[SOLVED] Older smaller heatsink on FX 4300

[silversmithy]

I'm putting together a very budget old school computer with parts I already have as much as possible. I have run into a few issues.

1. The older 4 pin heatsink/fan has a fairly small base when compared to the FX 4300. I really did not think much of it until I went to see how it would seat on the CPU, and was unpleasantly surprised. I would say it covers the center of the CPU and out to approximately 1 inch from the edge of the CPU squared.
2. The thermal paste I have handy was second hand from another person so no clue how old. I used it to tint the CPU and it did not spread like Arctic silver 5 that I've used in the past. It spread more like old peanut butter, and tastes similar.... Yet when I put some on my fingers it works smoothly. Strange. Anyway it is gold in color if that matters.
3. CPU came with bent pins and did my best with a magnifier and mechanical pencil to try and straighten. When I carefully set the CPU in the socket it was still riding up in one area. I just gently touched the CPU to see if there was any give, and there was just a slight crunching sound and the processor dropped all the way in. I did not expect that to happen and hope no damage caused to MB or CPU. Keep in mind it was very gentle, but not a good feeling.

At this point with the small heatsink, possibly older paste, and bent pin issue is there any chance of damaging anything by just trying out even for just 15 minutes? I figure if bent pin issue not resolved it will simply do nothing at all.
Anyway, thanks for looking.

FX 4300
Asus m5a99x Evo r 2.0
16gb ram
Evga Supernova 750 watt modular PSU
HD 6850 his ice q turbo (or) gtx 470 GPU.

 

[drea.drechsler]

...
I figure if bent pin issue not resolved it will simply do nothing at all.
...

That may not be the case. There are a lot of redundant pins for power and ground so if that's the one that crunched a socket contact when you installed you may never notice it. There's also a lot of pins for memory address lines and data; if one of those the symptoms could be anything from simply not seeing all the memory to the complete non-operation you anticipate.

But an FX4300 left in stock is pretty cool running at low processing loads so even a minimal heatsink should keep it from overheating. You will have to put a decent heatsink on and overclock it heavily to get any sort of performance out of it, though. That board should enable you to do so.

Hope it didn't crunch any contacts. If you have to take the CPU out, try aligning the pins by sliding a credit card between the rows, in both directions. Then you might carefully examine the socket contacts for damage with a magnifier and bright light. They can often be pushed back into position with a pin well enough to make reliable contact.

 

[silversmithy]

Thanks so much for the help/advice. I did take the CPU out and looked at the MB socket. Looks okay. When putting the CPU back in it falls in clean with no resistance, but when I pull the lever to lock or unlock it catches pretty hard. It's been a while since I've done this so not sure it that's normal. Without the CPU in the socket and moving the lever both to open and close it is smooth with no catching or resistance. I hope that's normal.

 

[drea.drechsler]

... I hope that's normal.

That's pretty normal...with a CPU in the lever is forcing several hundred CPU pins into their socket contacts. Even if the force on each pin is very small it adds up to quite a lot. With no CPU in there's nothing to force into the contacts!

 

[silversmithy]

Got it. That is what I figured, but as I mentioned it has been some time since I installed a CPU. Thanks so much for your help.