Sandy Bridge-E CPUs Too Hot For Intel?

MrSeb writes "Intel's next consumer CPUs — the Sandy Bridge-E — will ship without a heatsink and fan. These new chips, which will feature up to 15MB of L3 cache and integrated four-channel DDR3 and 32x PCI 3.0 controllers will run very hot — potentially up to 180W TDP. Is Intel unable to cool these extreme chips, or is there another reason for the shift? Curiously, Intel will still offer 'sold separately' own-brand cooling solutions for the new chips — so is this merely Intel trying to cut costs for enthusiasts who don't need a stock cooler — or is this the beginnings of Intel branching out into the cooling business?"

Comments

Warranty

[Anonymous Coward]

It is so they can blame customers if the chip dies of overheating.
If they offer OEM solutions, and the chip overheats, they need to replace it under warranty, guess these chips may have a high chance of dying due to heat

Re:Warranty

[Alex Zepeda]

Two words: installation error.

Re:Warranty

[robthebloke]

How many stock fans and heatsinks will be saved from gathering dust because of this?

None. The HSFs installed in a PC gather more dust than those still in their boxes :p

Stock coolers are a waste anyway

[algorimancer]

Stock coolers are a waste -- there are much nicer (quieter) alternatives available, and at minimal expense. I never use the stock coolers. It's long seemed a bit silly to me that you couldn't buy the CPU without getting the cooler along with it, so I'm pleased that they're leaving the choice to those building the systems.

Re:Taco, could you explain this

[iamhassi]

Intel will offer Intel-branded cooling solutions for the new chips, they just won't package them with the chips.

^----- This has been confirmed: "Intel has decided to offer own brand coolers for the platform, it's just that they won't come in the box with the CPU."

So Intel will offer coolers, they're just sold separately, probably because these are cpus designed for enthusiast ("The E range (which stands for ‘enthusiast’") so they're meant for people that overclock and buy separate coolers rather than use the "stock" cooler that comes with the cpu.

Pricing of the CPUs has also been released:
_name__core__threads__freq__turbo freq__L3__TDP__price_
Core i7-3820 4 8 3.6 GHz 3.9 GHz 10 MB 130 Watt $294
Core i7-3930K 6 12 3.2 GHz 3.8 GHz 12 MB 130 Watt $583
Core i7-3960X 6 12 3.3 GHz 3.9 GHz 15 MB 130 Watt $999