Intel Prototypes New Cooler for Gulftown CPU

News
By Marcus Yam
published

Intel's heatsink and fan goes to the gym, gets beefcake.

Intel retail boxed processors always come packed with a heatsink and fan. While they aren't the most elaborate cooling solutions, they are quiet, efficient, and even adequate for some light overclocking.

Of course, those serious about keeping their hot chips cool will opt for aftermarket solutions. For the upcoming six-core Nehalem-based Gulftown CPU, Intel will be packing it with a tower-style heatsink.

PCWorld.fr snapped pictures of a prototype of the cooler that will be paired with Gulftown. Besides just a bigger heatsink with more fins, the proposed cooler also features four copper heatpipes.

Check out more pictures here.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
See more Cooling News
52 Comments Comment from the forums
  • hispeed120
    This makes me worried. Seeing as Intel(or any company for that matter) tried to obtain the highest profits while still allowing for a reliable product, the inclusion of these coolers may hint that the power requirements/thermals are significantly higher than in previous processors.

    Either that or they are giving us a decent cooler just for the heck of it. I'm betting on my first comment, but hoping for the second. :)
    Reply
  • mavroxur
    That's pretty impressive by boxed-OEM Intel heatsink standards.
    Reply
  • jwl3
    Uh oh for Zalman, Coolemaster, Xigmatek, etc.

    The difference in temps just got a whole lot narrower from stock to aftermarket.

    Wonder if this means that Intel will themselves be "overclocking" their CPU's as stock now that they can dissipate heat better. Imagine them OC'ing an i7 860 to an i7 870 and charging the 870's price - all because of a better heatsink.
    Reply
  • doomtomb
    hispeed120This makes me worried. Seeing as Intel(or any company for that matter) tried to obtain the highest profits while still allowing for a reliable product, the inclusion of these coolers may hint that the power requirements/thermals are significantly higher than in previous processors.Either that or they are giving us a decent cooler just for the heck of it. I'm betting on my first comment, but hoping for the second.This has been necessary for some time now. Ever since the first quads, the stock intel cooler has become insufficient at cooling the CPU and renders overclocking virtually impossible. Nehalems have higher thermals than Core 2 Quads and I only expect the thermals to continue to go up but better smaller manufacturing processes (32nm) and lower voltages will curb this trend slightly. I'm not worried, my watercooling performs well.
    Reply
  • Scotteq
    Hmmm... It's not like Intel to go overboard - they'll absolutely make something that's appropriate/adequate for the task at hand - but not a whole lot more. Though with 2 more physical cores, if they were to maintain current TDP they'd necesarily have to cut the existing 4 back. So it makes sense we (may be) geting an acknowledgement of thermal reality in the box.

    Question: How many nanoseconds will it take before someone decides to put one of these HSFs on the existing (warm...) 1600 quads?
    Reply
  • Scotteq
    *gaah* I meant "1366 quads"


    Oh - And Three Cheers for the engineer who *finally* convinced Intel to do away with those Gawdam%$(*#@ed pushpins!
    Reply
  • Gee... It sort of looks like AMD's Black Edition heatsink... Not that AMD innovates and Intel imitates... (of course, some fanboy is going to say "well, Intel does it better", see my next comment).

    If only Intel didn't have the OEMs by the balls in the Athlon 64 days, unfairly and illegally stealing marketshare....


    That design is utter shit though... Look at the lack of a shroud around the fan, it's going to blow air out the sides instead of forcing it through the fins.. Idiots...
    Reply
  • eklipz330
    zipzoomflyhighFor a thousand bucks you SHOULD get a decent cooler right? To JWL3, they do that already. Do you really think a $1000 i7 950 is any different than a i7 920? No, they just clocked it higher.
    the i7 975 are just better binned with unlocked multipliers
    Reply
  • Ryric
    Would be nice to see them make it so you could swap the fan out for a potentially slient/better airflow unit aftermarket. I think everyone is correct about the increase in heat from additional cores, my inital read would be that its not going to replace aftermarket coolers, its just intel dealing with the realities of the situation. Although I always wondered why intel even bothered with a bundled heatsink, a aftermarket one costs $50...
    Reply
  • krazynutz
    Would it be feasible that Intel is packaging in a much better cooler to advertise their chips' overclocking potential? By doing this, they can both raise the price of their boxed cpu's by $25+ and keep people from needing to buy 3rd party coolers. Extra profit for Intel while "giving the people what they want" up front. Win-win, as long as the coolers can compete with Xigmatek, Zalman, and Thermalright. Don't get me wrong. I love my HDT-S1283 but if I didn't have to buy it, that's more $$ I could spend elsewhere. Could get interesting.
    Reply