Okay, so here’s the story, I got a message from one of our forum regulars. He noticed that on a thread on Reddit there is a discussion going. Basically, some guy states that if you use a cooler other than the stock AMD cooler, you forfeit your warranty on the processor.
At first, I was like, nah that cannot be for real as if there is one company promoting tweaking, overclocking and doing all kinds of cooling amdness (see what I did there?) with their processors, it is AMD. Where is that information based on? Well, a thread at support.amd.com explains some things about your warranty and your AMD Processor-in-a-Box (PIB), and yeah it's specifically mentioned there. Don’t believe me? Hey man, check it yourself;
Is the warranty for my AMD Processor-in-a-Box (PIB) still valid if I use a different heatsink/fan (HSF) other than the one provided in the PIB?
No. The limited warranty shall be null and void if the AMD processor which is the subject of the limited warranty is used with any heatsink/fan other than the one provided within the PIB.
Um whaaat? So basically, if you use any other cooler than the cooler delivered with your AMD processor, you just lost your warranty. LOL. Now, I am moderately sure it might just be an old residual thing in the AMD website FAQ, or the last safety straw in a conflict with and end-user they can grasp onto in a battle with a customer. As I know a guy at the time of the Linux SEGFAULT issue RMAd their CPU, and these had other forms of cooling (3rd party) which AMD knew as they requested a photo of the setup (it had liquid cooling which AMD was totally okay with).
Secondly, it’ll be interesting to learn that IF you RMA your processor for whatever reason, how on earth AMD would be able to verify you’ve not been using that stock cooler? These days you can request an advanced RMA, where you already get a new processor before you return the old one to prevent you from any downtime :-)
Of course, in the EU you have protected anyway for two years, outside the EU I am not so sure how that pans out though. However we’re pretty confident, should you ever need to return your CPU, this warranty clause will not be something to worry about.
To be certain and to clear up any confusion, we’ve inquired at AMD to see what the stance on this warranty rule really is. Once they report back, we'll update this news item.
Cheers to Master Guru EL1TE, from our forums, for this spot. BTW, out of personal curiosity, did anyone ever had to return a malfunctioning CPU?, I mean like ever? I was just thinking about it and never had a CPU failing/dying on me. I'm curious, let me know in the forum/comment thread.
Update Tuesday 24th:
We got word back from AMD, and much of the staff is as surprised to find out what is written there. AMD mentioned that the FAQ and info distributed is old (5 years) and is being updated soon to clarify things.
Your Ryzen processor warranty states you may only use the stock cooler (updated)
