[BillA]

Joe,
Marci had some good anecdotal AMD 'problem descriptions', a phase change guy (Eric K) said the AMD thermal cycling problem was well known, plus my observations on the (non)removal of the Intel IHS with the absence of reported issues - different mfgn process

the assumption that the Intel internal TIM joint is stable seems quite valid

Les
2 courses here, CPU and die
I agree that the die is more suitable for modeling (w/o a long ton of assumptions re the CPU, mobo, etc)
a die will always yield more and better data as that is its purpose,
but as an alternative to the cost and complexity of a die I wish to explore using a real CPU in some fashion

something that we can recommend to those scorned and despised review sites

agreed there is a temp relationship between the IHS and the silicon (lol), but as you say where ? and what is it ?
seems simple, assume a TIM joint value and add a bit for IHS conduction and calc a die temp