Cheap thermal paste inside Ivy Bridge
 

Saw this article on Engadget . Basically, it alleges Intel used crappy thermal paste between the CPU die and the external heatspreader which cause the higher than expected temps.

Intel caught out using cheap thermal paste in Ivy Bridge? -- Engadget

Yeah, read that yesterday. What a fail.

I've been following that since overclock.net threw it up, although there are conflicting stories as to whether replacing the paste or delidding the CPU has an impact. I won't post links because all the sites seem to be copy-pasting the same two stories (one for delid, the other against) both have very questionable "testing methods" probably to increase traffic more than to add to our knowledge of IVB processors.

Heck, we still don't have a good set of results from Ivy + high-end cooling beyond Anandtech's test with the Intel water cooler.

What I'd like to know is if a high mounting pressure cooler http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...-review-9.html would have an effect, because that would certainly be less risky than taking off the IHS and trying to find a way to keep the CPU from sliding around in the socket...

Heh... I'm all for a return to enthusiasts removing the IHS.... it's high time we re-injected a little bit of the fear factor into high end overclocking.... :)

It's funny reading some of the comments on that Engadget article, you can tell how clueless some of them are, screaming

"WHY IS THIS AN ISSUE WHO USES THE STOCK THERMAL PASTE ANYWAY BUNCH OF RETARDS LEARN TO COMPUTER"

without reading what the article is about.

Also, I'm assuming removing the IHS on this processor wouldn't be nearly as dangerous as normal, since it's just TIM underneath, instead of fluxless solder. Still risky, but not as risky as it could be.

I wonder how did they remove the headspreader with Sandy Bridge. I thought fluxless solder would really stick the die and headspreader together. To risk obvious voiding the warranty to OC it just a tad more seem silly. Wouldn't a decent water loop or integrated single unit water cooling do the trick?

I don't think that much of a temperature improvement could be achieved by opening up the chip, but Kudos to those who are willing to push the limits and try things that most wouldn't.

Blowtorch. You pass it over the IHS for an instance of a second multiple times, until you just reach the melting point of the solder. Then you take off the IHS, and PRAY the die doesn't come with it. Clean off the excess solder, and ta-da, naked SB.

You've got about a 1 in 4 to 1 in 1000000 chance, depending on who you ask, of doing it successfully.

And OCing was always about voiding the warranty just to push it a little bit more. It's just in the last few years it's gotten easier and easier, and a lot more commonplace.

This story sounds like it came from AMD's PR team.

As for overclocking, it is a joke how easy it is yet so many refuse to even learn the basics before posting the obligatory "how do I OC my PC" thread.