CPU pitting?

FlockOfSeagulli · August 19, 2022

Hello all!

I recently took off my CPU waterblock since it had been a while and figured it was about time to do it. While cleaning the thermal paste off my CPU and waterblock, I noticed what looked like scratches and pitting. I tried cleaning it well to make sure it wasn't dust, but it still looked the same.

Does this look like the thermal paste I used scratched and caused pitting in the IHS? I used Thermal Grizzly Kryonauht which I read in the past had a batch that could cause this to happen (unfortunately read this after it was applied..), but this was quite a while after that issue was supposedly fixed.

My other question is realistically how much of an issue would this cause in cooling the CPU?

Thank you!

m9x3mos · August 19, 2022

4 minutes ago, FlockOfSeagulli said:

Hello all!

I recently took off my CPU waterblock since it had been a while and figured it was about time to do it. While cleaning the thermal paste off my CPU and waterblock, I noticed what looked like scratches and pitting. I tried cleaning it well to make sure it wasn't dust, but it still looked the same.

Does this look like the thermal paste I used scratched and caused pitting in the IHS? I used Thermal Grizzly Kryonauht which I read in the past had a batch that could cause this to happen (unfortunately read this after it was applied..), but this was quite a while after that issue was supposedly fixed.

My other question is realistically how much of an issue would this cause in cooling the CPU?

Thank you!

I haven't seen this with that particular product before either. But I have worked with and seen issues with used chips I have got in the past.

It really depends on how deep they are. If it is superficial and you can't or can barely feel the marks with your finger, it probably won't have much if any impact and just look rough.

If I had to guess, there was some grains of something in the compound that was used and over time and during removal left some marks.

Personally I use either kpx on high end over clocked stuff or mx-5 on everything else (even my drone recently) and have had very good luck with it.

Not sure what chip it is and if it is still under warranty (if you care about that), but you could lap the chip and get that to basically be a non issue if it bothers you. You just need to be careful when you do it. Jay has a few videos on it now.

PDifolco · August 19, 2022

11 minutes ago, m9x3mos said:

I haven't seen this with that particular product before either. But I have worked with and seen issues with used chips I have got in the past.

It really depends on how deep they are. If it is superficial and you can't or can barely feel the marks with your finger, it probably won't have much if any impact and just look rough.

If I had to guess, there was some grains of something in the compound that was used and over time and during removal left some marks.

Personally I use either kpx on high end over clocked stuff or mx-5 on everything else (even my drone recently) and have had very good luck with it.

Not sure what chip it is and if it is still under warranty (if you care about that), but you could lap the chip and get that to basically be a non issue if it bothers you. You just need to be careful when you do it. Jay has a few videos on it now.

It's a 115x LGA board, so certainly quite old !

But yes it's not a big deal, you should lap the CPU a bit to make it smoother, and then apply a good quantity of paste to help it fill the scratches

AnonymousGuy · August 19, 2022

Zero issue with thermal performance. Slap more paste on, good to go.

OhioYJ · August 19, 2022

1 hour ago, FlockOfSeagulli said:

My other question is realistically how much of an issue would this cause in cooling the CPU?

I'm with @AnonymousGuy, zero issues, it's cosmetic. Put new thermal paste on it, and run it. You ought to see what liquid metal does to CPUs in some applications....

Here is my 7700k, after a week (it came apart for a different brand of liquid metal):