I'd use it. It's still a great board.

If it works, then it works. On the other hand, yeah, I see the problem.

A great board, mine is the almost the same but it's been working in my office ever since the thing was sold and P45 was one of the latest s775 chipsets...

I've had motherboards as badly warped and they generally never gave me problems...

I built a system with a P5Q and a Core2 Q6600 for a family member in 2008 - board is used for work and has been running flawlessly everyday since then.

some LGA775 boards just bend like that. It doesn't mean they're dead. If it works you can use it just fine.

On a side note - this is the reason for some LGA775 mosfet failure (my P5K64 WS for example) - board bends because of the CPU cooler and some fets no longer make contact with the heatsink. In normal usage scenarios that would be fine, but if you use a high TDP cpu or overclock....

Been running into a few warped boards during the years, I'd guess the warping is a result of the mechanical stresses from the heat sink mounts and temperature changes. Haven't seen any correlation between warping and problems of any kind, but it's of course feasible that the mechanical stresses induced by the warping on solder joints could crack them, especially with BGA packages, and newer boards (~2006 and forward) using lead-free solder.

If the board works, I wouldn't worry too much though. I'd definitely use it without second thought.

Perhaps you could support the warped parts of the board by putting something non-conductive between the board and the... what the hell do you call it in English, the part of the case you screw down the mobo standoffs to? A piece of rubber gasket sheet would probably work well. Just be careful with the thickness, you don't want to strain the board too much the other way.

Good ol' 775 boards being warped because of the high tension on the board from using push-pin coolers issue. If it still works, though, then I'd say go with it.

I always remove the CPU cooler and now use a test bench setup, with the board securely mounted before installing the CPU cooler. Some boards do have a backplate, but many don't and will bend quite drastically if you install the cooler on motherboard that hasn't been mounted.The cooler also won't make optimal contact.

Sutekh94 wrote:

Good ol' 775 boards being warped because of the high tension on the board from using push-pin coolers issue. If it still works, though, then I'd say go with it.

Yet another reason to hate pushpin coolers. 😜 Who's moronic idea were they? I've hated them from the day I first encountered them, and whenever I deal with LGA775 stuff, I always make sure to use aftermarket heatsinks. AMD's solution is much better, IMO.

Anyway, I'd still use the board. The warping doesn't look THAT bad. I'd be a little bit worried about the lack of contact the heatsink has with the MOSFETs above the CPU though.

mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

Anyway, I'd still use the board. The warping doesn't look THAT bad. I'd be a little bit worried about the lack of contact the heatsink has with the MOSFETs above the CPU though.

I took the obvious one (topmost) off when I gave the board a quick vacuum. It looks like it's supposed to make contact with a sticky pad, which is still there & in fine shape. I could take that off to reduce the clearance and try to arctic silver the individual chips, but I'd be worried about making it worse. I'd probably need to build up a ~1.5mm thick layer of AS on the middle chips to maintain contact with the heatsink. What do you guys think?

...or I could leave the thermal pad in place and put a TINY little dot of arctic silver on the center mosfets so that touches the pad. Opinions?

Wouldn't it straighten out a bit once you screw it into a case?

That's a no go. Leave the thermal pad in place and don't add any AS. Also having a thick layer of AS will have the opposite effect. Haven't you read the instructions on how to apply AS? You're supposed to spread it out in a thin layer.

^^ No need to get condescending, it's not like I got a manual booklet with it. That's why I'm asking here.

Isn't vacuuming computer parts supposed to be a bad idea? I've heard it produces static.

Anyway, I think what I'd do with the mosfets is get a bunch of small heatsinks and attach those in place of the one you took off, that way there'll be better contact between the MOSFETs and the heatsinks. I found this by googling "mosfet heatsinks" and they look pretty good: https://www.amazon.ca/Enzotech-MOS-C1-MOSFET- … k/dp/B004CLDIHK

Also, thinking about it now, the motherboard will probably still work, but I wouldn't use it until I could ensure that the MOSFETs were properly cooled.

There, I fixed it.

Weighed the warped bit down with an old HDD, hit it with the hair dryer for 10 mins to relax the PCB and then left it for a few hours. Not 100% perfect but much better than it was. Of course I haven't tested it yet so I could have borked the whole thing 😜 (doubtful though.)

What gets me is the board was always installed in a vertical orientation so the warp was NOT caused by gravity/weight, and it was just in a standard office machine in a climate-controlled room. Really weird.

@mr_bigmouth_502: I've heard that before too, but I don't buy it. I vacuum off boards all the time to clear off dust bunnies. I don't physically touch the components with the metal vacuum head (or the plastic bristles of the dusting brush for that matter) so I can't see how it would be a problem, or any different than using canned compressed air.

if this were my board, I'd have sourced some individual heatsinks for each chip and used a thermal two part thermal adhesive to mount them.

Then I'd adjust the airflow of the case to make sure those are getting a good flow over them, as it's a good chance it warped from heat and tension in the springs or parts.

Xbox 360/PS3 motherboards do the same thing.

You might also consider getting an extra thick non-conductive thermal pads and putting it under those chips between the board and the case. It would wick away SOME heat (not much) to the case, but would also serve to straighten the board and keep it straight during extended use.

I used these on the reverse side of a Xbox 360's RAM chips:
http://www.amazon.com/Thick-Silicone-Thermal- … t/dp/B008X0ULQC

Worked beautifully.

I'm reasonably sure pushpin coolers are normally fine - if they're the standard Intel cooler, or some of the lighter third party options. It's when they're huge copper monstrosities that it's an issue.

Anyway, I wouldn't be bothered. I abused my Badaxe2 board with huge coolers, and it's still working fine..