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  • Ryan Smith - Wednesday, March 19, 2014 - link

    It'll be interesting to see if Intel goes with the solder based TIM here, as the information implies. The paste has been fine for stock CPUs and I don't really expect to see solder TIM CPUs to overclock much better (see our IVB-E), but having lower temperatures would still be nice.
  • Homeles - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link

    Haswell appeared to suffer from both the die's distance from the IHS, and the continued use of thermal paste instead of solder. Perhaps Intel worked on both issues.
  • chizow - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link

    Exactly right, I have two 4770K rigs and never bothered to de-lid either of them because the results I have seen around the web post-delid seem to indicate no change in max overclock, just a pronounced 15-20C drop in operating temps under load. The main problem though with Haswell's high operating temps with the standard TIM is that it prevents you from really stress testing an overclock because the chip will start throttling.

    In any case, I am happy with both my 4770Ks, especially the 2nd one from Costa Rica. Hits 4.4GHz at 1.18V while the 1st one I bought at launch from Malay only does 4.2 at 1.24V. It can go up to 4.3 but requires 1.28V and temps jump up a ton, so not worth it. Didn't want to wait for this updated Haswell-K because of the new chipset requirement that isn't much of an upgrade and I needed a 2nd machine to replace my wife's aging X58 rig that was starting to have some EOL type issues.
  • munim - Wednesday, March 19, 2014 - link

    Knowing Intel's R&D budget, and considering I have already spend around $400 CAD on a 4770K, I'm irked. However, I'm happy that we made enough noise about it so as to lead to this development.
  • MikeMurphy - Wednesday, March 19, 2014 - link

    Poor TIM requires beefier (more expensive) cooling systems which is a cost burden to the OEMs. In some cases, like many ultrabooks, the CPU speeds are even throttled despite such cooling. It's unforgivable that Intel has been doing this since IVB.
  • extide - Wednesday, March 19, 2014 - link

    In laptops/ultrabooks there is no heatspreader, so this issue doesn't really apply to them.
  • Homeles - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link

    Laptops don't have heatspreaders.
  • willis936 - Wednesday, March 19, 2014 - link

    The TIM quality myth was busted last year. There's a post floating around where someone did some science to show that IHS-die clearance is a much bigger factor than TIM choice. Delidding does increase OC headroom quite a bit. I got an extra 300MHz out of my 4770k. The heatsink is still cool to the touch even when the CPU is 70 degrees but you can't change the fact that dies are getting smaller and power consumption is staying roughly the same.

    A soldered die would be good to see because people started complaining when they moved away from that. Though even with a delidded CPU I only get 4.5GHz out of my 4770k. 4.5 without delidding is lucky with 4.8 being a good standard deviation above. Your haswell estimates are a little optimistic but engineering samples are always good chips so if that's all you have to go by that's fine. Also the OC headroom variance seems a lot bigger than ever with haswell. Hopefully these chips are all good picks.
  • V3ctorPT - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link

    My 4770K can get up to 4.8Ghz until he starts to throttle down... I use it at 4.6Ghz, I never delidded it, with afraid of ruin it. And it's faster than my old 2600k@5Ghz.
    What I'm little upset is that the "new" cpu that has good TIM is only supported by the 9 series chipset. Are they kidding? It's the same socket for the Z87 and Z97, why does that cpu only work in a Z9 series?? $$$$ grabers...
  • willis936 - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link

    Yeah that's a little sad. I might flip a 4770k to upgrade to one of these chips for a few bucks but I'm definitely not flipping a motherboard. But hey if they don't want my money I'm sure they're fine with that.
  • V3ctorPT - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link

    Just like me... No way I'm spending more money, I already bought a Sabertooth board (5 year warranty), to see if I could dispense some generations of cpu's... and with Mantle, DX12 in the future I'm not seeing my 4770k starving my 2x7970's in new games anytime soon...
  • caladbolg - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link

    According to them, changes in the microcode have been made that force it to be series-9 only. Kinda understandable if they managed to lower cycles required for heavily used actions
  • MrSpadge - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link

    The slide says the chip is supported by 9 series chipset. It does NOT say that the chip would NOT be supported by 8 series chipsets as well. Relax and see what it's really going to be,
  • coolhund - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link

    Nothing was busted. Temps werent even close as good with the best generic paste compared to liquid metal.
    So it is mainly the TIM, not only the clearance.
  • Vinny DePaul - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link

    So users will have to pay a premium. I wish AMD will come up with some better CPU or software companies release softwares with better multi-core support.
  • Homeles - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link

    It's almost undoubtedly going to be the cost of a normal K-series processor. They often sell for less than their locked counterparts. So no, there likely won't be a premium for these.
  • toyotabedzrock - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link

    They should have never released the Cpu with that kind of thermal interface mistake. Intel usually tests things better to avoid this, but maybe since they limited over clocking the issue was not voiced by as many people.
  • N2H4+C4H9NO=? - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - link

    Hopefully this becomes the new base trend for Intel, and all processors launched from here-on will go back to having solder, or at the very least, non crap-tastic TIM.
  • HexiumVII - Friday, March 21, 2014 - link

    Wow all of intels "news" i just them reverting back to their old ways, cheap o/cers and solder from Sandy Bridge. Lets get something really new intel!
  • willis936 - Friday, March 21, 2014 - link

    I'm pretty okay with some of these "old" ways.
  • brkbeatjunkie - Monday, March 24, 2014 - link

    I hope it's not just more thermal paste. I've seen too many computer manufactures glob it on hoping to achieve better results, only to find their products getting even hotter because if you increase the space between the heat sink and the chip too much ie too much good in between, it greatly diminishes the ability do the heat sink to cool properly.

    In this case, it's quality over quantity. I hope they figure that out. Nudge nudge apple
  • DMCalloway - Tuesday, March 25, 2014 - link

    This is just great. Finally Intel decides to fix the TIM situation for loyal Intel enthusiasts. The fact that this new SKU is not targeted at 8 series chipset should not come as a surprise.... remember what happened to TRIM support for RAID 0 SSD's.... yeah, only from the 7 series chipset on. Some of us are having to spend more and more to ride the bleeding edge wave.
  • BadThad - Wednesday, March 26, 2014 - link

    I'm praying that AMD comes around and makes a processor that clock for clock beats Intel. There is just not nearly enough pressure on Intel to make/release anything significant. The entire i series has been nothing but minor bumps to create more profits.

    AMD - PLEASE bring us another Intel killer like the Athlon!

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