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Redditor brings a broken $3 Ryzen 9 5900X back to life

The deal of the century!

Updated: Jan 18, 2023 8:49 am
Redditor brings a broken $3 Ryzen 9 5900X back to life

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Finally! some good news to come out of Reddit! A Redditor by the name of “bogertonn” has just snagged the deal of the century when he picked up a broken AMD Ryzen 9 5900X for just $3 and nursed it back to health. Read on to see how this Redditor brings a broken $3 Ryzen 9 5900X back to life,

Now Read: Best CPU cooler for Ryzen 9 5900X.

Bogertonn found the 12-core CPU at one of their local stores that specialize in selling returned Amazon products. If there ever was a reason to hit up a returned goods store, this would be it. However, the CPU in question was in pretty rough shape.


Bogertonn – the CPU doctor

What seemed to be the problem? The 5900X had numerous bent pins in a multitude of different places. Who knows what happened to this CPU before it was returned? Probably handled by Evri.

Ryzen 9 5900X bent
Source: Reddit/borgertonn

AM4 CPU pins are incredibly fragile, sometimes simply bending them back will not be enough to guarantee a working CPU. Most of the time, the pins just sheer off when you try to bend them back into the proper orientation. Such repairs should be attempted by professionals, as they have the facilities to re-solder broken pins, and ensure a working CPU.

It turns out in bogertonn’s case, that a few of the pins were broken.

But this isn’t the end of the world, as it’s a pretty well-known fact that a lot of pins on modern CPUs are redundant. Meaning there’s a good chance that this CPU could still be functional. And functional it was – just without integrated audio. Who needs it anyway?

It turns out that the broken pins belonged to the “Azalia HD Audio” according to Wikichip and Videocardz.

The broken pins in question belonged to this cluster on the Wikichip AM4 pin diagram here.

Redditor brings a broken $3 Ryzen 9 5900X back to life am4 pinout
Source: Wikichip – AM4 pin diagram

Thankfully, AMD has switched to the AM5 socket standard, which sees the LGA socket architecture replace PGA. This means that the pins are in the socket on the motherboard, as opposed to on the CPU itself. It does not make them any less fragile though, if anything it makes them harder to fix.

We hope you enjoyed our Redditor “brings a broken $3 Ryzen 9 5900X back to life” story. It’s a heck of a saving on his part.


Jack is a Tech and News Writer who has a vast and proficient knowledge of CPUs, Motherboards, and Computer technology.

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