Intel Skylake-S ‘K-Series’ Processors Won’t Ship with Stock HSF – Third Party Coolers Recommended, TDP Confirmed at 95W

Intel will be launching its Skylake micro-architecture shortly. The paper launch is expected to be held at Gamescom 2015 with the products hitting the shelves within a month or so. One thing that will change from past lineups is that the Skylake-S “K-Series” unlocked multiplier CPUs will not ship with a stock HSF. Rather, taking a leaf out of the HEDT book, Intel expects end users to use their own third party solutions (while giving the option of its own dedicated solutions).

Slide courtesy of xFastest forums. @Intel Public Domain

Intel SKL-S ‘K-Series’ processors to ship without a thermal solution, TDP of 95W

Intel will be introducing the PCG 2015D high performance air and water cooling solutions seperately for enthusiasts that are interested in them. The processor itself will however not be boxed with any thermal cooling solution. Interestingly, the standard HSF (PCG 2013D)  is capable of 90W heat dissipation while as the new air and water cooling solutions tagged as 2015 PCD are 130W TDP capable. This overhead over the noted TDP of 95W for SKL would allow a very comfortable headroom for most K series enthusiasts although there is still no equivalent for dedicated third party air or water cooling solutions.

This isn’t really a bad move on Intel’s part since almost no overclocker would use the stock HSF (which is mostly useless as an overclocking solution anyways and barely adequate at stock clocks). I am personally using a Noctua NH-U14S and the difference between the stock HSF and my Noctua is night and day. Removing the HSF from all enthusiast class SKUs would allow Intel to cut costs without compromising on product quality – not to mention the average end user wouldn’t have to pay for something they would never use anyways.

I have a feeling however, that the relative MSRP reduction due to lack of a complimentary HSF might not be equivalent to the cost reduction Intel achieves – allowing blue to broaden their profit margins for Skylake-S ‘K-Series’ SKUs (God, this nomenclature is unfortunate). Skylake-S will launch with the unlocked mulitplier processors, namely the Core i5 6600K and the Core i7 6700K. Both chips will be Quad core, with the later supporting Hyper Threading. The socket in question is the LGA 1151 socket with Intel’s Z170 Express chipset to allow CPU oveclocking. Both DDR3 and DDR4 will be supported making Skylake serve as the transition point between the two memory standards. Other SKUs (that will include the stock HSF) that are thought to be launched soon after include include i7-6700/6700T, Core i5-6600, 6500, 6400, 6600T, 6500T and 6400T, and H170, B150 chipsets and H110 chipset.

Model	Process	Cores	Core Clock	Boost Clock	Cache	Memory Support	TDP	Socket	Unlocked Design
Core i7-6700K	14nm	4/8	4.0 GHz	4.2 GHz	8 MB	DDR4 2133 MHz	95W	LGA 1151	Yes
Core i5-6600K	14nm	4/4	3.5 GHz	3.9 GHz	6 MB	DDR4 2133 MHz	95W	LGA 1151	Yes
Core i7-6700	14nm	4/8	3.4 GHz	4.0 GHz	8 MB	DDR4 2133 MHz	65W	LGA 1151	No
Core i5-6600	14nm	4/4	3.3 GHz	3.9 GHz	6 MB	DDR4 2133 MHz	65W	LGA 1151	No
Core i5-6500	14nm	4/4	3.2 GHz	3.6 GHz	6 MB	DDR4 2133 MHz	65W	LGA 1151	No
Core i5-6400	14nm	4/4	2.7 GHz	3.3 GHz	6 MB	DDR4 2133 MHz	65W	LGA 1151	No
Core i7-6700T	14nm	4/8	2.8 GHz	3.6 GHz	8 MB	DDR4 2133 MHz	35W	LGA 1151	No
Core i5-6600T	14nm	4/4	2.7 GHz	3.5 GHz	6 MB	DDR4 2133 MHz	35W	LGA 1151	No
Core i5-6500T	14nm	4/4	2.5 GHz	3.1 GHz	6 MB	DDR4 2133 MHz	35W	LGA 1151	No
Core i5-6400T	14nm	4/4	2.2 GHz	2.8 GHz	6 MB	DDR4 2133 MHz	35W	LGA 1151	No