If you had a pin-compatible CPU that you wanted to swap on a motherboard, but it has a few N/C pins where the corresponding pads are actually connected to something on the motherboard you want to use, but the pads on the motherboard can be set to float (which is their inactive state), how would you handle that? Would you cut the pins on the processor? Cut the traces on the motherboard to those pads? Or would you just ignore it (even though to the best of my knowledge N/C pins are never supposed to float because it can cause weird behavior for N/C pins).

I'm trying to figure out how to handle this that would create the least amount of trouble. For the CPU, it's rare, but a replacement could be had. As far as the motherboard, it is more rare, and far more difficult to replace, but not completely impossible. The pin-compatible CPU is meant to be a permanent replacement for the current CPU. There is a 99.9%+ chance that the pin-compatible processor will work, since they are based on the same core, but a replacement of this type has never been documented anywhere, so there is a slim possibility it will not work and need to be yanked.

Any insights are welcome.