Core 1 thermal paste bad imprint

[Kenbak]

Hello, I'm having some difficulties getting Core 1 to have good contact with my CPU.

I tried to assemble it several times, but there is always some gap, some region with bad contact, I have very inconsistent temperatures, some cores with differences of up to 8º.

I turn the screws alternately in "X", but I've tried tightening in other ways. I've already used some Thermal Paste like MX-4 and Grizzly Kryonaut

I'm using Intel's standard ILM, because I read on a forum that this Core 1 is convex and was designed especially for the standard ILM, so I'm not using a Contact Frame.

- So, should I use a Contact Frame?
- Is turning the screws in "X" the correct way?
- How far should I turn the screws, to the absolute limit?
- Or am I completely out of luck and my CPU/Motherboard is bent beyond repair?

My specs:
MSI Z690 CARBON
12700KF
32GB DDR5 5600MT
RTX 3070
CORSAIR HX850i

*I attached some pics.

This is the standard result, only the middle has good contact, and on the side there are flaws.

 

[Eddy]

Hi,

are you sure you are using the right spacers? There are some for Intel and AMD. Thes are not the same.

How you apply the thermal paste is of little relevance. Some spread it, others do 5 small blobs, others do X. It hardly matters.

The contact frame helps little or not at all. Nice marketing and a lot of placebo effect.
You can tighten the screws as far as they will go, in fact you should.
The metal backplate shouldn't actually bend anything on the mainboard.

Have you just measured the temperatures?

 

[Vanzin]

Hi,

we had some problems with the first batch of the coolers that the stand offs can be out of the tolerance. THis can cause in the worst case, that you don´t have enough contact like you have. THerefore, I would suspect, that you receive a water block from the fist batch. Please write a mail to info@alphacool.com so that we can send you stand offs, which are within correct tolerances.

 

[Kenbak]

Hi,

are you sure you are using the right spacers? There are some for Intel and AMD. Thes are not the same.

How you apply the thermal paste is of little relevance. Some spread it, others do 5 small blobs, others do X. It hardly matters.

The contact frame helps little or not at all. Nice marketing and a lot of placebo effect.
You can tighten the screws as far as they will go, in fact you should.
The metal backplate shouldn't actually bend anything on the mainboard.

Have you just measured the temperatures?

Hello, thanks for the response.

When the cooler was delivered to me, I separated the AMD parts in the box to make sure I wouldn't make this mistake.

Yes, I tried tightening the screws now, as much as I could (with my fingers), the problem persists and I still notice poor contact.

My temps are ~85-88º, cinebench R23 (1min). My radiator is 360mm 46 thick in pushpull, fans and pump max rotation.

Hi,

we had some problems with the first batch of the coolers that the stand offs can be out of the tolerance. THis can cause in the worst case, that you don´t have enough contact like you have. THerefore, I would suspect, that you receive a water block from the fist batch. Please write a mail to info@alphacool.com so that we can send you stand offs, which are within correct tolerances.

Thanks, I'll try.

 

[Kenbak]

Hello again.
Unfortunately, the standoffs have not yet reached me.

In the meantime, I found a post on the TPU forum, one of the participants reported that alphacool sent him a new "seal", this new one came transparent* instead of the original black one (mine is black).

Are there also any known issues with this seal? Could it be that in addition to the possible problem with Stand offs, the seal that came with mine is also inappropriate?

This got me thinking....is it really the Standoffs**? Or will it be Seal? Or, is this lack of uniformity in the imprint simply due to the convex surface of the block?

*I have attached a photo of the new seal that I mentioned seeing on the TPU forum.
**I also attached a photo of my current screws that are fixed to the motherboard and connect the block.


Thread where I found the photo of the seal, if it's useful.

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