_w95482]

True, but it is better to be safe than sorry and it is a defect nonetheless.

 

[StriderVM]

A defect is a defect. According to the article, due to the bad contact between the socket and the processor it will cause damage in the long run, it's just worsened by the overclock due to the increased voltages.

 

[Cid Highwind]

It's a defect if it would happen at stock values as well, so that remains to be seen I guess. Bad contact sounds like a mistake though, as it makes it inevitable in the long run. Otherwise, it's just an OC limitation when you push it so far beyond the limits, just like you can damage any other piece of hardware by overvolting.

 

[Princess Garnet]

They mentioned Asus uses Foxconn sockets in all of their P55 boards, I wonder if that's the case with their LGA1366 stuff. I might pull my CPU out this weekend and double check it just to be absolutely sure it's okay.

From the comments on that article, your board uses a LOTES socket, which was the other one mentioned in the article (which does not have the problem these Foxconn ones do).

 

[PsyMan]

Overclocking can potentially result to various issues. The possible consequences, in any case, do not define if a component is bad or not. If it was safe it wouldn't void the component's warranty in the first place.

This kind of issue does not necessarily mean that the socket will die in the long-run under normal usage either.
No matter how well-made the hardware is, it will die if you make it do stuff above its limit. In that particular case it just looks like extreme overclocking is above the limit of Foxconn sockets. It's not their fault if some people cross the red line.

 

[Princess Garnet]

Well, from the looks of things, there's a defect in the fact that some pins aren't making good contact, and only under lower (which includes "normal") levels of operation does this defect not show results, or not as quickly or obviously. It's still a defect. Hardware wearing out over time is not a defect, so I don't think that's an appropriate comparison.