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By Mark Tyson published 25 February 22

You will need to delid your CPU to apply this upgrade.

CPU Delidding gadget specialist RockItCool has revealed (opens in new tab) a pure copper integrated heatspreader (IHS) designed for owners of Intel's new 12th Generation Core (Alder Lake-S) desktop processors. As spotted by FanlessTech, the new heatspreader offers improved thermals, up to 15 Celsius better than stock, according to the maker. It has been designed to offer some other interesting benefits, too.

The above graph suggests that with all other things being equal, an Alder Lake chip at 5.1 GHz ran at a max 70 Celsius with the copper IHS modification implemented, compared to about 85 Celsius before the swap. One must also remember that, as seen in the relid video walkthrough below, as well as replacing the standard IHS with a pure copper one, the thermal material between the heatspreader and CPU die has been upgraded to Liquid Metal.

Moving onto other claimed benefits of the replacement heatspreader, for brevity and exactitude, we will quote RockIt Cool's key features bullet points below:

The last bullet point is helpful. In the instruction video a previous gen copper IHS upgrade fitting is shown, and due to there being no liquid metal guides the user had to spend considerable time making a best guess of where to apply this slightly hazardous thermal material.

RockIt Cool has a vested interest in people delidding their CPUs, as it makes equipment to simplify this worrisome procedure. Whatever method you use for this delicate operation, delidding will void your warranty. Even with custom made tools to delid your CPU, problems can still occur.

RockIt Cool's Copper IHS Kit - Intel 12th Gen is listed at $32.99. An appropriate delidding device from the same company will set you back a further $59.99.

Alder Lake processors are reportedly prone to damage from the pressure exerted by some air coolers. The elongated design plus very tight fitting clamps can result in a warped IHS, and that is bad for efficient cooling.

RockIt Cool doesn't mention it specifically, but we hope that its precision replacement has factored in reports about the (1mm) washer mod, and removed the need for such corrective fiddling. There are already 3D printed alternatives to the washer mod, as we reported earlier this week. For hardened enthusiasts though, this CNC machined replacement heatspreader might be a more elegant solution, with the bonus of improved overclocking potential.

While you are here, have a look over our recent Intel Alder Lake reviews and see how these new chips are placed in the ranks of the Best CPUs for Gaming in 2022.

Pure copper is the best practical choice for your budget, with regard to replacing an existing IHS with something offering improved thermal conductivity. Copper's conductivity of 398 W/m K is way ahead of, for example, aluminum at 247 W/m K, and steel typically offers 50 W/m K or less.

If money were truly no object you could use silver (429 W/m K) as a material - but it would be ludicrous to use diamond, even though it offers up to 2200 W/m K.

Mark Tyson is a Freelance News Writer at Tom's Hardware US. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

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