Intel uses epoxy as thermal interface material at Haswell-E

Intel uses epoxy instead of thermal paste for at least the most powerful Haswell-E processor. The website OCDrift discovered this when removing the cover from the upcoming Core i7-5960X, which the site already got its hands on.

When OCDrift removed the ihs from the Haswell-E generation Core i7-5960X, it turned out that it had been glued to the canopy with a strong epoxy. The site calls it good news for overclockers, because epoxy provides better heat conduction than thermal paste.

At Ivy Bridge and Haswell, Intel uses thermal paste as the thermal interface material and this led to higher temperatures than expected, which especially overclockers were not happy with. With the Haswell K processors with unlocked multiplier, Intel did use a new generation of the Polymer Thermal Interface Material, which should bring improvements, but with the Haswell E-series the manufacturer seems to be going for epoxy.

Haswell-E is expected to be available in September. Previous reports indicate that it concerns the Core i7-5960X octacore and two hexacores, with TDPs of 140W and support for DDR4.