Supercool Computers Direct-Die waterblock and delid tool for Intel Alder Lake Review| Intel Core i9-12900K in Pain

Ever smaller manufacturing processes lead to ever higher thermal densities in CPUs and GPUs. This is one of the reasons why Intel’s new Alder Lake CPUs run so hot that every air cooler almost has no chance with a big i9, no matter how many watts of waste heat it is designed for. The often cited bottleneck lies further up the cooling chain [...]


Depth examination of thermal paste (ArcticMX-4): Searching for snake oil with scanning electron microscope and X-ray spectroscopy. What’s inside?

To describe it in detail, otherwise the headline would have been too long: Today, we will use the field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) to analyze in more detail what is really inside one of the most popular (and also cheaper) thermal pastes in the form of the Arctic MX-4. The [...]


Intel Socket LGA-1700 “washer mod” part 2 – motherboards, ILM manufacturers and coolers in a before/after comparison | Practice

As promised, today we cover part 2 of the “Washermod”, in which we want to evaluate a few more combinations of different motherboards, socket manufacturers and coolers in a before and after test with the modification. To briefly summarize what the washer mod is all about: washers are installed between the motherboard and the ILM [...]


Alder Lake’s cooling problem straightened out by 5 degrees! – Simple ILM-Mod for Intel’s LGA-1700 socket | Practice

Intel’s Alder Lake CPUs run hot, very hot. A few weeks ago, Igor had already identified the bending of the CPU and motherboard due to the LGA1700 socket as a potential cause for this. Today I’ll show you a simple modification that can gain up to 5 °C in CPU core temperatures, and it almost couldn’t be simpler. Thanks (again) to [...]


Keeping Alder Lake cool – Corsair XC7 RGB PRO LGA 1700 waterblock torture test with the Intel Core i9-12900K OC

Good CPU cooling has always been important, but with Intel’s new, very heat-sensitive Alder Lake CPUs even more so. Especially if you turn the clock dial yourself, a few degrees Celsius more or less can mean several hundred megahertz more or less stable clock speed in return. All the more important is a good cooler with the right contact [...]


Alphacool Rise Aurora 140 mm ARGB fan Review – It blows up (almost) everything and removes dust even from the thickest radiator

A speed band like an XXL braces, paired with a lot of pressure and throughput that does not break away even on the thickest radiator – the Alphacool Rise Aurora 140 mm thus recommends itself as a real radiator fan. The performance is more than restrained, it’s downright brute. Today’s test will have to clarify whether and with [...]