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SB to IB - Intel cheaping out on thermal solution

Turbonium

Turbonium

Platinum Member
So I've heard a lot of talk about how Intel cheaped out on the thermal solution when moving to Ivy Bridge from Sandy Bridge.

What exactly is the difference? Can someone please clarify?

I'm assuming it's the following:

SB: Soldered interface between the heat spreader and the CPU die.
IB: Thermal interface material/pad between the heat spreader and the CPU die.

Do I have the right idea here?
 
crashtech said:
I've been curious how that solder process worked. Did they metallize then tin the top of the die?
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I don't know how Intel does it, but How It's Made on the Discovery Channel had an episode with IBM chip packaging. A precise picker machine placed a bunch of pre-tinned chip packages on a tray, then placed dies on the packages and final placed a pre-tinned heat spreader on the dies. The whole tray went into an oven that melted the die, package and heatspreader together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0HpiwDDALU

I think that is the episode.
 
Watch from 2:13 to 3:10. They definately add a heatspreader. I must not have remembered correctly because they oven once to attach the die to the substrate any again to attach the heatspreader. In the video they call the heatspreader the cap. At 2:13 it looks like a machine is laying solder on top of the chips before the spreader is added.
 
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Oddly, the CPUs shown after that sequence have no heat spreader. I'm still wondering if they're able to get solder to adhere to a properly prepared chip, or if there must be a metallization process to the top surface of the die prior to tinning or soldering.
 
crashtech said:
Oddly, the CPUs shown after that sequence have no heat spreader. I'm still wondering if they're able to get solder to adhere to a properly prepared chip, or if there must be a metallization process to the top surface of the die prior to tinning or soldering.
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Since almost all die currently use flip chip technology the top layer should already be a metal layer. Just need to make sure that there is an additional inert metal layer so the solder doesn't short anything.
 
there are mixed reviews as to why IB has poorer heat transfer. some states it is the TIM, some states it is the IHS.

the fix. intel should have presented IB with no IHS. if you own an IB - need to delid. direct die thermal transfer.

had known ahead of time. would had considered a SB instead. then again maybe not. IB has a 5%-6% faster IPC.
 
not only poor heat transfer is the culprit, but IB has higher transistor density than SB (due to the move to 22nm) but roughly the same die area as SB and that increases the heat output even more.
 
Idontcare's testing showed that just reducing the gap between die and heatspreader (removing the heatsink, reapplying TIM, and putting the heatsink on without the glue layer) meant a nice improvement in keeping IB cool.

So part of the difference is they went from soldering to TIM while keeping the die to heatspreader dimensions the same. Understandable, you'd want to make any significant dimensional changes on a socket change not within a same socket family.
 
dave_the_nerd said:
Exactly. If you don't overclock, it doesn't matter. So for 99.9% of their end users... hell with it.
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hate overclocking, would gladly coin up for the next faster cpu.

sadly there isn't enough ipc (even on the fastest cpu) on 2 core to maintain enough fps for some games.

so overclock it is.
 
UaVaj said:
hate overclocking, would gladly coin up for the next faster cpu.

sadly there isn't enough ipc (even on the fastest cpu) on 2 core to maintain enough fps for some games.

so overclock it is.
Click to expand...
So I take it you're not using anything above an i3?
 
Turbonium said:
So I take it you're not using anything above an i3?
Click to expand...


no i3 here. a pentium d-950, two i5-760, and a i7-3770k

games like SC2 brings the 3770k to a crawl while the other 2 core are on vacation.

3770k becuase it has the most IPC of any current cpu. oc to 4.5 is bearly cutting 30fps when it gets heated.

instead of 4 core at 4.5. rather have 1 core at 18ghz. 😱 that will get the job done.
 
since we are talking about thermal solution. would gladly take a single core at 18ghz and let it be the size of a refridgerator with freezer type cooling. leave the computer in the garage and just run wires to the office. less fan noise in the office.
 
dave_the_nerd said:
What % of buyers even care? They're better off if they don't risk even implying that they might have an issue to address (e.g. - something to apologize for.)
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Intel doesn't want to neglect the enthusiast market which you guys seem to be part of. Communication is key.
 
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