Intel is experimenting with new stock cooler designs for Alder Lake

[mongeese]

In context: Intel doesn’t bundle coolers with most of their CPUs and hasn’t for years. Unlike AMD, which occasionally faces criticism for not including coolers with some models, Intel is thanked for sparing the metal. And that’s because the few coolers they do ship are barely functional.

Intel’s Rocket Lake cooler, pictured above, has existed in various iterations for about a decade. Intel has occasionally varied the color and made it a bit taller to perform a little better, or a smidgen wider to be a fraction quieter, but it’s never been more than just adequate.

But now, perhaps to strike against AMD, Intel is reportedly experimenting with new designs that could be bundled with Alder Lake (12th-gen Core) processors this year. Three of their early prototypes are pictured in a leaked slide below.

The series is called Laminar. On the left is the RH1, which has been designed to cool i9 processors (and look cool doing it). It’s quite tall although the visible fins aren’t very dense. It has a considerable amount of RGB and premium-material accents.

In the middle and on the right are the RM1 and RS1, which look like the same part with an RGB ring tacked onto the former, although the RS1 could also be gimped with an aluminum core. The RM1 is for i7, i5, and i3 parts, while the RS1 is for Pentium and Celeron models.

The slide suggests that all three have a 65 W cooling capacity, which seems like a bit of a mismatch to the products they cool, but a good match with their abilities.

Read this: Intel Box Cooler vs. AMD Wraith Series

Compared to the competition, the RH1 looks like it’s equivalent to the AMD Wraith Spire, while the RM1 and RS1 look comparable to the Wraith Stealth. But, like the Wraith coolers, the Laminar coolers are likely going to struggle to compete with $20-30 aftermarket coolers.

Despite their limited usefulness, stock coolers should generally be included with budget and midrange CPUs, and Intel will get a thumbs up from us if decent Laminar coolers are bundled with Alder Lake.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/91202-intel-experimenting-new-stock-cooler-designs-alder-lake.html

 

[Beerfloat]

It's starting to look as if someone is injecting some common sense at Intel.

Lot of good news lately.

 

[Nobina]

I don't see why they can't make a good CPU cooler except not to step on toes of other companies making them.

 

[Adi6293]

I don't see why they can't make a good CPU cooler except not to step on toes of other companies making them.

Because they would rather you paid extra money for a cooler then them eating into their margins

 

[Pastuch]

The push-pin design they've used for 10+ years has caused me more headaches and frustration than any aftermarket cooler I've ever tried. It's about f'ing time Intel!

 

[pcnthuziast]

Still useless trash except for the lightest of workloads.

 

[Dimitriid]

It's starting to look as if someone is injecting some common sense at Intel.

Lot of good news lately.

Either that or enough extra heat to dissipate that they need better cooling just to get the advertised clocks without throttling.

 

[elementalSG]

The only Intel CPU I’ve been able to use the Intel stock cooler is the Celeron G3930. Otherwise the CPU has been literally too hot for the Intel stock cooler to handle.

The Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO has been a nice, cheap and much more effective cooler instead for my stock Intel builds

 

[Dimitriid]

The only Intel CPU I’ve been able to use the Intel stock cooler is the Celeron G3930. Otherwise the CPU has been literally too hot for the Intel stock cooler to handle.

The Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO has been a nice, cheap and much more effective cooler instead for my stock Intel builds

This goes back to the dark days of AMD being stuck on Bulldozer and intel being the only option: I remember I had a 4440 rig with just the stock cooler, mostly because there was no significant boost speeds (20mhz extra, that's it) or any overclocking allowed.

It's been a while but at one point the standard advise was you didn't *really* needed any additional cooling for the budget gaming rigs as the 4440 was "good enough" for most games if paired with a modest GPU or if GPU bound by the resolution.

 

[nodfor]

Why do they even bother making these trash? A lot of savings could be made with package sizes if they decided to stop bundling coolers altogether.

 

[umbala]

Stop with the RGB garbage already. Haven't all the ***** kids grown out of that crap yet?

 

[Sausagemeat]

“To strike back at AMD”? But AMD have removed most of their coolers from their product line up. You still get the wraith stealth on the 5600X and the APUs but that’s the worst one they do!

Besides, unless they bundle in something considerably better than what we have always had, most of these things just end up in landfill. Its so much more environmentally friendly to not give us one. That way they can get way more CPUs on a pallet, which means less trucks are needed etc. And also less waste from people chucking the cooler away.

 

[captaincranky]

Why do they even bother making these trash? A lot of savings could be made with package sizes if they decided to stop bundling coolers altogether.

The irony / paradox there is, they haven't been packaging stock coolers with "K" (overclockable) parts), yet charging more for them. But then again, it's not entirely counter intuitive, since they know up front the stock cooler is useless for that application.

 

[Irata]

Because they would rather you paid extra money for a cooler then them eating into their margins

Plus think back to Zen 1 and Zen+ days - remember several reviews that actually tested Ryzen using the boxed cooler vs the competing Intel CPU using $100 water cooling.

Somehow most (not all) reviewers forgot to include that in their price/ performance summary.

I feel that at least the 65W models should include a useable HSF and I wish AMD would include one of their better coolers rather than Stealth.

On that note, I‘d still like to see the lower end models tested using stock hsf and the appropriate mainboards.

 

[Beerfloat]

Still useless trash except for the lightest of workloads.

These are not for unlocked or enthusiast models.
Should be more than sufficient for whatever you do with your 65W Alder Lake.

 

[envirovore]

If you're going air cooled and not going with a Fuma 2 (or equal), you're doing it wrong.
/fantastic cooler.

 

[Watzupken]

I feel if Intel wants to provide stock coolers, then they should make it a point to provide a good one. The current one is just not fit for purpose in my opinion. While I've seen people argue that it is good enough for a 65W processor, in my experience, that is not the case. Depending on how cold is the location you stay or use the CPU, countries with hotter climate tend to see CPU run high. I've seen temps climb up to mid 80s in a game of CS Go at 1080p. It is still within the Tjuncture temps, but I am pretty sure that CPU is throttling to stay within a programmed temp limit. If you hammer it with some CPU intensive work, it will hit 90s. Changing the stock cooler to a Scythe Shuriken 3 see the temps drop to mid 60s in almost all workload.

 

[captaincranky]

These are not for unlocked or enthusiast models.
Should be more than sufficient for whatever you do with your 65W Alder Lake.

The stock cooler should work on earlier, (or current) 65 watt CPUs, but the thing that pisses everybody iof is they're quite noisy. After all the fan is only somethinh like 80 mm, so it revs up pretty high when the processor starts to get hot..

My usual tactic is to throw the damned things away, and wait for the CM "Hyper 212", (or similar), to go on sale with a rebate Back when I built the machines I have them on, they were about $30.00, and well worth it for the peace a quiet they provide.

Most of the 120 mm fan upright coolers are rated to at least 150 watts, and I don't see cooler overkill as a bad situation to find yourself in..

FWIW, and IIRC the old stock coolers, (Prescott P-4 era), actually had copper cores where they contacted the CPU. Since then, pretty much every couple of years, they've gotten smaller and lighter.

 

[fps4ever]

These are not for unlocked or enthusiast models.
Should be more than sufficient for whatever you do with your 65W Alder Lake.

It would be nice if they could release a stock cooler for 6/12 or 8/16 cores-threads because current ones are barely adequate for 4/8 cores-threads. And I am talking non K cpu's because all of them go above 65 watts for short bursts unless you have a really crappy motherboard.

 

[captaincranky]

It would be nice if they could release a stock cooler for 6/12 or 8/16 cores-threads because current ones are barely adequate for 4/8 cores-threads

Yeah, it would be nice, but I doubt it'll happen. Intel doesn't even give you their stock cooler with a "K" CPU. I think they're trying to tell you, "don't try any of that fancy overclocking nonsense with these pieces of crap".

My approach and belief is, always overbuild, you'll be much happier with your new machine. My "newest" rig is based on an i5-6600K (but at stock speed), and I sprang for a 120 mm Noctua single fan. And yeah, those tan fans are butt ugly it you have your heart set on an RGB extravaganza. But Noctua's stuff is beautifully made. You can literally see the quality difference in machining from a Hyper 212, from a couple of feet away. Noctua is far from cheap though. (But you probably knew that).

 

[Beerfloat]

The stock cooler should work on earlier, (or current) 65 watt CPUs, but the thing that pisses everybody iof is they're quite noisy. After all the fan is only somethinh like 80 mm, so it revs up pretty high when the processor starts to get hot..

My usual tactic is to throw the damned things away, and wait for the CM "Hyper 212", (or similar), to go on sale with a rebate Back when I built the machines I have them on, they were about $30.00, and well worth it for the peace a quiet they provide.

Yeah, horses for courses, I reckon.
Like I just use the included stock AMD Wraith Prism on my 3700x system and temps and bench results are perfectly average. But I put a Dark Rock Pro 4 on my 5900x.
I think that stock coolers can be fine for most people. Unless you use your PC in an unusually hot room or want to overclock, of course.

 

[Bp968]

Stop with the RGB garbage already. Haven't all the ***** kids grown out of that crap yet?

There is plenty of choice if you dont want rgb and it costs them almost nothing to add.

I went all RGB on my last build. It looks like a disco trapped inside a glass cube. Its hilarious and stupidly over the top. I probably wouldn't do it again but it give me a reason to keep the screens and fans clean since dust shows up so clearly.

And I'm 43, so hardly a kid (sadly I might add). Well, physically anyway (lol).

 

[Bp968]

I havent used a air cooler in a while. They have just gotten so *huge*. I usually just buy a decent water cooler AIO and they more than handle most everything. A 2x140, or 3x120 is great. A 3x140 is amazing but not many make them and their tougher to fit most cases. Companies haven't changed mounting points so my last AIO lasted 10 years before it started cavitating (it was an old 2x120 stacked front to back with a 120mm radiatior so needed to go anyway). I replaced it with a 2x140 280mm radiator and its essentially silent on my 5ghz 8700k.