Thermal Grizzly’s new contact frame, co-designed by famed overlocker Roman “der8auer” Hartung, has proven effective in reducing the temps of 12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900K processors significantly. Igor Wallosek put it to the test alongside another similar offering from Alphacool and saw reduced temps of up 10°C. It took several attempts to get it properly seated, but he was eventually able to get it installed. The contact frame costs only 40 Euros (~$43) but is made of quality materials.
With the 12th Gen CPU Contact Frame by der8auer, Thermal Grizzly provides an assembly aid for Intel mainboards with the LGA1700 socket. The contact frame replaces the mainboards stock ILM to improve the cooling performance of CPU coolers through optimized contact pressure.
The Contact Frame was designed in collaboration with Roman “der8auer” Hartung and is manufactured in Berlin – 100% Made in Germany. Roman Hartung is a mechatronics engineer, hardware enthusiast and content creator in the field of PC hardware. At the same time, he is a well-known overclocker who has already designed numerous products for overclocking PC hardware.
• Lower CPU temperatures
• Easy construction
• High compatibility
• Anodized aluminumThe standard Integrated Loading Mechanism (ILM) has contact points that are in the middle of the elongated CPU. The surface of the Integrated Heatspreader (IHS) curves concavely due to the resulting uneven contact pressure of the processor in the socket. As a result, the base plate of the CPU cooler rests primarily on the edges of the IHS, so that the thermal “hotspot” in the center of the CPU is not optimally covered.
The Intel 12th Gen CPU Contact Frame has a special inner contour to shift the contact pressure from the center of the CPU to the edges during assembly. This avoids the concave curvature of the IHS. This means that the CPU cooler rests better on the processor and a larger contact surface is created to dissipate the waste heat of the CPU.
The assembly of the Contact Frame is very easy and takes only a few steps. Depending on the CPU cooler used and depending on the CPU used, the temperatures of the processor can be noticeably reduced.
Sources: Igor’s Lab (via Tom’s Hardware), Thermal Grizzly