Bad 6700Ks and older Intel Coolers

[idata]

I build hundreds of computers a year. I am starting to see a more than normal amount of bad Intel CPUs, which is very rare to have a bad CPU. Out of these few hundred machines, I seen about 8-10 bad 6700Ks. I only use retail boxed CPUs. The problem always follows the CPU, and same problem occurs on different motherboards. The CPU will give random bluescreens, always with a different error. Usually the CPU will only run for a few minutes before a bluescreen. Anything CPU intensive, benchmarking, or sometimes even booting to Windows will trigger the bluescreen. Replace the CPU and the computer will be back to normal. I would say half of theses CPUs are bad out of the retail box, and the other half fail in about a month of usage.

I only use stock Intel CPU coolers. Since these CPUs are K variants they do not come with coolers. I am getting CPU cooler "pulls". These are new coolers that are un-used from a different boxed Intel CPU. They are a copper center stock fan, usually un-used from a 1156 Xeon CPU. I am replacing the stock Intel thermal compound on the bottom of the heatsink with new, as the stock thermal compound is hard and dry. The link below is an example of the coolers I am using.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA50M2CS3321&cm_re=intel_cpu_cooler-_-9SIA50M2CS3321-_-Product https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA50M2CS3321&cm_re=intel_cpu_cooler-_-9SIA50M2CS3321-_-Product

Is the clamping force the same from a 1156/1555/1150 stock Intel Cooler the same as the stock Intel cooler that comes with a non-k 1151 CPU? It seems to me these have much greater clamping force than the stock coolers that come with 6th or 7th gen CPUs. It is harder to clamp the black push pins in place to secure the cooler, and I am noticing a slight bow or warping of the motherboard. I noticed the PCB is much thinner on the 6th gen CPUs compared to 4th gen or older. Could micro cracks in the CPU be causing these random bluescreens. After inspection of a failed CPU, the CPU is never bent or warped, and the motherboard pins are not bent.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

[idata]

Hello sjones779,

Thank you for contacting the Intel community. I have been checking the TDP(Thermal Design Power) that the heatsink and fan that you are using support, I can see that this heatsink was made to work on CPU with 77W TDP and the Intel® Core™ i7-6700K Processor needs a heatsink that can support up to 130W TDP. You can check the Thermal Solution Specification for this processor here:https://ark.intel.com/products/88195/Intel-Core-i7-6700K-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-4_20-GHz https://ark.intel.com/products/88195/Intel-Core-i7-6700K-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-4_20-GHz A good heatsink and fan for this CPU is this one:https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Heatsink-Assembly-Cooling-BXTS15A/dp/B013U542QE/ref=pd_sim_147_4?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B013U542QE&pd_rd_r=WZ8RXBA0DTGS03BCPJSS&pd_rd_w=0waP8&pd_rd_wg=2MmPq&psc=1&refRID=WZ8RXBA0DTGS03BCPJSS https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Heatsink-Assembly-Cooling-BXTS15A/dp/B013U542QE/ref=pd_sim_147_4?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B013U542QE&pd_rd_r=WZ8RXBA0DTGS03BCPJSS&pd_rd_w=0waP8&pd_rd_wg=2MmPq&psc=1&refRID=WZ8RXBA0DTGS03BCPJSS

If the fan is not the proper fan for your CPU you will experience BSOD.

You can also try to look for a heatsink and fan from any other authorize reseller or if you are an Intel member you can try to get it through your channel representative to see if they can get it for you, just make sure they can support up to 130 W. Honestly we have not seen this CPUs failing that often, usually CPUs don't fail too often, you mentioned that this CPUs are bad out of the box and that is a possibility but please bear in mind that if you are buying retail box processors you will get three years warranty and if they failed you can submit a warranty request at the following link:http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/contact-support.html# @2 http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/contact-support.html# @2

I would say the main problem here is the heatsink, try with different heatsink, the one I posted from amazon, that one is the one I recommend.

Best regards, Ivan.

[idata]

I disagree with this information. A cooler will not cause a bluescreen, because the CPU is never hitting the thermal threshold temperature. The idle temperature of the 6700k using the given cooler, runs at 33C-35C. At full load, the CPU only reaches 57C-59C, which is within thermal specs. These CPUs that are bluescreening are bad, and doesn't matter if its air or water cooled.

Intel packaged this same cooler I am used with the 4790K CPU. The 4790K CPU was much warmer CPU running than the 6700K.

My question was not answered. I am concerned about the clamping force of the CPU Cooler. Does a 1156/1155 have a greater tension than a 1151 stock cooler that comes with a 7th gen i5/i7 non K.

Please ask a higher level tier engineer.

Thanks.

[idata]

In this case, the clamping force of the CPU cooler is the same for the 1156/1155 and 1151, as long as the heatsink touches and spread the thermal paste it should be ok.

It is good to know that the temperature is fine when running this processor with the Intel® Core™ i7-6700K Processor, however; this is not the heatsink recommended for this processor. At this point, I suggest you to contact support to get replacement for the bad units and if this problem persists and if you get more systems with this issue we will need to look into something else other than the processor. Best regards, Ivan.

[idata]

Hello ,I'm following on this post to ask you if your issue has been resolved or if you need further assistance.Regards,Ivan.