Several overclock runs were revealed by the Anandtech Forums. A user from Forumhas managed to delid the processor and posted some great findings after reapplication of new thermal interface.

The forum member who goes by the name of "RichUK" has managed to collect a retail sample of the Intel Core i7 7700K processor which is also known as upcoming Kaby Lake Processor.

Several overclock runs were posted and the user went as far to delid the chip and apply new Thermal Interface Material (TIM). The results that came up are shocking as it is proof that Intel has once again used poor quality TIM on their processors.

The issue with high temps on the Intel processors arose back in the Ivy Bridge generation wherein the chips were heating up beyond a certain limit. This issue was fixed when Intel had started using the higher quality packaging materials and improved TIM in the new Devil's Canyon, Haswell Refresh, lineup.

The last three generations of Intel processors haven't seen issues related to heating but now it is assumed that the issue might be returning, as per WccFtech.

Several tech sites already have published the reviews of the Core i7-7700K before to the chip's launch. All sites are reporting the higher temperatures for Kaby Lake part compared to Skylake chips.

The Intel Core i7 7700K with a base clockspeed of 4.2 GHz and turbo clockspeed of 4.5 GHz will be the top Kaby Lake chips for the year 201 and it will be followed by the Devil's Canyon Core i7 4790K with turbo speed of 4.4 GHz.

RichUK started the testing by acquiring his brand new Core i7-7700K processor. The system used for test is listed below:

  • Processor - Core i7-7700k
  • Mobo - Asrock Z170 Pro4S - BIOS v7
  • RAM - Corsair 2x8GB 3000Mhz C15
  • GFX - EVGA GTX 1060 6GB SC
  • Cooling Stock - an old Thermalright 6 heat pipe tower, Corsair SP120
  • Cooling for OC - Corsair H110i with 2 x Corsair ML140 Pro LED

On the first day, the user had tested the chip in Cinebench R15 at stock settings. The temps during this test were stable around 60C. The testing was achieved with a Thermalright Ultra 120 tower cooler.

The user reported that previously, the chip would shoot up to 99C but now it was averaging around 66C in Prime 95 v28.7. In addition, it was stable while before, it wasn't as much.

The results shows that new TIM application and delid will improve the temps by a great margin. Delidding generally improves the temps but users don't see such decreases so it may be possible that the higher temps on Kaby Lake CPUs could be related to the low quality TIM used.

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