Investigating Intel's CPU Socket Problems and Fixing it With the Thermal Grizzly Contact Frame

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FlyingPenguin
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Investigating Intel's CPU Socket Problems and Fixing it With the Thermal Grizzly Contact Frame

Post by FlyingPenguin »

Something to keep in mind if you build a Gen 12 Intel system. I really don't understand why Intel doesn't change the clamp so it applies more even pressure, like using dual levers. It shouldn't be that hard, except that they're just recycling an old design which worked fine for the older square CPUs, but obviously doesn't work for the rectangular Gen 12 CPUs.

I will say that if I was building one of these systems right now, I'd consider spend the money on the Thermal Grizzly contact frame, and use the screw tightening technique they demonstrate at the end of this video. We're talking 10 degrees difference on the Core i9-12900KS under max load, and 7 degrees under average load. That's a lot. Additionally the raw temp measurements don't take into account that the uneven pressure of the Intel frame results in hot spots in half the cores, and the I/O section of the CPU which could lead to all kinds of performance issues.

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Re: Investigating Intel's CPU Socket Problems and Fixing it With the Thermal Grizzly Contact Frame

Post by Executioner »

I never did like when Intel moved the pins from the CPU to the mobo. It's so much easier to fix a bent pin on the cpu than the mobo. I watched that entire video, and it's hard to believe a company like Intel would not test the clamping design when a new CPU comes out.
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Re: Investigating Intel's CPU Socket Problems and Fixing it With the Thermal Grizzly Contact Frame

Post by FlyingPenguin »

And Thermalright released a similar contact frame, for half the price (or a quarter of the price if you order it from Alibaba and wait two weeks).

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Re: Investigating Intel's CPU Socket Problems and Fixing it With the Thermal Grizzly Contact Frame

Post by Losbot »

$35 vs about $5 is pretty significant.
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Re: Investigating Intel's CPU Socket Problems and Fixing it With the Thermal Grizzly Contact Frame

Post by FlyingPenguin »

Well more like $15 retail. They found them on Alibaba for $5 but you wait 2 weeks or more for shipping form China.

But yeah. Basically it does the same thing without as tight a tolerance, or quality finish on the parts, which according to their tests makes no difference on the pressure distribution or temps.

What really needs to happen is Intel needs to come up with a better system because the pressure distributrion with their existing system looks awful.
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