Skylake CPUs bending under heavy fans, liquid cooler advice?

If you don't move your computer after it's installed you should be fine with an air cooler. However, if you want an AIO my suggestion is to get a dual fan (240mm or so) unit. While a single fan unit can cool that chip a dual fan will do it with lower noise. Any decently rated two fan AIO will be fine. Just go by cost.

The Corsair H90 seems rather good, as does the H110i and NZXT X41. Alternatively, you could go for a low-profile air cooler, but you'll limit the overclocking potential.

A few important things to remember about AIO water coolers:

1. They use outside air for cooling, so ambient temperature is important.
2. The pump and fans can be noisy, although the fans can be replaced for quieter ones.
3. There's always a risk that they can leak, despite being closed-loop.

The issue of skylake cpu's bending seems to be an isolated issue to the site whose article is being repeated everywhere. Someone at maximum pc said they also experienced the issue but not with heavy air coolers, rather with an aio cooler. Some of the issue can be heavier coolers bouncing around when shipped, other bending issues like they're talking about come from over tightening the cooler which is what happened to maximum pc with the aio cooler. They also admitted to using a power driver to install the cooler and suggested it may have been their fault.

"Recently, while moving a Skylake i7-6700K between two systems, our colleagues at Maximum PC experienced this exact bending issue. The damage was caused by installing either an EK-XLC Predator 240, Deep Cool _ or Corsair H90 liquid cooler. We thought too much force had been applied to the chip by installing one of those coolers with an electric screwdriver. It's still possible that the screwdriver applied a damaging amount of force and the damage was user error"
http://www.pcgamer.com/intel-skylake-cpus-are-bending-under-the-pressure-of-some-coolers/

Not saying absolutely don't use an aio if you want to but obviously they're no 'safer' than air coolers. If it helps any, out of the roughly 190 user reviews of skylake i5's and i7's (k series, no stock cooler) on newegg very few issues reported and no one mentioned a bent/broken cpu. Unfortunate that there aren't any meaningful number of cases regarding cpu damage to lend credibility to the skylake 'bendgate' issue other than the same repeated posting from pc games hardware germany.

I tried asking on other forums and message boards for people who have actually experienced this issue firsthand and no responses. One of our moderators here that I know of is using a skylake cpu with a larger cryorig r1 which is around the same size as a noctua nh-d14 cooler with no issues. Just thought it would be worth sharing additional information since that article came about regarding skylake and everyone's claiming 'skylake bends' now without even owning one or no evidence of anything more than an isolated case.

In all fairness a few people got doa 4690k cpu's but for a bunch of people who don't even own the chip to take it as gospel and run around saying 'oh don't get 4690k's they all come doa now' is a bit far fetched and baseless.

I think that one group of people decided it was a good idea to use an electronic screwdriver to install their cooler, which bent the CPU and they posted it on the internet, now suddenly others are claiming to have it, probably trying it on to try and get a free upgrade or something, which isn't going to work. As said above, just don't over tighten the cooler, it just needs to be tight enough to make good contact and if you have a big air cooler like the Noctua NH-D15, remove it before transporting it, which I would recommend with any CPU anyway.

When I removed my Gammaxx S40 Air Cooler the day this bendgate broke out. I asked intel what I could use and keep the 3 yr guarantee. The answer was they would still honor the warranty if I used a intel TS13X or a Intel TS15A. I took this to mean that nothing but their water or air cooler could be used and not invalidate the warranty. I have no idea if I have damaged the build I am in the progress of making by using the Gammax but I was slow and careful. I am getting a TS13X to finish my build.

I have no clue what people are talking about mechanical srewdrivers. Every single intel aftermarket cooler I ever had used those frustrating turn and push pin locks. There is no possible way to overtighten them. Is this an attempt to misdirect the public by placing blame on something else than Intel?

its safe to use a Coolermaster V8 on a processor i7 6700 ?