Supercool Computers Direct-Die waterblock and delid tool for Intel Alder Lake Review| Intel Core i9-12900K in Pain

Ever smaller manufacturing processes lead to ever higher thermal densities in CPUs and GPUs. This is one of the reasons why Intel’s new Alder Lake CPUs run so hot that every air cooler almost has no chance with a big i9, no matter how many watts of waste heat it is designed for. The often cited bottleneck lies further up the cooling chain [...]


DDR5 is no longer a sidegrade – ADATA XPG LANCER RGB DDR5-6000 CL40 2x 16 GB kit in the test with overclocking and teardown

Today we’re looking at the next high-performance upgrade level of DDR5 memory, in the form of the ADATA XPG LANCER RGB DDR5-6000 CL40 2x 16 GB kit. Our sample is based on the SK Hynix M-Die memory chips, which currently offer the highest performance and overclocking potential for DDR5. Even though the XMP profile looks rather unsuspicious [...]


Intel Socket LGA-1700 “washer mod” part 2 – motherboards, ILM manufacturers and coolers in a before/after comparison | Practice

As promised, today we cover part 2 of the “Washermod”, in which we want to evaluate a few more combinations of different motherboards, socket manufacturers and coolers in a before and after test with the modification. To briefly summarize what the washer mod is all about: washers are installed between the motherboard and the ILM [...]


News Test

AMD’s Socket AM5 v2 in detail – What is better in Ryzen than in Intel’s Socket LGA-1700 for Alder Lake | Exclusive

Today I turn for the first time in detail to AMD’s upcoming Socket AM5 (version 2), as it will be used for the upcoming Raphael CPUs (Ryzen 7000). AMD consequently changes from the PGA (Pin Grid Array) with the contacts on the CPU to the much easier to handle LGA (Land Grid Array) because of the large number of required (1718) pins. After we [...]


Alder Lake’s cooling problem straightened out by 5 degrees! – Simple ILM-Mod for Intel’s LGA-1700 socket | Practice

Intel’s Alder Lake CPUs run hot, very hot. A few weeks ago, Igor had already identified the bending of the CPU and motherboard due to the LGA1700 socket as a potential cause for this. Today I’ll show you a simple modification that can gain up to 5 °C in CPU core temperatures, and it almost couldn’t be simpler. Thanks (again) to [...]


What is the Intel Core i5-12400 on the B660 motherboard really capable of in workstation and productive use case? Our practice test | Part 2

Can you really work efficiently and productively with an Intel Core i5-12400? And will DDR4 suffice instead of the expensive and unavailable DDR5 memory? Even if some questions remain unanswered and a “It depends” would be the most diplomatic answer, Intel’s small Core i5 isn’t that bad either. But is that enough against an [...]


Intel Core i5-12400 Review – Efficient and cheap gaming CPU for the masses with way too expensive motherboards | Part 1

Today I want to test the Intel Core i5-12400 in gaming first, before there will of course be the follow up with real application benchmarks soon. I used two brand new B660 motherboards as a base this time and also compare the DDR4 with a DDR5 version of the MSI MAG B660M Mortar WiFi, because there are some really interesting differences with [...]


Intel completely disables AVX-512 on Alder Lake after all – Questionable interpretation of “efficiency” | News / Editorial

Intel is now set to disable “AVX-512” completely on all Alder Lake CPUs with an upcoming microcode update in new BIOS releases. Mainboard manufacturers were able to make the supposedly disabled instruction set available at launch, which resulted in a significant performance increase for the P-cores of the new CPUs. Now Intel is [...]


Colourful dawn of a new era – Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR5-5600 CL36 2x 16 GB Kit Test with OC and Teardown

Today we too start with the kit reviews for DDR5 on the new Alder Lake platform. At the launch at the beginning of November, the availability of the new memory kits was more than sparse, but since then one or the other DDR5 memory module has actually shown up as “in stock” in many online shops. Perfect timing to take a closer look at [...]


PROJECT HYDRA – OC Sandbox for ZEN3 CPUs | Freeware Download

Yuri Bubliy aka 1usmus is now taking a completely different approach with Project Hydra than he did with the former CTR (Clock Tuner for Ryzen), although the focus and goal of both programs are the same: an OC sandbox for optimizing current Ryzen processors from AMD that are based on Zen3. For Project Hydra, Yuri took the well-meant advice and [...]