8 legs to desolder, on a 6 layer board, where the pads are going to be small (because of pin density) and where the component shape means you can't just cut the thing off and take the pins out individually. The click-through legs of the socket make it harder to apply heat to the pads and wobble the component out (which you shouldn't do anyway, but people do.)
And then the new connectors need to be soldered back on.
The legs on those ethernet connectors are .100" centered, like the old DIP pins. Those are incredibly easy to solder and unsolder.
If this thing was surface mount, or had a hidden heat-sink pad in the center of the die, that would be way tricker. Nothing an assembly shop couldn't handle, but kind of getting beyond typical DIY work.
> Those are incredibly easy to solder and unsolder.
For sure. It gently depends on how many layers the boards are; if any of the pins is on a large ground plane (heatsinking) or if the solder side pads are flimsy.
But I'm grateful for the correction! I have some horror stories about rework, so maybe they've tinged everything since.
The other way to do it is to use a hot air gun or infrared to melt the solder on all pins simultaneously, and just lift the part out. Easy! Vacuum up the excess solder, with a hollow tip or hot air, and mount the new component as per normal.
For a small quantity of items you can get "solder suckers" which are spring loaded pumps with a high temp nozzle. You have that in one with the iron in the other hand. You'd clean the pads with solder wick afterwards.
8 legs to desolder, on a 6 layer board, where the pads are going to be small (because of pin density) and where the component shape means you can't just cut the thing off and take the pins out individually. The click-through legs of the socket make it harder to apply heat to the pads and wobble the component out (which you shouldn't do anyway, but people do.)
And then the new connectors need to be soldered back on.