{"video_id":"fDogiKaNaac","title":"How BAD is it if you forget to peel??","channel":"Linus Tech Tips","show":"Linus Tech Tips","published_at":"2022-05-05T14:53:29Z","duration_s":748,"segments":[{"start_s":0.08,"end_s":6.879,"text":"i made three critical mistakes building this computer see look","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":5.04,"end_s":11.2,"text":"no working i didn't seat my RAM correctly and i didn't flip the switch","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":8.48,"end_s":14.88,"text":"on my power supply but wait i said there were three errors well the last one it's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":13.679,"end_s":20.08,"text":"not going to prevent the system from powering on you can see it's powering on","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":16.8,"end_s":22.32,"text":"just fine but what it is is a silent","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":20.08,"end_s":27.76,"text":"performance killer i didn't peel the plastic on the bottom","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":24.96,"end_s":27.76,"text":"of my cooler","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":28.32,"end_s":37.28,"text":"but come on you might say not me i mean who could be that stupid","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":34.96,"end_s":41.44,"text":"and i thought like you once until one fateful day even though i had years of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":39.6,"end_s":45.6,"text":"pc building experience i was in the middle of build i got distracted pulled","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":43.52,"end_s":52.48,"text":"away doing something else came back carelessly put it together and pow","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":48.719,"end_s":54.8,"text":"plastic between my CPU and my cooler but","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":52.48,"end_s":59.199,"text":"that raises a few questions just how bad is it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":57.039,"end_s":62.48,"text":"is there plastic between your CPU and your cooler right now without you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":60.719,"end_s":66.72,"text":"knowing it and who's our sponsor for this video ridge wallet has redefined","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":64.559,"end_s":71.04,"text":"the wallet with their compact frames and rfid blocking plates get yours today at","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":69.28,"end_s":75.439,"text":"the link below using offer code Linus to get free worldwide shipping and 10","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":72.72,"end_s":75.439,"text":"percent off","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":82.479,"end_s":89.119,"text":"for the best possible performance every heatsink or water block is finished with","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":86.32,"end_s":93.759,"text":"a smooth flat surface this is to ensure that there's as much","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":91.36,"end_s":97.6,"text":"contact area as possible any small imperfection in this surface could","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":95.439,"end_s":101.119,"text":"easily impact the cooler's performance or even cause the system to thermal","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":99.36,"end_s":106.079,"text":"throttle so that's why many manufacturers of cooling solutions","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":103.28,"end_s":110.96,"text":"include plastic covers or at the very least stickers to prevent this sensitive","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":108.399,"end_s":115.439,"text":"area from being damaged in shipping or by the technician who's building your","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":112.479,"end_s":120.399,"text":"computer so some for example will have a hard plastic shell this is particularly","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":118.079,"end_s":124.799,"text":"common on coolers that have pre-applied thermal compound like this water cooler","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":122.719,"end_s":128.56,"text":"from nzxt i think yes one nice thing about this approach","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":126.96,"end_s":132.48,"text":"is that because it's so bulky it would be pretty hard to accidentally install","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":130.8,"end_s":136.4,"text":"the cooler unless you've removed it though i'm pretty sure that has been","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":134.56,"end_s":142.16,"text":"done most coolers use something more like this hyper 212 evo though they've","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":138.879,"end_s":144.959,"text":"got like a thin film type sticker that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":142.16,"end_s":149.28,"text":"usually if the manufacturer is smart has a warning that looks a little something","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":146.64,"end_s":153.84,"text":"like this please peel off label before you use it warning","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":151.76,"end_s":157.28,"text":"nice little tab of course i'm not going to pull on that tab today","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":155.28,"end_s":162.4,"text":"because what we want to know is what happens if you don't peel it our first","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":160.16,"end_s":166.959,"text":"victa participant is going to be an Intel core i3 8100 and this is for a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":164.8,"end_s":171.44,"text":"couple of reasons number one is that this is a relatively inexpensive chip","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":169.36,"end_s":176.0,"text":"and i don't know what's going to happen i don't think that it's going to be able","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":173.2,"end_s":181.2,"text":"to fry itself but it is possible that this plastic could melt and render the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":178.56,"end_s":185.519,"text":"chip inoperable that way number two is that this is an entirely realistic","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":183.28,"end_s":191.36,"text":"scenario i mean someone could easily be kind of half asleep on the assembly line","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":187.84,"end_s":192.48,"text":"at a computer maker like acer or dell","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":191.36,"end_s":196.959,"text":"and it's possible that it could make it all","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":194.4,"end_s":199.92,"text":"the way past qc into the box and to your front door","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":198.4,"end_s":203.68,"text":"where is it oh i almost forgot to put thermal paste on","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":201.519,"end_s":203.68,"text":"it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":207.68,"end_s":214.959,"text":"oh my goodness this feels so wrong while we boot up is a perfect time to stay","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":212.4,"end_s":218.64,"text":"hydrated lttstore.com","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":216.72,"end_s":221.76,"text":"oh yeah t-shirts too we have mystery shirts now what's a mystery shirt you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":220.319,"end_s":225.12,"text":"might ask it's a mystery obviously","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":223.84,"end_s":230.0,"text":"now brandon you don't give away the mystery right out of the gate i can","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":227.12,"end_s":234.48,"text":"launch programs browse the web everything is like","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":232.0,"end_s":239.439,"text":"perfectly responsive there is nothing to indicate that something's wrong in fact","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":236.72,"end_s":243.68,"text":"okay this sort of spoiled the big reveal i've even got counter-strike running in","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":241.2,"end_s":250.08,"text":"the background here at anywhere from 100 to 150 frames per second now that's not","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":246.64,"end_s":253.28,"text":"a lot for an rtx 2080 super but that is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":250.08,"end_s":255.12,"text":"a lot for you know a core i3 8100 it's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":253.28,"end_s":259.04,"text":"the craziest thing there's nothing about this experience to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":257.04,"end_s":263.4,"text":"indicate that anything is the matter with this computer now sometimes you'll","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":260.799,"end_s":268.479,"text":"have 200 FPS but you'll feel inconsistencies or stutters or hitches","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":266.72,"end_s":272.16,"text":"that's not oh hi that's not the experience at all here we've been","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":269.759,"end_s":277.199,"text":"playing the game for a while and blah blah blah blah blah lots of FPS etc","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":275.12,"end_s":281.44,"text":"check this out hardware info uh casual","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":278.96,"end_s":287.759,"text":"45 degrees celsius maximum 54 while gaming if every CPU ran","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":285.12,"end_s":291.68,"text":"it 45 to 55 degrees celsius the world would be a cooler place of course it's a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":289.759,"end_s":296.56,"text":"well-known fact that games particularly older ones aren't capable of fully","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":293.919,"end_s":301.04,"text":"utilizing a multi-core CPU so we fired up cinebench r23 and we're","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":298.639,"end_s":306.56,"text":"gonna let this run for a while to see if we managed to overwhelm our","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":303.759,"end_s":312.72,"text":"plastic coated cooler a few moments","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":308.84,"end_s":314.479,"text":"later with a maximum of 68 degrees i","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":312.72,"end_s":317.84,"text":"feel like i have to prove to you guys i'm just gonna i'm gonna turn it off","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":316.32,"end_s":321.919,"text":"you're gonna see that this is in fact the system i'm running","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":319.68,"end_s":327.44,"text":"i'm gonna pop this cooler off i swear to you the plastic is on it","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":325.44,"end_s":330.72,"text":"that's a completely serviceable operating temperature","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":329.36,"end_s":334.96,"text":"i wouldn't even i could own this computer for years and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":333.28,"end_s":339.039,"text":"never realized that there was any kind of problem","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":336.479,"end_s":344.08,"text":"and the craziest part is we actually turned on multi-core enhancement in the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":341.28,"end_s":348.479,"text":"BIOS so this thing is turboing to the greatest possible extent that it can","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":347.039,"end_s":352.0,"text":"even with an enthusiast class motherboard come on over here mark i","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":350.56,"end_s":354.479,"text":"gotta prove this we're doing this as a one take","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":354.96,"end_s":362.16,"text":"plastic baby and get this there was no effect to the chip","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":359.52,"end_s":366.88,"text":"physically whatsoever so that means i am ready to take things to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":364.8,"end_s":371.919,"text":"another level because the thing is acceptable performance doesn't equal","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":369.68,"end_s":375.199,"text":"optimal performance and surely if it didn't make any difference whatsoever","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":373.52,"end_s":379.84,"text":"cooler master wouldn't bother with this fancy little hey peel this thing off","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":377.28,"end_s":385.759,"text":"warning so to take things to the next level we're gonna go with an Intel core","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":382.16,"end_s":389.68,"text":"i9 9900k this is an eight core processor","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":385.759,"end_s":391.759,"text":"rated at 95 watts TDP which on paper","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":389.68,"end_s":398.639,"text":"doesn't actually sound like that much more than 65 watts but in practice","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":395.44,"end_s":402.72,"text":"Intel's tdps are more like pirate code","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":398.639,"end_s":405.6,"text":"guidelines and this 65 watt chip there's","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":402.72,"end_s":410.96,"text":"no way it actually consumes 65 watts meanwhile this 95 watt chip especially","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":408.88,"end_s":416.0,"text":"if you enable multi-core enhancement is gonna consume way more than 95 watts and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":414.639,"end_s":421.96,"text":"here it is absolutely disgusting","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":418.8,"end_s":421.96,"text":"all right","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":422.56,"end_s":428.72,"text":"let's give it a chance let's go with the CPU's default behavior let's see what","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":426.24,"end_s":434.88,"text":"happens and once again no obvious problem we're anywhere from 350 to 250","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":433.12,"end_s":439.759,"text":"frames per second like obviously that's easily playable","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":437.919,"end_s":442.96,"text":"and it's smooth this is with a core i9","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":444.24,"end_s":451.84,"text":"wow there are a lot of bullet holes in the wall behind his head","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":449.199,"end_s":455.84,"text":"how is my aim so bad ah but while we were gaming we had a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":453.28,"end_s":461.919,"text":"maximum of 91 degrees and yes we did in fact thermal throttle","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":459.36,"end_s":467.06,"text":"and this is before we even ran an intensive all core load like cinebench","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":464.96,"end_s":468.56,"text":"let's see what happens when we do that","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":468.56,"end_s":473.28,"text":"and start i'm expecting this to be","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":472.08,"end_s":477.68,"text":"pretty rough oh 100 degrees instantly and check this","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":476.08,"end_s":483.039,"text":"out this heatsink is cool to the touch so","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":480.8,"end_s":486.639,"text":"what the heck is going on here there are actually a few factors at play here","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":484.56,"end_s":491.36,"text":"starting with bam surprise math lesson","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":488.319,"end_s":492.879,"text":"this is normal you've got your CPU and","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":491.36,"end_s":497.039,"text":"you've got your heatsink you want all the heat to go from here to here where","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":494.879,"end_s":501.44,"text":"it can be dissipated to the air around it but there are a couple of different","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":498.72,"end_s":506.24,"text":"paths it can take it can either travel from metal to metal because remember on","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":503.599,"end_s":510.479,"text":"a microscopic level metal is going to be textured no matter how much you try to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":508.24,"end_s":514.08,"text":"polish it so they might meet up kind of like this where those atoms are touching","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":513.039,"end_s":518.479,"text":"that's where you're going to get the best possible thermal transfer for","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":516.24,"end_s":523.279,"text":"everywhere else well of course there's thermal compound to fill in those gaps","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":520.56,"end_s":527.04,"text":"that's going to be r2 now heat is kind of like electricity in that it wants to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":524.8,"end_s":531.36,"text":"take the path of least resistance so these paths can be considered to be in","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":529.279,"end_s":536.8,"text":"parallel with as much heat as possible being transferred to our heatsink","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":533.279,"end_s":538.959,"text":"this is where our plastic comes in now","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":536.8,"end_s":544.399,"text":"we've got this original resistance equation except kind of there is no r1","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":542.48,"end_s":549.6,"text":"because there is no metal to metal contact and therefore no optimal route","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":547.44,"end_s":553.36,"text":"and then we actually have to add the thermal resistance of our plastic which","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":551.68,"end_s":560.08,"text":"is going to be a function of how thermally conductive our plastic is hint","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":556.16,"end_s":561.04,"text":"not very and how thick it is hint not","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":560.08,"end_s":565.68,"text":"very but that's still really bad because the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":563.44,"end_s":570.399,"text":"thermal resistance of plastic is so freaking high so what that means in","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":567.92,"end_s":574.64,"text":"practice is that with a very high thermal resistance the difference in","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":572.64,"end_s":580.0,"text":"temperature between the CPU and the heatsink needs to be really really high","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":577.76,"end_s":584.08,"text":"as the wattage goes up right so the more watts we're trying to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":582.56,"end_s":589.68,"text":"move the more heat we're trying to move between the CPU and the heatsink","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":586.56,"end_s":591.76,"text":"the more that resistance hurts us","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":589.68,"end_s":596.08,"text":"but i did say there was more than one factor at play didn't i you might have","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":593.44,"end_s":600.32,"text":"noticed the computer is still running that's because any modern CPU whether","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":598.24,"end_s":604.72,"text":"it's from AMD or Intel is going to be equipped with a thermal sensor or in","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":602.32,"end_s":609.519,"text":"many cases a suite of them along with the ability to dynamically scale its own","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":607.04,"end_s":613.76,"text":"frequency and working together those two features are called thermal throttling","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":611.76,"end_s":618.32,"text":"so what they allow the chip to do is say hey if we reach this predetermined","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":616.56,"end_s":623.68,"text":"temperature that the manufacturer has deemed unsafe you need to dynamically","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":621.12,"end_s":627.76,"text":"scale down the frequency until we're not drawing any more power and therefore","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":626.079,"end_s":632.0,"text":"putting out any more heat than the thermal solution can deal with so you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":629.76,"end_s":637.12,"text":"can see here that while the chip is absolutely running it's getting a much","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":634.399,"end_s":641.44,"text":"lower score in cinebench than a normal core i9 9900k would","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":639.839,"end_s":646.0,"text":"and that's because we don't have enough cooling and finally there's how you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":644.0,"end_s":650.0,"text":"actually use your computer we saw a significant difference in throttling","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":647.76,"end_s":654.959,"text":"behavior between cs go and the heavily multi-threaded workload like cinebench","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":652.16,"end_s":661.279,"text":"r23 so the answer to our original question just how bad is it is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":658.32,"end_s":664.56,"text":"it depends if you have a low powered CPU or if all you do is game","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":663.279,"end_s":669.2,"text":"it's possible you've been running plastic on your CPU for years and the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":667.04,"end_s":673.36,"text":"worst effect you might notice is the odd stutter or hitch as your thermal","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":671.279,"end_s":676.56,"text":"throttling kicks in and drops your CPU frequency","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":674.399,"end_s":680.079,"text":"or if you're a heavy user it's likely you're leaving a significant amount of","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":678.079,"end_s":684.24,"text":"performance on the table or as a worst case scenario your chip could even die a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":682.0,"end_s":688.64,"text":"premature death because as we all know the cooler you can keep your CPU the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":686.32,"end_s":693.12,"text":"longer it should last the good news though is that if you screw up and you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":690.959,"end_s":697.44,"text":"accidentally put the plastic on and go oh no my temperatures are bad and check","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":695.68,"end_s":702.079,"text":"it and fix it the odds are that it's not going to kill","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":699.2,"end_s":707.68,"text":"anything not like my killer segues to our sponsors sponsors like redux redux","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":705.04,"end_s":711.04,"text":"offers pcs with no markup pricing that means you pay what you would pay if you","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":709.2,"end_s":715.68,"text":"bought the hardware from a store and just a 75 build fee on top you get a","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":713.68,"end_s":719.36,"text":"two-year warranty on parts and labor and you can use their online builder to","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":717.2,"end_s":722.56,"text":"customize what's going inside based on the games you want to play and the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":720.8,"end_s":726.48,"text":"performance you want to get redux believes in bringing pc gaming to the","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":724.16,"end_s":729.12,"text":"masses even folks who don't feel comfortable building a pc because they","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":727.92,"end_s":733.12,"text":"think they might put the thermal compound on the plastic and that is why","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":731.12,"end_s":736.959,"text":"they only charge a small build fee and they won't cut corners on quality so","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":735.279,"end_s":741.04,"text":"click the link below and create your dream pc today if you guys enjoyed this","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":739.279,"end_s":745.44,"text":"video you might enjoy another kind of investigation into screwing up in our is","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0},{"start_s":743.68,"end_s":749.44,"text":"your rig bottleneck video we're gonna have that linked down below","speaker":null,"is_sponsor":0}],"full_text":"i made three critical mistakes building this computer see look no working i didn't seat my RAM correctly and i didn't flip the switch on my power supply but wait i said there were three errors well the last one it's not going to prevent the system from powering on you can see it's powering on just fine but what it is is a silent performance killer i didn't peel the plastic on the bottom of my cooler but come on you might say not me i mean who could be that stupid and i thought like you once until one fateful day even though i had years of pc building experience i was in the middle of build i got distracted pulled away doing something else came back carelessly put it together and pow plastic between my CPU and my cooler but that raises a few questions just how bad is it is there plastic between your CPU and your cooler right now without you knowing it and who's our sponsor for this video ridge wallet has redefined the wallet with their compact frames and rfid blocking plates get yours today at the link below using offer code Linus to get free worldwide shipping and 10 percent off for the best possible performance every heatsink or water block is finished with a smooth flat surface this is to ensure that there's as much contact area as possible any small imperfection in this surface could easily impact the cooler's performance or even cause the system to thermal throttle so that's why many manufacturers of cooling solutions include plastic covers or at the very least stickers to prevent this sensitive area from being damaged in shipping or by the technician who's building your computer so some for example will have a hard plastic shell this is particularly common on coolers that have pre-applied thermal compound like this water cooler from nzxt i think yes one nice thing about this approach is that because it's so bulky it would be pretty hard to accidentally install the cooler unless you've removed it though i'm pretty sure that has been done most coolers use something more like this hyper 212 evo though they've got like a thin film type sticker that usually if the manufacturer is smart has a warning that looks a little something like this please peel off label before you use it warning nice little tab of course i'm not going to pull on that tab today because what we want to know is what happens if you don't peel it our first victa participant is going to be an Intel core i3 8100 and this is for a couple of reasons number one is that this is a relatively inexpensive chip and i don't know what's going to happen i don't think that it's going to be able to fry itself but it is possible that this plastic could melt and render the chip inoperable that way number two is that this is an entirely realistic scenario i mean someone could easily be kind of half asleep on the assembly line at a computer maker like acer or dell and it's possible that it could make it all the way past qc into the box and to your front door where is it oh i almost forgot to put thermal paste on it oh my goodness this feels so wrong while we boot up is a perfect time to stay hydrated lttstore.com oh yeah t-shirts too we have mystery shirts now what's a mystery shirt you might ask it's a mystery obviously now brandon you don't give away the mystery right out of the gate i can launch programs browse the web everything is like perfectly responsive there is nothing to indicate that something's wrong in fact okay this sort of spoiled the big reveal i've even got counter-strike running in the background here at anywhere from 100 to 150 frames per second now that's not a lot for an rtx 2080 super but that is a lot for you know a core i3 8100 it's the craziest thing there's nothing about this experience to indicate that anything is the matter with this computer now sometimes you'll have 200 FPS but you'll feel inconsistencies or stutters or hitches that's not oh hi that's not the experience at all here we've been playing the game for a while and blah blah blah blah blah lots of FPS etc check this out hardware info uh casual 45 degrees celsius maximum 54 while gaming if every CPU ran it 45 to 55 degrees celsius the world would be a cooler place of course it's a well-known fact that games particularly older ones aren't capable of fully utilizing a multi-core CPU so we fired up cinebench r23 and we're gonna let this run for a while to see if we managed to overwhelm our plastic coated cooler a few moments later with a maximum of 68 degrees i feel like i have to prove to you guys i'm just gonna i'm gonna turn it off you're gonna see that this is in fact the system i'm running i'm gonna pop this cooler off i swear to you the plastic is on it that's a completely serviceable operating temperature i wouldn't even i could own this computer for years and never realized that there was any kind of problem and the craziest part is we actually turned on multi-core enhancement in the BIOS so this thing is turboing to the greatest possible extent that it can even with an enthusiast class motherboard come on over here mark i gotta prove this we're doing this as a one take plastic baby and get this there was no effect to the chip physically whatsoever so that means i am ready to take things to another level because the thing is acceptable performance doesn't equal optimal performance and surely if it didn't make any difference whatsoever cooler master wouldn't bother with this fancy little hey peel this thing off warning so to take things to the next level we're gonna go with an Intel core i9 9900k this is an eight core processor rated at 95 watts TDP which on paper doesn't actually sound like that much more than 65 watts but in practice Intel's tdps are more like pirate code guidelines and this 65 watt chip there's no way it actually consumes 65 watts meanwhile this 95 watt chip especially if you enable multi-core enhancement is gonna consume way more than 95 watts and here it is absolutely disgusting all right let's give it a chance let's go with the CPU's default behavior let's see what happens and once again no obvious problem we're anywhere from 350 to 250 frames per second like obviously that's easily playable and it's smooth this is with a core i9 wow there are a lot of bullet holes in the wall behind his head how is my aim so bad ah but while we were gaming we had a maximum of 91 degrees and yes we did in fact thermal throttle and this is before we even ran an intensive all core load like cinebench let's see what happens when we do that and start i'm expecting this to be pretty rough oh 100 degrees instantly and check this out this heatsink is cool to the touch so what the heck is going on here there are actually a few factors at play here starting with bam surprise math lesson this is normal you've got your CPU and you've got your heatsink you want all the heat to go from here to here where it can be dissipated to the air around it but there are a couple of different paths it can take it can either travel from metal to metal because remember on a microscopic level metal is going to be textured no matter how much you try to polish it so they might meet up kind of like this where those atoms are touching that's where you're going to get the best possible thermal transfer for everywhere else well of course there's thermal compound to fill in those gaps that's going to be r2 now heat is kind of like electricity in that it wants to take the path of least resistance so these paths can be considered to be in parallel with as much heat as possible being transferred to our heatsink this is where our plastic comes in now we've got this original resistance equation except kind of there is no r1 because there is no metal to metal contact and therefore no optimal route and then we actually have to add the thermal resistance of our plastic which is going to be a function of how thermally conductive our plastic is hint not very and how thick it is hint not very but that's still really bad because the thermal resistance of plastic is so freaking high so what that means in practice is that with a very high thermal resistance the difference in temperature between the CPU and the heatsink needs to be really really high as the wattage goes up right so the more watts we're trying to move the more heat we're trying to move between the CPU and the heatsink the more that resistance hurts us but i did say there was more than one factor at play didn't i you might have noticed the computer is still running that's because any modern CPU whether it's from AMD or Intel is going to be equipped with a thermal sensor or in many cases a suite of them along with the ability to dynamically scale its own frequency and working together those two features are called thermal throttling so what they allow the chip to do is say hey if we reach this predetermined temperature that the manufacturer has deemed unsafe you need to dynamically scale down the frequency until we're not drawing any more power and therefore putting out any more heat than the thermal solution can deal with so you can see here that while the chip is absolutely running it's getting a much lower score in cinebench than a normal core i9 9900k would and that's because we don't have enough cooling and finally there's how you actually use your computer we saw a significant difference in throttling behavior between cs go and the heavily multi-threaded workload like cinebench r23 so the answer to our original question just how bad is it is it depends if you have a low powered CPU or if all you do is game it's possible you've been running plastic on your CPU for years and the worst effect you might notice is the odd stutter or hitch as your thermal throttling kicks in and drops your CPU frequency or if you're a heavy user it's likely you're leaving a significant amount of performance on the table or as a worst case scenario your chip could even die a premature death because as we all know the cooler you can keep your CPU the longer it should last the good news though is that if you screw up and you accidentally put the plastic on and go oh no my temperatures are bad and check it and fix it the odds are that it's not going to kill anything not like my killer segues to our sponsors sponsors like redux redux offers pcs with no markup pricing that means you pay what you would pay if you bought the hardware from a store and just a 75 build fee on top you get a two-year warranty on parts and labor and you can use their online builder to customize what's going inside based on the games you want to play and the performance you want to get redux believes in bringing pc gaming to the masses even folks who don't feel comfortable building a pc because they think they might put the thermal compound on the plastic and that is why they only charge a small build fee and they won't cut corners on quality so click the link below and create your dream pc today if you guys enjoyed this video you might enjoy another kind of investigation into screwing up in our is your rig bottleneck video we're gonna have that linked down below"}