Intel Ivy Bridge CPU’s Are Proven To Suffer From Poor TIM Choice

Japanese tech site, Impress PC Watch, has proven what many have suspected: Intel’s Ivy Bridge CPUs suffer high temps due to a poor thermal interface material (TIM) choice between the CPU and intergrated heat sink (IHS). Why Intel decided to use TIM instead of solder for the IHS is unknown but what was discovered is that by replacing the cheap thermal compound with better alternatives yielded significant temperature drops. They compared the stock TIM with OCZ’s Freeze Extreme and Coollaboratory’s Liquid Pro while using a Thermalright Silver Arrow SB-E as the cooler of choice. They then compared all three TIMs at stock 3.5GHz and overclocked at 4.6GHz 1.2v. At stock clocks and stock TIM the I7 3770K hit 61 while the OCZ TIM dropped temps to 53 and the Liquid Pro TIM dropped temps down to 50 that’s a full 8-11 lower then the stock TIM Intel used on the CPU’s IHS. When overclocked to 4.6GHz the load temps with stock TIM skyrocketed to 84, meanwhile the OCZ TIM dropped temps down to 69 with the Liquid Pro dropping temps all the way down to 64. That means at full load and overclocked simply replacing the TIM used between the CPU die and IHS showed insane temp drops of 15-20. As it stands replacing the TIM on most enthusiasts CPUs wont be likely due to the simple fact it will void their warranties because the IHS must be removed. This test however, does prove that Intel has indeed cheaped out on the thermal interface material inside the IHS. The only reason for this action that comes to mind is to keep Ivy Bridge from cannibalizing Sandy Bridge E sales.