Thermalright CPU Contact Frame for LGA 1700 Retrofit Kit, 17XX-BCF Bracket Intel 12th/13th/14th Generation Anti-Bending Buckle Black

Sadly I do not have any before/after numbers to share as I installed the frame before the first boot. However, what I can say is that the temps on my 12900K are absolutely phenomenal.Setup: Sitting in a 74F room, cooled by a H100i Capellix XT set as top exhaust inside a Corsair 4000D Airflow with 3x 120mm fans up front. Motherboard is a Strix Z690-E. Load temps were measured using Apex Legends.My idle temps on both the P and E cores average around 18-25C. Load temps under gaming with Windows 11 power plan set to High performance, the max temp I have recorded is around 72C which was very obviously a spike when launching the game. Minus the spike the game hovers in the high 50’s to mid 60’s temp range. Phenomenal cooling as my old 9900K would average easily in the mid 70’s. I have no doubt the contact frame is attributing to the better temps as the 12900K is a very hot running chip.Other small things to praise, the contact frame is built super well. Very refined and smooth edges and a seamless installation (please watch Gamers Nexus video on installation). Thermalright also provides a tube of thermal paste, which I find to be a nice gesture.Overall, this is basically a must have for any 12th and 13th gen owners. No reason at all to get the Thermal Grizzly for like double the price. Great work Thermalright, you guys are winners!

After reading numerous articles and watching videos about LGA1700 ILM bending issues, I decided to try this Thermalright Contact Frame for my new 13600K build. For a few bucks, there seems to be absolutely no downside and only possible improvements over the ILM included on LGA1700 sockets. Personally, I’m not even that concerned about lower temps (though that obviously would be a nice benefit) – rather, after attempting to close the ILM on my new cpu I was concerned about the side-to-side slop in the ILM and what feels like WAY too much pressure pushing the latching lever down… So, I ordered this frame and installed it right out of the gate on the new board. Installation was just as easy as online videos demonstrate and I had no problems with the screw length on my Asus Z790 Prime-A board that I had seen a few references about. This Thermalright frame is also preferrable over the more expensive Thermal Grizzly frame in that it sits directly on the motherboard surface rather than ‘floating’ which makes the screw torque significantly more complicated and error prone.If you think about the purpose of the original ILM, it’s only job is to hold the cpu securely in the socket while allowing users to install/remove the cpu. I suspect that these contact frames are actually superior for that purpose, but Intel is anxious about users fiddling with the very fragile LGA1700 socket pins and the ILM is more convenient in that respect – but that doesn’t mean it’s better.So I don’t have any A/B temp figures to share, but I’ll rest easier knowing my cpu and motherboard won’t bend like a pretzel over time. Well worth the few dollars in my opinion.EDIT 3/30/23 – There seems to be several listings for this item. As long as the design/shape is the same they are all identical. Pick the cheapest one you can find, you can’t see the color when your cooler is sitting on top of it. Seems like $11 is the current low price as of today – no need to spend more.EDIT 5/6/23 – I should have mentioned the installation process with a bit more detail… First, make sure your cpu is placed loosely in the socket before attempting to remove the original ILM – it’s easy to drop a screw or otherwise bump the _very_ fragile socket pins, so having the cpu in the socket will keep them covered during the installation. Also make a mental note how much (actually how little) torque is required to remove the original ILM screws – notice they are barely tightened down. That is the torque you should aim for when installing this contact frame – it’s basically hand tight and then a nudge, no more. Turn the screws backwards (counter clockwise) until you hear or feel a slight click – this is when the screw threads fall into place and will help prevent the potential of cross threading when you tighten them. Other than those few points, the process is very simple.

I have an Intel 13th gen chip, and I had heard about instances where the chips were beginning to bend due to heat. I didn’t want to take any chances, so I bought one of these. It was relatively easy to install, and in my opinion it was worth it for the peace of mind.

Used my first one of these on a recent Lian Li 011 Dynamic EVO RGB build, i7-14000K, MSI mobo.The tensioning is so much better due to the four-(4) attachment screws. 2-3 deg.C difference before/after but also spread out the TG paste better so… The quality of the machining is very good at

MUST have if you’re running a hot intel chip. Very heavy workloads would consistently hit 100C on several cores prior to swapping the cpu frame. After installing, while some cores will still get as high as 90C+ it rarely ever reaches 100C