Intel Core i9 14900KS Review

Alternative Cooling

Alternative Cooling

We tried the Thermal Grizzly CPU Contact Frame, but we couldn’t get things to marry up well enough to keep the processor remotely cool. We’re talking “four seconds into a Cinebench R24 run and 100°C”. This processor is crazy. Theoretically this should be a great solution, putting the pressure more evenly across the surface. Perhaps the Core i9-14900KS is microns different to the regular K and caused our issues. We don’t know.

Mmm a freshly delidded Core i9-14900KS. If you ever have eaten too many bananas, or are just generally having trouble, this is a guaranteed bowel loosener. The EK delid tool is very easy to use, but it’s still not a process for the faint of heart.

Enter the Rocketcool Copper IHS Kit. A replacement top that should lower the temperatures thanks to the better heat transference of copper. It’s 100% compatible with contact frames. Should fit all 12th to 14th Gen CPUs. We just couldn’t get it to work well enough to survive our testing.

Despite multiple attempts we also couldn’t get this to sit quite right. The mount wasn’t perfect and, like the Contact Frame, temperatures hit the roof immediately. Which is why we ended up with the EK CR360 Direct Die we’re going to use for our testing today.