Intel Core i5-9400F Processor Back to Thermal Paste, no soldered heatsprader
One of the things that have become apparent is that enthusiast end-users like a processor that has a soldered heat spreader. it helps in cooling matters. As such the Core 9000 series had that, except the Core i5-9400F is seems, it's back to using thermal paste.
This is a little confusing really, as everybody is under the assumption that it's soldered, and now some Coffee Lake Refresh procs continue to rely on thermal paste between CPU die and Heatspreader.
The Intel Core i5-9400F was just released, it's a proc that has no IGP (or at least it is not active). so it's not just lacking that graphics unit, but soldering is also missing. In Asia, some CPUs were beheaded in parallel, ie the heatspreader removed, revealed classic thermal grease, while the Core i5-9600K was soldered.
Core i5-9400F and Core i5-9400 seem to be based on different stepping. P0 stands for the new, U0, for the old stepping, which was already in use for the entire last year. So when you think about it, it may be in the case of recycling of old Coffee Lake CPUs from the previous year, thermal paste included.
It's all a bit confusing really.
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Thats just wild speculation though. I'm sure they are fully capable of making new CPUs and just not soldering them.

Since this seems to be strongly refering to the "F" variant, was the i5-9400 even soldered? I figured this was reserved for OC capable CPUs, ie. "K" variants, since non-OC CPUs really don't care that much.
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These must be the old processors they put away to create that artificial shortage and now prices are ripe to sell them.
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Intel and their shenanigans in a desperate attempt to rid of old inventory, business as usual
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I'm always in line to board the Intel Hate Train, but I don't see the problem with this at all. This CPU doesn't need to be soldered. Its base clock is 2.9GHz and its max turbo is 4.1GHz, and I don't think you can overclock this. Thermal paste will get the job done just fine. Indium (the "active ingredient" in IHS solder) is a very rare and expensive metal, so if I were Intel I'd make the same decision.
As for this being a rebranded 8 series, so what? Intel's architecture hasn't had any noteworthy changes since Skylake, and even then, that was basically just a die shrink of Broadwell with DDR4 support. If there was an actual difference between the 8th and 9th gens then sure, there might be a good reason to care, but the real problem that people should be complaining about is the total lack of innovation from Intel.
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Quote (So when you think about it, it may be in the case of recycling of old Coffee Lake CPUs from the previous year) So Intel have old stock that they can not sell at the new inflated prices that were jacked up because of shortages and manufacturing issues. Like I said last year complete BS and just price fixing.