Good Day, everyone. I accidentally spilled some thermal paste onto my brand new X79 motherboard right on the pin grid where the CPU goes. I decided not to clean it as the thermal compound I got is non-conductive and I did not want to risk bending a pin. The system boots just fine and everything seems fine and dandy (I am Prime95ingg and LinXing right now to stress test). Should I worry about any adverse affects down the line? It was only a small amount of paste. Could this have any long-term affects??
EDIT: So, I decided to go ahead and open everything up again to take a picture, but the affected are is so small that I could not capture it. I did notice something even more discerning, though. It looks like two of the pins may be bent, but I can't be sure. Depending on the angle that the light hits the pins it either looks straight and even, or slightly taller than the rest of the pins and perhaps bent. Is it my eyes playing tricks on me? Would the system even post with bent pins???
EDIT2: Just an update here: I have successfully ran 30 passes of LinX using all memory without any failures, BSODs or errors. Temperatures peaked in the mid 60's (4.2Ghz clock at 1.275V). I will proceed with Prime95 now overnight. If that passes as well, should I assume that:
a) The pins are not bent
b) The spilled thermal paste has no affect on performance or heat
EDIT: So, I decided to go ahead and open everything up again to take a picture, but the affected are is so small that I could not capture it. I did notice something even more discerning, though. It looks like two of the pins may be bent, but I can't be sure. Depending on the angle that the light hits the pins it either looks straight and even, or slightly taller than the rest of the pins and perhaps bent. Is it my eyes playing tricks on me? Would the system even post with bent pins???
EDIT2: Just an update here: I have successfully ran 30 passes of LinX using all memory without any failures, BSODs or errors. Temperatures peaked in the mid 60's (4.2Ghz clock at 1.275V). I will proceed with Prime95 now overnight. If that passes as well, should I assume that:
a) The pins are not bent
b) The spilled thermal paste has no affect on performance or heat