1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,360 If you're new to building computers, one of the first little pieces of trivia you'll 2 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:09,600 probably come across is that AMD CPUs use pins on the bottom, while Intel ones use little 3 00:00:09,600 --> 00:00:13,400 contact pads with the pins in the motherboard socket instead. 4 00:00:13,400 --> 00:00:18,280 But why were these choices made? Do the engineers at AMD just think that pins are prettier? 5 00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:24,000 Well, it turns out that the use of pins versus pads is a very deliberate design choice. 6 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:27,800 You see, Intel's approach of having pins on the motherboard instead of the chip, called 7 00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:33,800 a land grid array, or LGA, typically makes it easier to fit more contacts into a smaller 8 00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:41,080 space on the CPU. Modern CPUs need a lot of contacts for their high-speed features and to promote stable power 9 00:00:41,080 --> 00:00:48,560 delivery by spreading out the current. The other thought is that because tiny pins are very fragile, you know, because they're 10 00:00:48,560 --> 00:00:54,480 super thin, well, it would be better to place those on the motherboard rather than the CPU. 11 00:00:54,480 --> 00:01:00,920 Because it's not uncommon to see a $400 CPU installed on a $150 motherboard. 12 00:01:00,920 --> 00:01:05,280 So if one of those things was going to break, you'd rather it be the cheaper one, right? 13 00:01:05,280 --> 00:01:08,360 Then you can reuse that CPU on a new motherboard. 14 00:01:08,360 --> 00:01:12,720 Now of course, you can still mess up an LGA processor by touching the gold contacts on 15 00:01:12,720 --> 00:01:21,200 the bottom with your oily little fingers. But overall, they are harder to damage than pin grid array or PGA chips, which are designed 16 00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:29,120 to help improve your golf game. No, sorry, just kidding. PGA chips, the ones favored by AMD, are the ones with pins on their undersides, and compatible 17 00:01:29,120 --> 00:01:33,480 motherboards for those have corresponding holes on their sockets. 18 00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:38,240 Now immediately, you can probably figure out that this makes PGA chips a little bit easier 19 00:01:38,240 --> 00:01:44,040 to damage. However, there are some upsides to using this design over a land grid array. 20 00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:48,840 For one, the pins on PGA chips are a little tougher than the motherboard pins that you'd 21 00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:54,000 see in an LGA socket, meaning that they are easier to repair in the event that they do 22 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:58,360 get bent, which I'm sure you can sympathize with if you have ever had the misfortune of 23 00:01:58,360 --> 00:02:03,600 having to re-bend even just one damaged pin on an LGA motherboard. 24 00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:07,800 The superior durability of PGA pins means that they can typically handle a little more 25 00:02:07,800 --> 00:02:12,920 current than LGA packages too, which can be important depending on how the chip itself 26 00:02:12,920 --> 00:02:18,440 is designed. And for another advantage that you can more readily experience firsthand when building 27 00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:23,480 or upgrading your own PC, PGA chips tend to be a bit easier to install, since there 28 00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:28,120 are no super-delicate motherboard pins to worry about, though of course, you do have 29 00:02:28,120 --> 00:02:31,840 to make sure that you hit every hole in the socket properly. 30 00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:38,200 These advantages have led AMD to keep using PGA for its consumer-level chips, even long 31 00:02:38,200 --> 00:02:43,520 after Intel abandoned pins on their desktop chips way back in 2004. 32 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:48,640 And even though current third-gen Ryzen processors actually have more contacts on the bottom 33 00:02:48,640 --> 00:02:54,400 than their Intel rivals, AMD still found a way to fit all those pins onto one package, 34 00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:58,000 partly because the processors themselves are physically larger. 35 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:02,920 Now as you might have figured out, LGA does allow you to cram more contacts per unit of 36 00:03:02,920 --> 00:03:07,280 area, so there actually are AMD chips that do use it. 37 00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:12,520 Their Threadripper lineup for high-end desktop PCs and their Epic lineup for servers are 38 00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:17,920 both based on land grid array designs with over 4,000 pins. 39 00:03:17,920 --> 00:03:22,240 So if you're lucky enough to be using one of those monsters, definitely don't bend 40 00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:29,120 any of those delicate motherboard contacts. As far as what all of this means for you, the consumer, though, well, nothing, because 41 00:03:29,120 --> 00:03:33,760 you shouldn't be choosing a CPU based on whether it's PGA or LGA. 42 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:38,820 It doesn't really affect performance in the way that the architectural design or the clock 43 00:03:38,820 --> 00:03:45,280 speeds or the core counts of the chips do. And the reason that Intel and AMD went their separate ways is just because they valued 44 00:03:45,280 --> 00:03:50,400 different aspects of these designs, since each one does have their pros and cons. 45 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:54,520 It's just important to be aware of the pitfalls whenever you're installing either of them 46 00:03:54,520 --> 00:03:59,960 so you don't mess up the bottom of your chip unless you want a very expensive coaster for 47 00:03:59,960 --> 00:04:04,840 your, well, your shot glass, it wouldn't be a very big coaster. 48 00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:09,360 So down below is, what else are we going to have below? 49 00:04:09,360 --> 00:04:13,400 Your comments, which we will read and see if you have video ideas for us. 50 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:17,480 And then we will make those videos. That's how this symbiotic relationship works. 51 00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:20,160 You want videos, we make videos. Everybody wins.