Perhaps we could sticky it in the "Bad Ideas" or "You've Got More Dollars Than Sense" section?Quote from: timrob on August 16, 2007, 12:33:41 PM

I saw this INTRIGUING thread and asked one of the Design Engineers here at work. I work for an automotive company and his comments should reflect the same for a computers CPU.

Anyway, I asked the Design Engineer about this issue. He said that the nickel cover is for a couple reasons. First, it's for corrosion. Nickel, or some kind of alloy with Nickel will corrode a lot less or not at all as compared to Copper. Everybody's seen their copper plumbing turn green after a few years. Granted, the amount of moisture between the two is magnitudes different. The second reason is for EMC-Electro Magnetic Compatibility protection. Without getting into the finer details, the Nickel cover protects for ESD(electrostatic discharge) and for EMI (ELECTROMAGNETIC Interference). Now I am not a teacher in the FINE arts of EMC, but I was responsible for EMC Testing on Heavy Duty trucks and Full size vans at another automotive company several years ago. And trust me, EMC is an art, more so than a science. So if you don't think you'll ever drag your feet on the carpet and grab your laptop or touch your computer case, or if your computer is in a metal cage that prevents all forms of radio waves from entering, or think the high frequency radio noise created by the computers various buses can't possibly interfere ever with the cpu, then go for it. Worst case, you fry the cpu and the mobo. Sticky that!

timrob thanx for the info that Intel and AMD have known for years...
They do things for a reason.
I think it's neat that an Automotive Design Engineer sees the common sense approach from chip manufacturers.