So, I bought from eBay a used CPU with a damaged pad. Note that I got a discount for that, and the CPU is sold as ‘perfectly working’. The pad indeed is not completely damaged:
Third line from the top, 6th pad.
As you can see, it will probably work. It is the PIN DDR1_DQ[36]/DDR1_DQ[20] (DDR data line) so it is probably mandatory for it to work correctly to use this CPU.
The question is: do you think I may have issues after putting the CPU on my system? I will run of course RAM stress tests, but I think that if they run successfully I should be fine. It is difficult for a pad/pin to be damaged after being inserted in the slot.
Do you agree?
If you’ll have some problems with ram you can always switch channels if you have 2 sticks of ddr.