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Intel Skylake CPUs Are Warping Under Mounting Pressure From Third-Party Coolers (hothardware.com)

MojoKid writes: It's been discovered that some third-party heat sinks can physically damage Intel's new Skylake CPUs, along with the pins in the accompanying motherboard socket. The problem has prompted at least one cooler maker to change the design of its Socket 1151 heat sinks and it wouldn't be surprising if others soon followed suit. The apparent issue is the substrate Intel used for its Skylake chips. A close-up shot of a Skylake CPU sitting side-by-side with a Broadwell processor (Google translation of German original) shows that the substrate is noticeably thinner on Skylake, and thus prone to bending from the force that some third-party heat sinks exert. Intel has addressed the issue by saying, “The design specifications and guidelines for the 6th Gen Intel Core processor using the LGA 1151 socket are unchanged from previous generations and are available for partners and 3rd party manufacturers. Intel can’t comment on 3rd party designs or their adherence to the recommended design specifications. For questions about a specific cooling product we must defer to the manufacturer.”

2 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Warping by rossdee · · Score: 5, Funny

    Great, now all we need to do is build the rest of the starship

  2. Re: Will the cooler manufacturers pay? by sexconker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Look, oh_my_shittynumbers is being an idiot again.

    The question isn't whether or not shit is thinner, it clearly is.

    The question is whether:

    A: Third party heatsinks are exceeding the limit (50 pounds) for mounting pressure.
    B: Intel fucked up and the 50 pound limit needs to be lowered for the thinner shit.
    C: Both A and B.

    My guess is A.
    The heatsink mounting pressure is way over limit for many third-party heatsinks, but the 50 pound limit was conservative for older Intel CPUs and they could handle a lot more. The newer CPUs can almost certainly handle the listed 50 pounds, and more, but not nearly as much as the older CPUs.

    Anyone who has installed a large third-party heatsink knows that the fucking motherboard will flex and bend and you'll put a ton of fucking pressure on it when installing it and trying to get it latched/screwed/etc. properly. After installation you look at it and think "Uh, is this really okay? Should I switch to a horizontal configuration?". But you'll leave it vertical anyway.