Didn't know if I should put this in the CPU or Motherboard forum, since it pertains to both. General it is, then.
I was looking at a friend's 1155-based motherboard, as it would no longer run in dual-channel mode. It would only work with a maximum of two DIMMS, and only in single channel. I pulled the processor out and looked things over. Found two pins on the socket that were slightly out of place - not really bent, just shifted to one side. I reset those and (amazingly) dual-channel mode was now working again.
Anyway, I got to thinking about the durability of these sockets. I went to the Intel spec and found two rather surprising points:
- the LGA 1150/1155 processor package is rated for 20 insertions
- the LGA 1150/1155 socket is rated for 15 insertions
As I said, this surprised me. These seem like very low cycles. But it kind of makes sense - in 99.99% of applications, the CPU goes in once and never leaves the socket. Mated for life.
Then again, there are people (like me) who use these things for test beds and others who do a lot of CPU in-outs to tune cooling and what-not. I know I've got nearly 50 insertions on one particular board. I'm sure these things are made to be far more reliable than their ratings, which were probably established for the typical use case of one or two insertions max over the life of the product, but still, it makes you wonder. After seeing just how fragile those pins are I'm rethinking my test bed use.