[PLUS] CPU cooling for Core i9-12900K: cooler tested with Alder Lake

Is he cool, Alder?

Although Intel has a reputation for frequently introducing new sockets, their physical appearance usually changes little. The sockets 1156, 1155, 1150, 1151 in SKL and CFL versions and the LGA1200, numbered internally from H1 to H5, hardly differ in socket and CPU size, for example, the cooler mounting holes are placed identically and the maximum power loss increased from from the first generation in 2009 to the last from this spring by only 30 W (95 W TDP to 125 W TDP). However, high-end multi-socket coolers already offered 40 W reserve for LGA1366 CPUs at the beginning of the Socket H era. So you could use the same cooler for over a decade and only one contact too many in the LGA1200 prevents you from combining the entire H family into an “11XX” from a cooler point of view.

This consistency ends with the Core i 12000 generation. The new Socket V alias LGA1700 is noticeably larger, the CPUs are elongated, the CPU height and hole spacing are changing, and with the Core i9-12900K there is a 241 W TDP in the mainstream for the first time. The changed shape hardly gives cause for concern: Although the elongated heat spreader is unusual, it is still a bit shorter overall than established HEDT processors, which are also noticeably wider. A cooler suitable for socket 2011 v3 and 2066 CPUs also contacts a Core i 12000 over a large area, and oblong silicon has often been found under square heat spreaders.

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The following topics can be found in the article:

• LGA1700: All new with Alder Lake
• Critical: new construction height
• Without height compensation
• With height compensation
• Changed hole spacing
• Lots of power, little space
• A lot of performance absolutely

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