Arrow Lake CPUs can still get bendy despite revamped socket — specialized contact frame flattens chip, claims to lower temperatures by up to 6C

Thermal Grizzly has officially introduced an updated contact frame for the LGA1851 socket, which houses Intel’s all-new Core Ultra 200S (Arrow Lake) desktop processors. The Intel 1851 CPU Contact Frame V1 promises temperature reductions of up to four degrees Celsius when switching from the Reduced-Load ILM (RL-ILM) and up to six degrees Celsius from the standard ILM.

The Intel LGA 1851 CPU Contact Frame V1 performs the same function as its predecessors on the LGA1700 socket. The modified contact frame evenly spreads out contact pressure over all four borders of the CPU. This is an improvement over the stock installation mechanism, which Thermal Grizzly states creates “concave bending of the CPU’s Integrated Heat Spreader (IHS) caused by the standard Integrated Loading Mechanism (ILM).”

Thermal Grizzly reports that CPU temperatures can be reduced by up to six degrees Celsius when switching from the standard ILM to its new LGA 851 contact frame. Temperature reductions of up to four degrees Celsius can be expected when switching from a Reduced-Load ILM (RL-ILM), an optional, more performant version of the default ILM available on LGA1851 motherboards. The new contact frame is also compatible with Arrow Lake CPUs, featuring a modified sanded-down ILM of 0.2mm or less.

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Like all other custom contact frames, the end-user must manually remove the default ILM on their associated motherboard and replace it with the custom frame. Thermal Grizzly has provided all the necessary screws and tools needed to install the new frame onto any LGA 1851 supported board.

Custom contact frames are primarily geared towards enthusiasts and overclockers who want to boost thermal dissipation performance as much as possible. Modern chips generally change clock speeds based on temperature, so having the lowest CPU temperatures possible under load is optimal. The same applies to overclocking, where lower temps provide greater overclocking headroom.

The Thermal Grizzly CPU contact frame V1 has a matte black finish and is priced at $32.59 on the company’s website.