Intel's boxed cooler is factory equipped with a heat conducting pad.

First of all, we performed our stress test using the heat conducting pad that is factory-mounted onto the heat sink. The chassis was of course closed before we launched the Prime95 run.

The case temperature reached 36°C and remained at that level.

According to Intel, the temperature display for zone 2 is supposed to be broken. Since that may easily cause the user to worry, that should be fixed as soon as possible.

However, this "bug" can be found in multiple versions of the Intel Active Monitor. This, of course, raises a subtle question: What if the display is right and the temperature simply is over Intel's threshold?

Apart from that, the CPU always maintained its clock speed of 3,600 MHz and did not throttle once. It looks like the reference cooler is working well using the default pad.

The display for zone 1 and 2 immediately gave a high-temperature warning by opening a dedicated window.

For those of you who want to stick exactly to Intel's specification after making changes to the CPU/cooler combo, Intel's original thermal pad can obtained here .