The takeaway I got from this article is that if I use solder to attach my heatsink to the spreader on my Core i5 2500K instead of thermal paste, I could get a big jump in heat conductivity. Now if only I had the tools to create a solder point that large...
The logical next step, sadly unexplored, would have surely been to do some testing without the IHS?<p>E: turns out it doesn't really help[0], though that doesn't mean it wouldn't have been better if soldered.<p>0. <a href="http://www.overclock.net/t/1249419/pcevaluation-intel-i7-3770k-temperature-measured-without-ihs" rel="nofollow">http://www.overclock.net/t/1249419/pcevaluation-intel-i7-377...</a>
It doesn't make sense to me that Intel would do this just to save a nickel, unless solder is way more costly than I imagine. I'd like to know if some other aspect of production makes paste more desirable.
Could it be that Intel is making current generation of Ivy Bridge less over-clockable, so when the next generation is due, they just change the thermal conductivity of it, and over-clock it a bit more and call it a new chip?