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Monday, 07 December 2015 10:22

Bendgate: it’s not just for iPhones anymore.

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Not all that long ago someone found out that Apple’s iPhone was not all that strong and could be damaged with little pressure. This issue became known as Bendgate… the use of the word gate still following us from the days of Watergate when Richard Nixon was the president. However, there now seems to be another item that could be dropped into the Bendgate fiasco. This is some of Intel’s Skylake CPUs.

There are already reports that high-pressure coolers are bending CPUs and damaging them. PCGamesHardware.de found this out when using a Scythe cooler. The core issue here is believed to be the use of a thinner substrate on newer generations of Intel CPUs. When there is a shock to the system (such as moving them etc) the pressure causes the substrate to bend and press down into the pins in the LGA 1151 socket. This causes damage to the CPU and the socket at the same time. The issue appears to be with both air and water coolers although not every product is causing the damage.

Many cooler manufacturers are moving to ensure that their products are safe for use with the LGA1151 socket due to this reduction in substrate strength. You can check with the manufacturer of your cooler to see if it is safe to use on with the LGA1151 socket. As of this writing we do not know what manufacturers will do to remediate any coolers already sold that are not safe. We will work to keep you up to date on this one.

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Sean Kalinich

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