According to our sources, Intel could release in the near future (4Q17 or 1Q18) the Skylake-X SKUs with soldered IHS.
It’s not a news that Intel has rushed Skylake-X in order to counter-attack incoming AMD Ryzen and ThreadRipper, and to accomplish this task has made some compromises. One of these is the use of TIM between the Die and the IHS.
It seems that Intel hasn’t had time to test extensively the process of soldering with Skylake-X, so the Santa Clara company has decided to use the TIM to buy time.
However, if Skylake-X will sell well, Intel will avoid to solder the IHS, in order to save money.