How HOT do CPU Pins get?

[TheBeardyOne]

So, we all know that the heat plate of the CPU can get pretty hot, but what about the Pins that are attached (in case of AMD) or connected (Intel) to the CPU??

This question popped up in my head when I applied the AMD Wraith cooler and cooling paste just squirted out of all sides since there was way to much stock cooler paste applied, Thanks AMD. 
So I had to clean that up and when I took out the CPU some of the paste happened to fall into the socket.. GREAT. 
SO cleaning that up as well, very carefully, I noticed that there still was some traces of paste left I couldn't clean up with the contact cleaner tool. 
I am not too worried about the system being broken as the paste isn't covering any pins to connect with the MB and it is not conductive, but it is still thermal paste.. so I am worried about how hot the socket might get now due to heat transfer with paste and pins? 

Odd question, but hey maybe someone had this investigated here! 

[Jurrunio]

some boards report socket temperature

 

but those are metal, they wont even get noticeably softer when the CPU itself thermal throttles, let alone affect normal use.

[mariushm]

Oh man...

Thermal paste is not conductive... if anything, it's possible the thermal paste will prevent good contact between pins and socket and cause random bugs or issues. But you're probably gonna be fine.

The CPU die is soldered to the substrate and the pins are soldered to the substrate.

If the CPU die is at 90-100 degrees Celsius, the metal heatsink over the cpu die will be at 80-85c and then thermal paste over the cpu will help transfer that heat into the cooler.

But heat will naturally also flow on the other side, through the substrate and through the pins, so it wouldn't surprise me if those pins will be in the 50-80 degrees Celsius range.

 

Seems like you're thinking thermal paste  "magically" moves heat through stuff, thermal paste just helps heat transfer faster and better ... heat still has to be there for paste to transfer it faster.

 

oh.. and it's perfectly OK for pins to be hot ... the socket also acts as a heatsink .. you have 1300+ pins in the socket and probably 300 or so of those are ground and voltage pins... the grounds go directly into big ground copper fill on the motherboard so all those pins spread the heat into the motherboard.

So basically the socket even helps dissipate some of the heat into the motherboard.

The sockets themselves (the plastic) are probably rated for around 80 degrees continuously, probably even more... that's fine as the cpu die doesn't touch it directly, the substrate (the organic material/fiberglass material)  touches the plastic and that substrate isn't that hot

[TheBeardyOne]

2 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

some boards report socket temperature

 

but those are metal, they wont even get noticeably softer when the CPU itself thermal throttles, let alone affect normal use.

I got the cheapest Asrock X570 board, I doubt it will report socket temp. I am currently putting everything back together, so haven't been able to check if it does either

 

[TheBeardyOne]

2 minutes ago, mariushm said:

 

Seems like you're thinking thermal paste doesn't "magically" move heat through stuff, thermal paste just helps heat transfer faster and better ... heat still has to be there for paste to transfer it faster.

Yeah I was worried about that the plastic around the pins might get too hot. I don't know what the durability is of the plastic used but if the Pins already can get that hot I think everything will be fine.. I hope. 

[mariushm]

I've edited my post above ... re-read it.  Yeah it will be fine, it's by design ... a lot of pins in the socket will have a second role, will basically act as additional heatsinks for the cpu, spreading the heat into the motherboard.

 

[TheBeardyOne]

Everything is running just fine. However the stock cooler gets really loud and during stress testing all cores were at 4.1 GHz with 70-80 degrees Celsius. Definitely gonna need to invest into a better cooler, yikes. I have yet to hit the advertised 4.4 GHz on a core, highest so far was 4.3 GHz. Did I just get unlucky in the silicon lottery or this normal? 

[mariushm]

It's perfectly fine for the cores to get up to 85c , and those temperatures are perfectly safe for long term use.

 

You may not get 4.4 ghz on a core unless you enable those power options in bios and have adequate cooler (wraith is very good for stock cooler, but there's better)... you may get 4.4 ghz unless the cpu is a bit cooler - I think those peak frequencies depend on how far away the cpu is from the maximum temperature allowed (like 95-100c max temperature allowed, you have 80c so the difference is 20c or less, therefore the cpu won't get above 4.3 ghz)

 

Even so, I personally wouldn't worry so much about not getting those 100 Mhz, the performance difference between 4.3 and 4.4 Ghz shouldn't be big enough to really matter, especially when it's about a single core boost ...

[TheBeardyOne]

1 hour ago, mariushm said:

It's perfectly fine for the cores to get up to 85c , and those temperatures are perfectly safe for long term use.

 

You may not get 4.4 ghz on a core unless you enable those power options in bios and have adequate cooler (wraith is very good for stock cooler, but there's better)... you may get 4.4 ghz unless the cpu is a bit cooler - I think those peak frequencies depend on how far away the cpu is from the maximum temperature allowed (like 95-100c max temperature allowed, you have 80c so the difference is 20c or less, therefore the cpu won't get above 4.3 ghz)

 

Even so, I personally wouldn't worry so much about not getting those 100 Mhz, the performance difference between 4.3 and 4.4 Ghz shouldn't be big enough to really matter, especially when it's about a single core boost ...

Thanks for the reply! 

Yeah, I just ordered a Corsair H60 V3 AIO cooler, I heard they are very silent, maybe I can even overclock somewhat with it. Although I don't expect very much from it.