That said, the amount of troubleshooting and wasted time that it took to figure out that the CPU was responsible for months of random crashes
I went through something similar, so I understand.
My (AMD) CPU was defective. But if was only noticeable that it would never be able to wake up from suspend. I didn’t really notice crashes. Just broken suspend. I thought it was a Linux kernel bug, though couldn’t figure out any details. Only after almost a year of pain (no suspend) the CPU just didn’t boot at all anymore.
It was sort of replaced under warranty by the store. They took ages to investigate, then gave a store gift card. Likely because the CPU was temporarily out of stock. I had to wait for the CPU to be in stock to be able to buy it again. Fortunately still had the previous AM4 CPU.
The new CPU suspends without any issues. Took months to be able to not doubt suspend. E.g. if it was suspended I usually thought it had crashed.
I went through something similar, so I understand.
My (AMD) CPU was defective. But if was only noticeable that it would never be able to wake up from suspend. I didn’t really notice crashes. Just broken suspend. I thought it was a Linux kernel bug, though couldn’t figure out any details. Only after almost a year of pain (no suspend) the CPU just didn’t boot at all anymore.
It was sort of replaced under warranty by the store. They took ages to investigate, then gave a store gift card. Likely because the CPU was temporarily out of stock. I had to wait for the CPU to be in stock to be able to buy it again. Fortunately still had the previous AM4 CPU.
The new CPU suspends without any issues. Took months to be able to not doubt suspend. E.g. if it was suspended I usually thought it had crashed.
An unreliable CPU is a terrible experience.