Hello i have a lot of system with delidded cpu i would not recommend using paste at least no mx-4 or artic has with time under the HIS it spread and the temp skyrocket back up i got that behavior on 3770k and 4770k after about 4-6month use everytime i switch since to liquid metal (liquid pro 2) just because i got a bunch of it
Hey Steve, this is great content for inquiring minds. Have you tried comparing kryonaut or another quality non metal TIM instead of LM on the die to see how much of the improvements are LM and how much are the reduced die to IHS height performs?
when i resealed mine i just put a tiny dot in each corner of the IHS in order to hold it onto the PCB enough for me to handle it while putting it back in the socket. When i initially delidded i didn't have any LM on me (it wasn't gonna be delivered for a few days and i was too excited to wait). Just delidding, cleaning of intel's sealant, and adding in my own thermal paste (hydronaut) i got a 10C drop in temps. Redoing it later with LM i got another 10C drop, giving me a 20C drop overall. What a great experience and i'd recommend delidding to any and all enthusiasts out there.
I delidded my 3770k with normal TIM, never thought it will be so worth it, like 15 degrees drop at first, then with time it stabilize at a solid 10 degrees drop compared to the stock cpu. Using kryonaut for the moment.
Here's what I learned from delidding my i7-4790K : 1) Like Steve, too much RTV silicone just creates too much of a gap between the IHS and the die, so I run mine without any adhesive. 2) Even without adhesive, the gains can be low depending on whether your pre-delidding temperatures weren't bad and how much power your CPU dissipates. In my case, it's running at stock and the IHS was probably mounted correctly without too much TIM nor adhesive at the factory, so I ended up gaining...3-4°C under load. I decided to also use liquid metal on IHS-waterblock interface for an extra 3-4°C drop, so the total temperature drop is around 6-8°C, as my measurements' accuracy are limited to 1°C with Intel Extreme Tuning Utility. 3) Make sure to apply enough liquid metal so that the surface is at least shiny ; I once tried to use as little as possible, and got no gains because there were just too many air microbubbles between the die and the IHS. 4) If applying liquid metal on the IHS-cooler interface, I'd suggest making a central square of liquid metal and a ring of regular thermal paste outside of it ; like this, you likely won't have any runaway liquid metal when tightening the cooler, as the excess liquid metal will get stuck in the regular thermal paste. 5) Your gains with liquid metal can be limited even if you do everything perfectly ; google "thermal spreading resistance" and read a little about it. Basically, liquid metal will provide great gains if the thermal spreading resistance (of the die-IHS interface) varies a lot with thermal conductivity, which implies a significant ratio between the effective surface area through which there's heat output (it can be fairly smaller than the die's surface area) and the IHS's surface area. Small dies like the 7700K benefit a lot from liquid metal, but if you've got a CPU with a die nearly the size of the IHS (the IHS here doesn't really spread heat, it's more like protecting the die from cracking when mounting the cooler), liquid metal will do about nothing compared to regular paste.
A Liquid Metal User Yeah! Going conductonaut dropped 22 deg on my 7700k, then added LM on the outside of the IHS + nickel EVO cooler and saw approx 6-8 deg further drop. Very happy with the results, well worth the effort putting LM on the outside of the IHS. Stock 7700k settings on full load sits around 45 degrees now :)
Do not do part 4, if you did that, that’s why you’re not getting positive results. Liquid metal thins out to much thinner than thermal compound will ever thin out to, you’re creating a gap in the center area where the liquid metal is for no reason. You can prevent shorts from LM leaking out by applying LM in the area above the die on the cold plate and IHS and that’s it, it won’t leak out. Don’t mix LM and compound on the same cooling surface
How hot does your 4790k get? Mine is getting very close to 100C when under heavy load, using a seidon 120V and Artic Mx-4. The system is clean, well maintained, has had a recent repaste and is very ventilated, so my only conclusion is that there is little to no thermal compound inside the lid. Do you think I'll be seeing signifficative improvements using liquid metal when deliding it?
@@carper1220 Tbh that cooler looks less than spectaculer but wow those are horrible temps. Delidding those CPU's could make sense if you're willing to risk it. Are you sure you are not blasting it with too much vcore? I saw maybe 8 deg difference but something seems seriously wrong with your one.
Clear top coat, I think it is the stuff used to prevent the actual nail polish from chipping off, or at least according to my wife. You don't want the peel off base coat or whatever its called. Personally I didn't use the clear topcoat on mine because I wasn't worried about the liquid metal getting on the capacitors, but with that you have to use common sense when applying the liquid metal and make sure it stays on the die and doesn't "squish" out when you clamp the IHS back on, in this case less is more.
@@oliwkstube Just use a coating made for the PCB, like Urethan 71, Plastik 70 or Plastik Super. I had the Urethan lying around, so I used that. Works like a charm put on with a q-tip. And remember to leave all sorts of coatings to cute for at least a 24h at room temp.
I haven't bothered resealing my delidded CPU's. If you're just going to leave it in the motherboard for a long time anyway (like I would guess 99% of people will), I don't see the point. The clamping force of the socket retention bracket is more than enough to keep the IHS in place. Add the force of a mounted cooler and it's not going anywhere. Vertical and horizontal, the PC being transported in a car with all the movement and vibrations that entails, and there has never been any issues.
FINALLY. For real, why put all the work in to remove a gap created by an adhesive between the IHS and die, just to to do the same exact thing afterward? Sure, maybe the new gap is smaller, but it's still a gap. It's a gap that does not need to exist and only exist because an adhesive was re-introduced. The damn tension bar for the cpu clamp is way strong enough to hold the IHS in place, and then you have minimal or no gap. That's the point after all..
Yeah, that's the main purpose. But the gap created by the introduction of an adhesive to hold the IHS down will obviously limit thermal transfer, and if we are trying to get low temps, then why would we overlook this aspect? Gamers Nexus said it best, I think. If you aren't shipping it/selling it, then I see no reason and absolutely no benefit to glue the IHS back down.
I don't even over clock. I did once and it just wasn't worth it. There was hardly any performance improvement. I figure if I want to go faster I'll get a better CPU.
I guess if I got those results I'd have a different opinion. As it was when I let my motherboard OC it just went 200 MHz faster. I don't really have the CPU cooler to do any better than that, or an unlocked CPU either. Someday I might get a better CPU for this system if I see them drop in price to a value I figure is worthwhile. I'll more likely just build a faster system by then though.
Thanks for another quality video! A few things I've learned with lidding, lapping and liquid metal-ing, some already covered in video. - Lapping the IHS on CPU's when delidding can improve temps when also using LM between cooler and IHS - It is possible to lap the bottom of the IHS very slightly to reduce clearance from chip to IHS and further improve temps. Could crack chip, take care, remove little, if no POST, back off cooler. - Using a small amount of silicone to reseal IHS and clamping in the socket to do so minimizes the clearance when resealing - Take great care not to allow dust or other contaminants in to the exposed liquid metal, don't leave it sitting there. - On 6700k, 7700k, 8700k, remove all factory sealant (fingernail works) - When clamping, clamp may attempt to push IHS along the CPU PCB. Beware surface components and potentially compensate by positioning IHS with offset before clamping. - Liquid metal on top of the IHS requires very flat surfaces and careful application - Apply LM to both surfaces to be mated - LM is extremely effective on the GPU chip, particularly on water, protect surrounding components though. - Brush on electrical tape is easy to use and effective at protecting surrounding components - When applied to shunt resistors on nvidia GPUs to increase power limit, the LM eventually permanently discolors the resistor and solder - I wouldn't be inclined to recover liquid metal with the sucker as the chemicals within it may have separated
@@thingshappen9199 lots of sanding with finer and finer papers then polishing paste on glass surface til it's perfectly flat an a mirror finish is very easy just takes time
@@thingshappen9199 it ends up being more perfect than what it comes from out the factory with its surprising how unflat most CPUs an heatsinks are they come mostly concave. That's why your temps improve as it fits better with no airgaps or uneven pressure.
Steve is right... The BEST way to re-seal.... if you must, is to use a very light corners application and clamp in the socket. Using the delid tool pushing down in the center can cause a slight warping of the IHS that thins the interface while curing but allows the seal interfaces to cure thicker... When you unclamp, the thermal interface actually comes apart and becomes thicker and potentially voids due to squeeze out. USE THE SOCKET to cure sealer. Then the interface will stay the same through insertion/removal (repeated). BTW.... there is no excuse for NOT completely cleaning off old sealer and then triple cleaning the entire CPU and IHS with appropriate solvents to make sure they are clean. THEN, completely clean and reset up your workbench with an eye toward NOT having any contaminant particles around that might get into the thermal interface areas. THEN, you can apply your liquid metal.... then apply the corner sealant (again, if you must) and then socket clamp to cure.
You do realize if you leave the silicon alone it will reseal/cure itself once you clamp the IHS back on and get the CPU under load right? Dont scrape it off unless you plan to replace it with new glue or whatever or if you wont be resealing it back. Otherwise dont bother cleaning it and causing problems for yourself the issue is on the DIE not transfering heat properly not the silicon used to glue the IHS onto it that's why you delidd to apply liquid metal directly onto the DIE not to clean the glue off. So that's a reason to leave the silicon alone.
It is possible to reseal the CPU without losing the benefits of using liquid metal. I delidded my 8700k today and when I put the IHS back on I put a very small smudge of silicone adhesive to the 4 corners of the IHS. It's enough to hold the IHS secure but not enough to affect the thermal transfer between the die and IHS, at least on my chip. I was able to drop my load temperatures down around 25°c at 4.9GHz and gave me enough thermal headroom to take my chip to 5.0GHz which I couldn't do before. My chip is a dud in terms of overclocking. Hitting 4.9GHz was easy, and it would do it at 1.296v, hitting 5.0GHz requires 1.392v which was way too much for the factory TIM to handle. One thing I noted when I took off the IHS was the factory TIM on my chip was already getting hard and crusty and I have only had the chip for a couple of weeks now. It's probably been sitting on a shelf somewhere for several months, but it was already at the crusty level of over a years time on many other compounds I have used.
Use conformal coating in place of nail-polish. CC is 1: Made exactly for this purpose. 2: Fluoresces under UV light for the purpose of coverage checking after curing. 3: Is easy to remove; once set it peels off like rubber and cleans up with isopropyl alcohol.
Just wanted to tell you I've been fascinated with your channel ever since I was in a live stream you did of Ocing Vega. You discuss everything with a scientific approach of which few or no other tech channels I've seen do. Truly an awesome channel for informational teaching of computers. Thanks!
Anyone tried polishing the cover inside? In engines, we polish the combustion chambers to mirror finish to keep from hot spot areas from pockets or pits in the metal. Would something like that benefit heat dissipation?
technically yeah. If the die and surface of the other layers like IHS and heat sink were perfectly mirror finshed then the heat transfer between the CPU and HS would be almost perfect and wouldn't need any paste. The perfect method would be a direct connection without interruption between the CPU and HS, so basically they would have to be somehow fused together.
Done quite a few delids and found some tips to make it look factory. First, the q-tip method sucks, use a small paint brush to apply, you get more control of the spread, you can get them at most drug stores, hobby shops etc and they are cheap and reusable. Second, if you remove all the old adhesive you really dont need LM on both sides, i always just do one side with no problem. Third, use a automotive high temp black rtv, i use permatex ultra black, every auto parts store has it, has a resealable lid also. Use a small screw driver to apply or a tooth pick ( or anything with a small flat tip). Use the relid clamp part of the delid tool, let it set for at least 12hrs. Remove any excess with a qtip and alcohol, To remove the old stuff use plastic razor blades, got them on amazon for a few bucks for 250 of them. Every cpu i have done looks factory stock but run atleast 15c cooler, even on locked i5's like i5-6500.
IMHO, I think it's best to use "Ultra Black" silicone sealant. The "Ultra" in the name denotes that it is (automotive) Oxygen sensor safe. Basically, it does not emit fumes which can damage sensitive electronic components. Also, plastic razor blades for removing old silicone available at auto parts store. Dorman/help part number 22018. About $3.49 for a pack of 5.
It's best to not re-introduce a gap created by an adhesive since the entire point of delidding is to remove said gap. You just don't need to do it, once the cpu is installed in the mobo, the IHS is not moving at all, and you have no gap between the die and IHS, or as minimal a gap as possible.
It makes a difference. Why take the chance with normal RTV. When regular silicone gets hot, it emits fumes. On a car, even a small amount can ruin an oxygen sensor. Same price, less risk. "Bro".
Decade? Still rocking that Core 2 Duo I see... (C2D for desktop first launched 2006, so you might actually have something older) First duel core from AMD and Intel was from 2005, so yeah, I don't think a decade is reasonable...
For people that have no idea what IHS stands for, it seems fair to occasionally say the full term for some abbreviations. Just so newcomers can understand things a little better.
The retention device on the motherboard is pretty easy to remove on a motherboard. With my 4770k back in the day I screwed off the retention device, sat the bare cpu without ihs in there, applied coolaboratory liquid pro, and mounted the block right on top of the cpu. Earned a couple extra decrees over using the ihs.
Even though I don’t understand half of what is being explained, I still watch because it is soothing to my soul. It’s a great day when gamers nexus posts a video
I know this video is old, but another advantage to delidding is for older cpus that may have degraded thermal conductivity between the die and ihs. I'm going through this process now on a 2015 iMac that's been used extensively in a work environment. Over time, the thermals have "naturally" degraded to the point the system idles at 55c and hits 100c almost immediately under load.
My 3770k is still going after delid and one LM application. It's been 2yrs no problems. I killed a g3258 during delid a month ago lol. Both of them used razor blade method. Never again will I do that I'll get the tool from now on.
you know the glue is very similar to windshield glue and a trick a lot of people use to remove windshoelds in cars is to start a hole and run a guitar string thourgh the hole and saw back and forth. if you could cut a slot in a piece of wood to hold half the chip with the other half sticking up and put a peice of nylon string or maybe even dental floss where the glue meets the ihs and the package and saw back and forth i bet the string would work its way throught he glue. i might post this seperately matter of fact, maybe they will try it. it would seem safer dont you think?
Safer just to buy an AMD where you don't have to do this nonsense. I wouldn't touch the $2000 i9 chips (also other reasons besides thermal paste, PCIe lanes, no Ecc memory, and raid software keys for your already $600 motherboard? Really makes the decision easy).
I'm still rocking the 3770k lol. It's been chugging away with daily use at 4.8ghz 1.34v since the day I popped it in back in 2012 (changed the GPU 4x now in that time) haha. Never de-lid it though. Just some good ole Arctic Silver 5 and a Noctua cooler, never went above 85c in stressing, 50-65c in games. finally upgrading next month to the 8700k and a Maximus X Code. Stumbled upon this video deciding between Kryonaut or GC Extreme TIM.
I know it's an older video now, but thank you! I finally got round to doing this. It went really well. I don't have comparitive data because I upgraded the stock intel cooler at the same time to a be quiet dark pro. But temps are halved overall under load and a third better at idle. So I think I spread the Lmetal ok. Obviously the cooler is making a big difference. Was hard to get the metal to spread without having too much, and then getting it spread evenly tended to leave too little. I might take it apart eventually and reapply and compare results.
Myself, in spite of my H115i Pro liquid cooler my 8086k has been running nice and hot at approx. 90-100c at only 60% load so I plan to de-lid it as soon as the kit arrives.
@@alexwalker2582 that's weird. May just be the thermal paste gone bad? Still, may as well de-lid while your at it because you will get gains. BTW I just used a 10 buck de-lid tool off eBay, worked just fine. I didn't bother with applying adhesive, just used the clamping pressure to keep the lid on the die. Good luck!
@@julianwraight1274 Yeah I don't intend to bother with the adhesive either since I don't move it much(read: at all) unless I need to clean the inside of it. Hopefully I don't screw it up!
@@alexwalker2582 You'll be fine. Just take your time with each step and be gentle. If I can do it, so can you🙂 Also you might want to clean your rads if you haven't already...dust builds up on those things big time.
@@julianwraight1274 Yeah, been meaning to for a couple weeks now since I've got time, being on furlough and all. But I had so many other projects that had a bit more urgency. (like making my room's floor not consist of a single pathway from the door, to my bed and to my closet)
I just imagine being a 20 something qt in a nailsaloon & some hairy dude walks in with a cameraman, talking about not-electrically conductive nailpolish & how it will shield the components from liquid metal to get better temps on an overclock.
I delidded and put regular thermal paste (Cooler Master MasterGel Maker) on the die, a nice, thin layer spread out with a spatula. The cpu (6600k) package temp under 0-25 % load is about 3-5 degrees celsius above ambient with a Noctua NH-D12 cooler on the cpu in a Fractal Design Define Nano S case with a Kraken X61 cooler on the intake which cools the gpu (MSI GTX 970) which is like 2 degrees above ambient at idle). Max (peak) temps reached during an hour of 95 % + utilization is ~62 degrees on cpu (1 core) and 43 degrees on gpu. Both cpu and gpu are non-overclocked at these temps, but I'm really happy with the result. I re-glued the cpu IHS with electronics compatible silicon adhesive, just putting a small dot at each corner of the ihs. I have no worries at all about the thermal paste leaking out.
For mine, I put the CPU (i7 6700K) back into the delid tool to hold it. I then used one small drop of thick CA on each corner of the IHS placing it on top of the CPU and used the delid tool to hold it down for 30-45 min to dry. Not sure if that's the best method, but worked flawlessly for me. I'm sure I could use the tool to pop it back off if needed. Temps dropped 20C afterwards. I should add this was after completely removing all the old sealant with denatured alcohol.
I use non conductive thermal paste instead of nail polish. Especially due to heat, i think nail polish would crack and discolor and will be almost impossible to remove after that
I got some thermal grizzly liquid metal for xmas and applied it to my gtx 1070 and it is running at around 58c under load with a 22c room temp. Before it was running at around 63c in a 22c room temp. As a bonus my 1070 is stable is 2062mhz (2050 before). I've replaced thermal paste for a lot of machines now and nothing compares to replacing thermal paste with liquid metal that contains gallium but when you try to start the computer for the first time but the power to the house goes out before it posts. Waiting 2 hours hoping I didn't put too much on there and short out the card. TLDR: Great product. Bad electrical grid where I live.
When it comes to the testing - always save the raw log files. You can always repeat the analysis, but you cannot repeat the measurement. If you're a precision freak, you can plot the raw data against time in something like Excel and get a derivation. Derivation is basically a rate of chage and yo ucan very easily compute it by subtracting every two consecutive number, i.e. for data "60, 68, 70, 70" the derivations would be "65´8-60=8, 70-98=2, 70-70=0". (There will always be one less derivations than the data.) What does this tells you? If the derivation is positive (above 0), it means your CPU is heating up. If it's negative (below 0) it'S cooling down. The only relevant data (the steady testing mentioned in the video) is when the derivation is around 0 (it can bounce around the 0 but it shouldn't be more than one or two degrees). It's a bit of a chore, and it's not required, but it gives a data-based argument for the quality of the testing done, if you're into that.
I used *Menda Chino #35622* spudger to remove IHS glue, works very good/better than fingernail. Didn't glue it back, just put the cpu first to socket and IHS top of it. No problems whatsoever. Isopropanol removes residues from black glue easily after.
Single part RTV chemistry is acid based and activated by moisture, acetic acid in most products and this is the sharp smell, but there are a few hydrochloric based (has some advantages where the corrosive nature during cure is not an issue) Both acetic and HCl will evaporate with some time. Other RTV are two part products and may or may not involve acid. Sulfur containing products can interfere with RTV curing.
Someone bolt that table to a wall or add some cross struts or something...that wobble is really destracting. Thx for the video...i will probably never delid a CPU but knowledge doesn't hurt ;)
I recently put a waterblock on my 1080Ti, going for liquid metal on the die. Because I had so much LM left, I went ahead and yolo delidded my 6600K. I didn't bother resealing it, just dropped the chip into the socket and puth the IHS ontop, clamping it on with the holddown. Without the GPU in the loop and on a 360mm radiator, the CPU is now basically at the water temperature even while stresstesting.
a common way to tell which way IHS goes and I have seen this on ALL Intel CPU's I have worked with (some AMD too) is that the gold triangle is bottom left of CPU and holding it with triangle in bottom corner the text on IHS is the right way up
Saying you need to seal at the start really threw me off. Then later you clarified, I think. Was contradicting information though. Had to google to make sure not sealing was okay, since I'm not gonna be moving or removing it after my delid and LM application.
There is one very important point about what silicone to use that I have never seen any de-lidding tutorial bring up. Don't use silicone that uses ammonia as part of its curing process. Its often sold as "bathroom and kitchen grade". this stuff releases ammonia as it cures and ammonia destroys electronics.
Hey Steve, the q tips you buy at the dollar store are wound tight as can be, theyre not super absorbant so they work great to apply the liquid metal too. Also.. You'll never believe how cheap they are!
Thanks for the tips I delidded my 7700k and OMG I dropped like 20 degrees with thermal grizzly. I now have a very stable 5ghz and temps around the 60s and 70s under load using just a bequiet tower in a push pull config with around 600rpm on all fans in the case
Even if your cpu will be working vertically, you don't *have to* seal it. Unless you put far too much LM the high surface tension, coupled with the oxidation layer on its surface will hold it in place. I have multiple devices with CPUs working vertically under LM with no problems. Including a "bare die" laptop cpus in a micro-sff system.
Dude, you need to discover Kon-form. De-lid, clean, mask the die, spray conformal coating on chip. While the coat is wet, remove the mask, add TIM, reseat the IHS, and the Kon-form will act as a seal and glue to hold the IHS on. Sorry, I forgot to mention that the conformal coating protects the components from the electrically conductive liquid metal and from the heat produced by the die.
I delidded my 7700k a year ago, and I left the default sealant on the substrate, to hold the IHS in the same position, but a year later, when I had to switch coolers, I discovered that the IHS glued itself to the substrate/CPU. It seems to me that the liquid metal soldered the two together. For obvious reasons, I did not try to do a second delid. It is still great for my temps, tho.
I've often wondered that instead of using thermal paste that if using layers of gold flake would be better because gold is soft and highly conductive and gold flake would probably fill in all the little spaces just good as the paste and with a lot more conductivity
I have an 8700k delidded and overclocked to 5.1ghz @ 1.39 volts. In realbench I max out at 65 degrees C with ambient temp between 24-25 C w a 280mm Corsair h115i. Without the delid I could barely make 5.0ghz and it would jump over 80 C in realbench Edit. Added room temp
Murkky kind of a pet peeve since my room temps usually are around 32C 9 months of the year making most temp measurements irrelevant particularly for gfx cards which throttle faster than cpus. Thanks for adding it!
What I learned: 1) It's ridiculously easy, if you know what you're doing (at least with Coffee Lake) 2) You should watch a tutorial or two, and not be sloppy, but that's it 3) You certainly don't need tools that cost nearly as much as the CPU 4) That being said, use a vice. Don't put anything sharp anywhere near your CPU (Linus' blade method) 5) Delidding helps, even with crap cooler. 6) Proper airflow probably helps more. Clean those filters 7) It helps, but if that couple of degrees make any difference in your setup, you are running it at a load/speed that you probably shouldn't be 8) probably not worth the lost warranty, if your CPU comes from reputable vendor
Really helpful, thanks for the video 🐨 think I need to search for a guide from you guys to actually delid the cpu in the first place and then practice on my older cpu.
Ive considered doing this to my 6700k thanks for info. Especially nail polish. The thing that holds me back is the price of delid kits along with the LM
please use the buildzoid method of liquid metal application, take the syringe of LM and jam it on to the Q-tip and then push the LM into the Q-tip and spread like paint from there completely negates the risk of accidentally shooting way too much out
Some questions, planning to delid soon: 1. How do you know what size the LM application on the IHS should be? I guess you would just eyeball it but In this video it looks like you put a larger amount than is needed to cover the die. Does that matter? 2.Would you say it's necessary to cover the surrounding components with nail polish, or is that just for peace of mind? Is it ok to use liquid electrical tape? 3. What are your thoughts on scraping off all adhesive and resealing using 4 drops of gel superglue on the corners of the IHS? Thanks in advance and amazing job as always.
the package of condutonaut says " use a pinhead sized amount" and its VERY serious its easier to add a little more than it is to remove a small pool that over flowed
I did delid my G3420 to keep it from crashing at stock speed. It had dried up white thermal paste inside. Afterwards it stayed below 54°C with the stock cooler on the lowest RPM. The temperature difference between cores went from 18° to 2°. And I used silicone for a aquarium for resealing. It's stable up to 125°C, which is still overkill. So, the high temperature stuff is a waste.
I would think Red RTV might be a better choice, its also a high heat RTV. Black RTV is a oil resistant high temp sealant. I don't see contact with oil being an issue with a cpu.
sorry if someone else has already mentioned this but you might try Permatex Black RTV. you can pick it up at any autoparts store and seems to work well
Wondering why you would not use conformal coating in lieu of the Nail Polish, Just ease of availability? or maybe conformal coating cant withstand liquid metal? I use it on any electronic with possible water contact with good results. Seals everything up good.
I left my CPU unsealed, and I seated the IHS wrong. I heard a snap right after I clamped the CPU in the socket, and the IHS had gone at an angle since there was the full pressure on one side of the die. I killed my 8700K. Then I bought some silicone adhesive and made it look like nothing happened. The warranty covered it and I got a brand new 8700K for free.
I applied it to only the CPU and it worked fine. Still dropped 20C on my 7700K. You don't need to apply it to both sides. Also I used non-hardening silicon to reseal so it held the IHS on well but remained soft and easy to remove again when I wanted to look at it.
Definitely recommend liquid electrical tape rather than nail polish. Liquid electrical tape is meant for this very purpose. You don't risk it being conductive, it won't mess up the substrate or pcb, it will last forever. It's also black so you know if you missed a spot. Still see a capacitor? Add more. It takes overnight to cure but you know the SMDs as safe as can be.
Do not forget about the deterioration of Intel's compounds. I have several extra 2500k's and 3570k's. They commonly end up in lab builds, and with minimal difference in overclock ceiling, I'd grab a 2500k for max freq, and a 3570k if I really needed the pcie 3.0 bandwidth. I really needed both for a recent storage accelerator build, so I intended to push a 3570k as far as I could. I was amazed at how the thermal ceiling had dropped over the years. I though maybe it was just that processor, so I tested a couple of others. I found that all of them had dropped about 500mhz. I delidded one just to have a look, and it was visibly apparent just how much the compound under the IHS has contracted and shrunk. So if you're an oldster like me with an accumulation of parts, you very likely have a 5ghz processor waiting to be released after delidding and lapping.
It just happened to mee.. I was manually (by hands only and a couple of simple tools like knives) delidding a friend's i5.. The capacitor went off but wee managed to melt it back in place by hot-blew-air pistol.. Everything was fine, though be used TG Kryonaut, not that liquid metal. The results were still AWESOME
How long does liquid metal last? Is it as long as thermal compound? When I was younger used to work at a medical company that assembled cryogenic cooling units using stirling helium coolers no bigger than a couple power supplies put together. Cooled to -200F in a couple minutes. All these people doing liquid N2, I'm kind of kicking myself for not trying to get my hands on one of those coolers then. If you could mediate the condensation it would be like constant liquid N2 without the N2. Since you wouldn't be using liquid coolant, you could go ahead and mount the board upside down and get gravity to help you drain off the moisture, seal up the area around the cpu, make a couple of drip shields perhaps and it woulda been good to go. Might have needed a 1200w supply on a 4 core and single graphics setup, but hey, it would have been sick as all get out. Prolly coulda routed a pipe or coldplate to the GPU as well.
If i am appllying LM on my CPU and GPU laptop, use nail polish, electical tape, or kapton tape to sealing the PCB. Sorry for bad question in english:). Thank you
Great video, i like the in-depth approach to this topic! I've just bought i8700k series, but honestly, I'm being pretty skeptic. Not sure if i would took the risk, mainly because the process of delidding looks very sketchy. I think that I'll run it like this for some time, check it's stock performance, and maybe after some time try to dare myself to do this.
deadseriousforsure chances are if you Overclock you’ve already voided your warranty. If you use the tool you shouldn’t have to worry about damaging anything
Rather than "nail polish", consider buying some purpose-made "conformal coating" specifically formulated for coating electronic components and covering PCB material. This stuff that I will link after has a UV reactance that allows checking for full coverage after cure: www.amazon.com/MG-Chemicals-Silicone-Modified-Conformal/dp/B07BSK5S7B That way, you can use a UV light (even one in your case) to check and see if you got coverage to protect from the liquid metal.
you know the glue is very similar to windshield glue and a trick a lot of people use to remove windshoelds in cars is to start a hole and run a guitar string thourgh the hole and saw back and forth. if you could cut a slot in a piece of wood to hold half the chip with the other half sticking up and put a peice of nylon string or maybe even dental floss where the glue meets the ihs and the package and saw back and forth i bet the string would work its way throught he glue. could be a safer alternative to the razor blade method
Couldn't you use a thermal pad the same as I used to use on the chipset when applying a waterblock direct to the silicon die? Then you can basically flood the wafers and even get the sides cooled more efficiently. I have also done a couple of laptop CPU's like that with great results.
i was delidding way before it was popular. i did it to a opty 144 because id used artic cooling paste an it was so sticky it just ripped it out the socket an stuck too the heat sink.. after doing this just 2x, an im pretty sure it broke the bond with the tim an ihs. It was hitting thermal limit[90deg] an shuting dwn in assassins creed..the first one lol... so i delidded it, but instead of putting the ihs back on i sanded down the black heat sink mount on the board so i cud mount direct too the silicon....i knocked 15-20 degrees off my max temps.....SWEET!!!!
I don't know about the i7-9900k, main difference between it and i7-9700k is threading, the latter only has one thread per core, the former two, but aside from that they are very similar. i have i7-9700k not delided, air cooled with an EVO 212A dual fan, and clocked at 4.9Ghz 1.42v on the CPU it gets to around 90C on an 8-core kernel compile. I can't get it to run at 5Ghz with 1.42v, to do that I have to crank up to 1.45v, and then it is electrically stable at 5Ghz, but during an 8-core kernel compile it hits 100C and throttles at times.
I have been dissatisfied with my i5-8600K's temps. The chip itself overclocks extremely well, though. Then I thought, hey, I should delid and give it a shot. After watching Gamers Nexus and Bitwit (which refers to Steve), I'm going for it.
OMFG. Ive been watching videos about the dilidding process for hours trying to figure out wtf to seal with and I even had a thought earlier "ya know, probably just jb weld". Ive never used the stuff but my bud s=wears by it.
I saw a 30C improvement on my original 4770k from launch when I delidded it a few months ago. It throttled at stock and overclocking was not even an option, when I opened it there was only TIM on one side of the die and a bunch off of the edge onto the PCB like it didn't get applied in the center. Previously it hit 100C and throttled stock, now I hit 70C at 4.5ghz.
I used a razor and never bothered gluing the ihs back I wanted to make sure there’s minimum spacing issues. I just needed make sure that prime95 didn’t thermal throttle to 100c instantly on my 4670k on stock fans. Idk what’s my current results but it goes to 70-75c after a few minutes which is a lot better than before
You might like our Intel X299 VRM thermal analysis: th-cam.com/video/0qYHWAnvXv8/w-d-xo.html
Or our Bitwit Delid content: th-cam.com/video/nBAeyzaRPBs/w-d-xo.html
Gamers Nexus Intel CPU = glued shit with 5-30% toxic juice
yeah, the test before is very important for many things that involve mods that can't be undone.
Great vid GN crew B)
Hello i have a lot of system with delidded cpu i would not recommend using paste at least no mx-4 or artic has with time under the HIS it spread and the temp skyrocket back up i got that behavior on 3770k and 4770k after about 4-6month use everytime i switch since to liquid metal (liquid pro 2) just because i got a bunch of it
to seal silicone use a nail in the tip...
Hey Steve, this is great content for inquiring minds.
Have you tried comparing kryonaut or another quality non metal TIM instead of LM on the die to see how much of the improvements are LM and how much are the reduced die to IHS height performs?
when i resealed mine i just put a tiny dot in each corner of the IHS in order to hold it onto the PCB enough for me to handle it while putting it back in the socket. When i initially delidded i didn't have any LM on me (it wasn't gonna be delivered for a few days and i was too excited to wait). Just delidding, cleaning of intel's sealant, and adding in my own thermal paste (hydronaut) i got a 10C drop in temps. Redoing it later with LM i got another 10C drop, giving me a 20C drop overall. What a great experience and i'd recommend delidding to any and all enthusiasts out there.
I delidded my 3770k with normal TIM, never thought it will be so worth it, like 15 degrees drop at first, then with time it stabilize at a solid 10 degrees drop compared to the stock cpu. Using kryonaut for the moment.
Here's what I learned from delidding my i7-4790K :
1) Like Steve, too much RTV silicone just creates too much of a gap between the IHS and the die, so I run mine without any adhesive.
2) Even without adhesive, the gains can be low depending on whether your pre-delidding temperatures weren't bad and how much power your CPU dissipates. In my case, it's running at stock and the IHS was probably mounted correctly without too much TIM nor adhesive at the factory, so I ended up gaining...3-4°C under load. I decided to also use liquid metal on IHS-waterblock interface for an extra 3-4°C drop, so the total temperature drop is around 6-8°C, as my measurements' accuracy are limited to 1°C with Intel Extreme Tuning Utility.
3) Make sure to apply enough liquid metal so that the surface is at least shiny ; I once tried to use as little as possible, and got no gains because there were just too many air microbubbles between the die and the IHS.
4) If applying liquid metal on the IHS-cooler interface, I'd suggest making a central square of liquid metal and a ring of regular thermal paste outside of it ; like this, you likely won't have any runaway liquid metal when tightening the cooler, as the excess liquid metal will get stuck in the regular thermal paste.
5) Your gains with liquid metal can be limited even if you do everything perfectly ; google "thermal spreading resistance" and read a little about it. Basically, liquid metal will provide great gains if the thermal spreading resistance (of the die-IHS interface) varies a lot with thermal conductivity, which implies a significant ratio between the effective surface area through which there's heat output (it can be fairly smaller than the die's surface area) and the IHS's surface area. Small dies like the 7700K benefit a lot from liquid metal, but if you've got a CPU with a die nearly the size of the IHS (the IHS here doesn't really spread heat, it's more like protecting the die from cracking when mounting the cooler), liquid metal will do about nothing compared to regular paste.
A Liquid Metal User Yeah! Going conductonaut dropped 22 deg on my 7700k, then added LM on the outside of the IHS + nickel EVO cooler and saw approx 6-8 deg further drop. Very happy with the results, well worth the effort putting LM on the outside of the IHS. Stock 7700k settings on full load sits around 45 degrees now :)
You almost certainly did something wrong. From the nearly 10 people who have delidded their 4790K, every single one had gains in the region of 20 K.
Do not do part 4, if you did that, that’s why you’re not getting positive results. Liquid metal thins out to much thinner than thermal compound will ever thin out to, you’re creating a gap in the center area where the liquid metal is for no reason. You can prevent shorts from LM leaking out by applying LM in the area above the die on the cold plate and IHS and that’s it, it won’t leak out. Don’t mix LM and compound on the same cooling surface
How hot does your 4790k get? Mine is getting very close to 100C when under heavy load, using a seidon 120V and Artic Mx-4. The system is clean, well maintained, has had a recent repaste and is very ventilated, so my only conclusion is that there is little to no thermal compound inside the lid. Do you think I'll be seeing signifficative improvements using liquid metal when deliding it?
@@carper1220 Tbh that cooler looks less than spectaculer but wow those are horrible temps. Delidding those CPU's could make sense if you're willing to risk it. Are you sure you are not blasting it with too much vcore? I saw maybe 8 deg difference but something seems seriously wrong with your one.
No no no this nail polish is for my cpu.
What type of nail polish should you look to use?
Clear top coat, I think it is the stuff used to prevent the actual nail polish from chipping off, or at least according to my wife. You don't want the peel off base coat or whatever its called. Personally I didn't use the clear topcoat on mine because I wasn't worried about the liquid metal getting on the capacitors, but with that you have to use common sense when applying the liquid metal and make sure it stays on the die and doesn't "squish" out when you clamp the IHS back on, in this case less is more.
@@oliwkstube Just use a coating made for the PCB, like Urethan 71, Plastik 70 or Plastik Super. I had the Urethan lying around, so I used that. Works like a charm put on with a q-tip. And remember to leave all sorts of coatings to cute for at least a 24h at room temp.
Show me your manicure
Isopropyl 70% and lower. Actually, I'd dilute the 70% as it can still possibly do damage.
"Apply gravity" - GN 2018
Add 1 cup gravity.
Gamers Nexus ohhh sshhhtop it shhhteve
Bake Coffee Cake till its Ryzen.
Gamers Nexus Is that an imperial cup or metric cup?
Some channels on YT apply gravity more often than others. [cough] Linus [cough]
I haven't bothered resealing my delidded CPU's. If you're just going to leave it in the motherboard for a long time anyway (like I would guess 99% of people will), I don't see the point. The clamping force of the socket retention bracket is more than enough to keep the IHS in place. Add the force of a mounted cooler and it's not going anywhere. Vertical and horizontal, the PC being transported in a car with all the movement and vibrations that entails, and there has never been any issues.
We reseal when we ship them to other YTers, for obvious reasons. For our own use, we do not reseal them.
Yes, when shipping just the CPU or if you switch around multiple CPU's in the same motherboard it makes sense to reseal.
FINALLY. For real, why put all the work in to remove a gap created by an adhesive between the IHS and die, just to to do the same exact thing afterward? Sure, maybe the new gap is smaller, but it's still a gap. It's a gap that does not need to exist and only exist because an adhesive was re-introduced.
The damn tension bar for the cpu clamp is way strong enough to hold the IHS in place, and then you have minimal or no gap. That's the point after all..
higler420 the point of delidding is to put better thermal paste so heat transfers better, though that may help too.
Yeah, that's the main purpose. But the gap created by the introduction of an adhesive to hold the IHS down will obviously limit thermal transfer, and if we are trying to get low temps, then why would we overlook this aspect? Gamers Nexus said it best, I think. If you aren't shipping it/selling it, then I see no reason and absolutely no benefit to glue the IHS back down.
I have no intention of ever de-lidding and yet I watched the whole thing. Bet I'm not the only one either.
Winston Wolfe do it, it’s bloody fun
If you own intel K series, delid.
I don't even over clock. I did once and it just wasn't worth it. There was hardly any performance improvement. I figure if I want to go faster I'll get a better CPU.
Hi paul, i have a 3930k, 3800 Mhz to 4.8 is a good jump to allow to last longer. Thank you intel innovation
I guess if I got those results I'd have a different opinion. As it was when I let my motherboard OC it just went 200 MHz faster. I don't really have the CPU cooler to do any better than that, or an unlocked CPU either. Someday I might get a better CPU for this system if I see them drop in price to a value I figure is worthwhile. I'll more likely just build a faster system by then though.
Thanks for another quality video!
A few things I've learned with lidding, lapping and liquid metal-ing, some already covered in video.
- Lapping the IHS on CPU's when delidding can improve temps when also using LM between cooler and IHS
- It is possible to lap the bottom of the IHS very slightly to reduce clearance from chip to IHS and further improve temps. Could crack chip, take care, remove little, if no POST, back off cooler.
- Using a small amount of silicone to reseal IHS and clamping in the socket to do so minimizes the clearance when resealing
- Take great care not to allow dust or other contaminants in to the exposed liquid metal, don't leave it sitting there.
- On 6700k, 7700k, 8700k, remove all factory sealant (fingernail works)
- When clamping, clamp may attempt to push IHS along the CPU PCB. Beware surface components and potentially compensate by positioning IHS with offset before clamping.
- Liquid metal on top of the IHS requires very flat surfaces and careful application
- Apply LM to both surfaces to be mated
- LM is extremely effective on the GPU chip, particularly on water, protect surrounding components though.
- Brush on electrical tape is easy to use and effective at protecting surrounding components
- When applied to shunt resistors on nvidia GPUs to increase power limit, the LM eventually permanently discolors the resistor and solder
- I wouldn't be inclined to recover liquid metal with the sucker as the chemicals within it may have separated
lapping lol...graet way too spend 6 hours. satisfying tho wen u get that mirror smooth shiny cpu tho.
@@foxxy46213 how would this be even possible. Wouldn't you need a robot to have a perfect mirror finished surface?
@@thingshappen9199 lots of sanding with finer and finer papers then polishing paste on glass surface til it's perfectly flat an a mirror finish is very easy just takes time
@@foxxy46213 what about preassure points? Does need to be perfect too and a human can't accomplish it?
@@thingshappen9199 it ends up being more perfect than what it comes from out the factory with its surprising how unflat most CPUs an heatsinks are they come mostly concave. That's why your temps improve as it fits better with no airgaps or uneven pressure.
Steve is right... The BEST way to re-seal.... if you must, is to use a very light corners application and clamp in the socket. Using the delid tool pushing down in the center can cause a slight warping of the IHS that thins the interface while curing but allows the seal interfaces to cure thicker... When you unclamp, the thermal interface actually comes apart and becomes thicker and potentially voids due to squeeze out. USE THE SOCKET to cure sealer. Then the interface will stay the same through insertion/removal (repeated).
BTW.... there is no excuse for NOT completely cleaning off old sealer and then triple cleaning the entire CPU and IHS with appropriate solvents to make sure they are clean. THEN, completely clean and reset up your workbench with an eye toward NOT having any contaminant particles around that might get into the thermal interface areas.
THEN, you can apply your liquid metal.... then apply the corner sealant (again, if you must) and then socket clamp to cure.
Thank you
You do realize if you leave the silicon alone it will reseal/cure itself once you clamp the IHS back on and get the CPU under load right? Dont scrape it off unless you plan to replace it with new glue or whatever or if you wont be resealing it back. Otherwise dont bother cleaning it and causing problems for yourself the issue is on the DIE not transfering heat properly not the silicon used to glue the IHS onto it that's why you delidd to apply liquid metal directly onto the DIE not to clean the glue off. So that's a reason to leave the silicon alone.
It is possible to reseal the CPU without losing the benefits of using liquid metal. I delidded my 8700k today and when I put the IHS back on I put a very small smudge of silicone adhesive to the 4 corners of the IHS. It's enough to hold the IHS secure but not enough to affect the thermal transfer between the die and IHS, at least on my chip. I was able to drop my load temperatures down around 25°c at 4.9GHz and gave me enough thermal headroom to take my chip to 5.0GHz which I couldn't do before. My chip is a dud in terms of overclocking. Hitting 4.9GHz was easy, and it would do it at 1.296v, hitting 5.0GHz requires 1.392v which was way too much for the factory TIM to handle.
One thing I noted when I took off the IHS was the factory TIM on my chip was already getting hard and crusty and I have only had the chip for a couple of weeks now. It's probably been sitting on a shelf somewhere for several months, but it was already at the crusty level of over a years time on many other compounds I have used.
Use conformal coating in place of nail-polish. CC is 1: Made exactly for this purpose. 2: Fluoresces under UV light for the purpose of coverage checking after curing. 3: Is easy to remove; once set it peels off like rubber and cleans up with isopropyl alcohol.
Looser format but golden content as usual 👌
Laser
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Just wanted to tell you I've been fascinated with your channel ever since I was in a live stream you did of Ocing Vega. You discuss everything with a scientific approach of which few or no other tech channels I've seen do. Truly an awesome channel for informational teaching of computers. Thanks!
Thanks for taking the time to make a brief how to sand not what to do. Side note. Your link in this video for instructions/notes is page not found.
Anyone tried polishing the cover inside? In engines, we polish the combustion chambers to mirror finish to keep from hot spot areas from pockets or pits in the metal. Would something like that benefit heat dissipation?
technically yeah. If the die and surface of the other layers like IHS and heat sink were perfectly mirror finshed then the heat transfer between the CPU and HS would be almost perfect and wouldn't need any paste. The perfect method would be a direct connection without interruption between the CPU and HS, so basically they would have to be somehow fused together.
Done quite a few delids and found some tips to make it look factory. First, the q-tip method sucks, use a small paint brush to apply, you get more control of the spread, you can get them at most drug stores, hobby shops etc and they are cheap and reusable. Second, if you remove all the old adhesive you really dont need LM on both sides, i always just do one side with no problem. Third, use a automotive high temp black rtv, i use permatex ultra black, every auto parts store has it, has a resealable lid also. Use a small screw driver to apply or a tooth pick ( or anything with a small flat tip). Use the relid clamp part of the delid tool, let it set for at least 12hrs. Remove any excess with a qtip and alcohol, To remove the old stuff use plastic razor blades, got them on amazon for a few bucks for 250 of them.
Every cpu i have done looks factory stock but run atleast 15c cooler, even on locked i5's like i5-6500.
IMHO, I think it's best to use "Ultra Black" silicone sealant.
The "Ultra" in the name denotes that it is (automotive) Oxygen sensor safe.
Basically, it does not emit fumes which can damage sensitive
electronic components.
Also, plastic razor blades for removing old silicone available at auto parts store.
Dorman/help part number 22018.
About $3.49 for a pack of 5.
Fully agree. Ultra black is super cheap and easy to work with.
It's best to not re-introduce a gap created by an adhesive since the entire point of delidding is to remove said gap. You just don't need to do it, once the cpu is installed in the mobo, the IHS is not moving at all, and you have no gap between the die and IHS, or as minimal a gap as possible.
It makes a difference.
Why take the chance with normal RTV.
When regular silicone gets hot, it emits fumes.
On a car, even a small amount can ruin an oxygen sensor.
Same price, less risk.
"Bro".
Fantastically thorough and helpful. I'm running Haswell and don't "need" to delid but almost want to now just because I want to try it out!
YeCannyDaeThat it really helped on my 4790k temps.
I've seen ~20C drops on two Ivy Bridge CPU's, and I believe it is the same TIM as Haswell (non-refresh).
I left my 6600K unsealed. Since it stays locked on my MOBO, it's been a non-issue, either vertical or horizontal.
Same with my 4790k
pr0xZen, tha main pont is: for most people its works. Most people put the CPU in the socket, and goodbye for the next decade....
Decade? Still rocking that Core 2 Duo I see... (C2D for desktop first launched 2006, so you might actually have something older) First duel core from AMD and Intel was from 2005, so yeah, I don't think a decade is reasonable...
true, infact after about half a year my liquid ultra hardened anough to pick up the cpu by its ihs and it was fine.
Do you need to apply the compound on the IHS if you don't reseal?
Damn as a beginning OC'er I've been glued to YT for months and THIS VIDEO is what I have been waiting for for all the goods
For people that have no idea what IHS stands for, it seems fair to occasionally say the full term for some abbreviations. Just so newcomers can understand things a little better.
Good point. I didn't even think of that, but will try to say the full name at least once in future videos.
It's obvious... International heat spreader, as Linus called it.
Internal hot spot
Luke Himself Is that like a g-spot but for CPU's?
it's the integrated heat spreader
Id like to see a test done with a glass plate to see if there would actualy be air bubbles with this way of applying.
The retention device on the motherboard is pretty easy to remove on a motherboard. With my 4770k back in the day I screwed off the retention device, sat the bare cpu without ihs in there, applied coolaboratory liquid pro, and mounted the block right on top of the cpu. Earned a couple extra decrees over using the ihs.
Even though I don’t understand half of what is being explained, I still watch because it is soothing to my soul. It’s a great day when gamers nexus posts a video
I know this video is old, but another advantage to delidding is for older cpus that may have degraded thermal conductivity between the die and ihs. I'm going through this process now on a 2015 iMac that's been used extensively in a work environment. Over time, the thermals have "naturally" degraded to the point the system idles at 55c and hits 100c almost immediately under load.
This is exactly what happens to me right now. And while I'm wrinting this, I'm about to delid my 3770K, wich is more than 10 yo now ^^
My 3770k is still going after delid and one LM application. It's been 2yrs no problems. I killed a g3258 during delid a month ago lol. Both of them used razor blade method. Never again will I do that I'll get the tool from now on.
you know the glue is very similar to windshield glue and a trick a lot of people use to remove windshoelds in cars is to start a hole and run a guitar string thourgh the hole and saw back and forth. if you could cut a slot in a piece of wood to hold half the chip with the other half sticking up and put a peice of nylon string or maybe even dental floss where the glue meets the ihs and the package and saw back and forth i bet the string would work its way throught he glue. i might post this seperately matter of fact, maybe they will try it. it would seem safer dont you think?
Safer just to buy an AMD where you don't have to do this nonsense. I wouldn't touch the $2000 i9 chips (also other reasons besides thermal paste, PCIe lanes, no Ecc memory, and raid software keys for your already $600 motherboard? Really makes the decision easy).
I'm still rocking the 3770k lol. It's been chugging away with daily use at 4.8ghz 1.34v since the day I popped it in back in 2012 (changed the GPU 4x now in that time) haha. Never de-lid it though. Just some good ole Arctic Silver 5 and a Noctua cooler, never went above 85c in stressing, 50-65c in games.
finally upgrading next month to the 8700k and a Maximus X Code. Stumbled upon this video deciding between Kryonaut or GC Extreme TIM.
I know it's an older video now, but thank you! I finally got round to doing this. It went really well. I don't have comparitive data because I upgraded the stock intel cooler at the same time to a be quiet dark pro. But temps are halved overall under load and a third better at idle. So I think I spread the Lmetal ok. Obviously the cooler is making a big difference. Was hard to get the metal to spread without having too much, and then getting it spread evenly tended to leave too little. I might take it apart eventually and reapply and compare results.
Myself, in spite of my H115i Pro liquid cooler my 8086k has been running nice and hot at approx. 90-100c at only 60% load so I plan to de-lid it as soon as the kit arrives.
@@alexwalker2582 that's weird. May just be the thermal paste gone bad? Still, may as well de-lid while your at it because you will get gains. BTW I just used a 10 buck de-lid tool off eBay, worked just fine. I didn't bother with applying adhesive, just used the clamping pressure to keep the lid on the die. Good luck!
@@julianwraight1274 Yeah I don't intend to bother with the adhesive either since I don't move it much(read: at all) unless I need to clean the inside of it. Hopefully I don't screw it up!
@@alexwalker2582 You'll be fine. Just take your time with each step and be gentle. If I can do it, so can you🙂 Also you might want to clean your rads if you haven't already...dust builds up on those things big time.
@@julianwraight1274 Yeah, been meaning to for a couple weeks now since I've got time, being on furlough and all. But I had so many other projects that had a bit more urgency. (like making my room's floor not consist of a single pathway from the door, to my bed and to my closet)
i didn't use nail polish to protect stuff on my PCB, i just bought some kapton tape and used that. Nail polish works great as you said though.
Kapton tape is great. We use it for a lot of things, and can highly recommend it!
25:39 mug-O-watt, bottom left :D
I just imagine being a 20 something qt in a nailsaloon & some hairy dude walks in with a cameraman, talking about not-electrically conductive nailpolish & how it will shield the components from liquid metal to get better temps on an overclock.
LOL so funny
I delidded and put regular thermal paste (Cooler Master MasterGel Maker) on the die, a nice, thin layer spread out with a spatula. The cpu (6600k) package temp under 0-25 % load is about 3-5 degrees celsius above ambient with a Noctua NH-D12 cooler on the cpu in a Fractal Design Define Nano S case with a Kraken X61 cooler on the intake which cools the gpu (MSI GTX 970) which is like 2 degrees above ambient at idle). Max (peak) temps reached during an hour of 95 % + utilization is ~62 degrees on cpu (1 core) and 43 degrees on gpu. Both cpu and gpu are non-overclocked at these temps, but I'm really happy with the result. I re-glued the cpu IHS with electronics compatible silicon adhesive, just putting a small dot at each corner of the ihs. I have no worries at all about the thermal paste leaking out.
The volume of knowledge I gain from gamer Nexus...thanks guys amazing job.
For mine, I put the CPU (i7 6700K) back into the delid tool to hold it. I then used one small drop of thick CA on each corner of the IHS placing it on top of the CPU and used the delid tool to hold it down for 30-45 min to dry. Not sure if that's the best method, but worked flawlessly for me. I'm sure I could use the tool to pop it back off if needed. Temps dropped 20C afterwards. I should add this was after completely removing all the old sealant with denatured alcohol.
I use non conductive thermal paste instead of nail polish. Especially due to heat, i think nail polish would crack and discolor and will be almost impossible to remove after that
Same. Just don't mix the two pastes. I don't know how gallium/indium/tin reacts with standard TM
I got some thermal grizzly liquid metal for xmas and applied it to my gtx 1070 and it is running at around 58c under load with a 22c room temp. Before it was running at around 63c in a 22c room temp. As a bonus my 1070 is stable is 2062mhz (2050 before). I've replaced thermal paste for a lot of machines now and nothing compares to replacing thermal paste with liquid metal that contains gallium but when you try to start the computer for the first time but the power to the house goes out before it posts. Waiting 2 hours hoping I didn't put too much on there and short out the card.
TLDR: Great product. Bad electrical grid where I live.
When it comes to the testing - always save the raw log files. You can always repeat the analysis, but you cannot repeat the measurement.
If you're a precision freak, you can plot the raw data against time in something like Excel and get a derivation. Derivation is basically a rate of chage and yo ucan very easily compute it by subtracting every two consecutive number, i.e. for data "60, 68, 70, 70" the derivations would be "65´8-60=8, 70-98=2, 70-70=0". (There will always be one less derivations than the data.) What does this tells you? If the derivation is positive (above 0), it means your CPU is heating up. If it's negative (below 0) it'S cooling down. The only relevant data (the steady testing mentioned in the video) is when the derivation is around 0 (it can bounce around the 0 but it shouldn't be more than one or two degrees).
It's a bit of a chore, and it's not required, but it gives a data-based argument for the quality of the testing done, if you're into that.
I used *Menda Chino #35622* spudger to remove IHS glue, works very good/better than fingernail. Didn't glue it back, just put the cpu first to socket and IHS top of it. No problems whatsoever. Isopropanol removes residues from black glue easily after.
Looks like a good product!
@Gamers Nexus Yes it helps a lot. I have box of "cellphone" tools, and find that they are good in PC/laptop environment too..
Single part RTV chemistry is acid based and activated by moisture, acetic acid in most products and this is the sharp smell, but there are a few hydrochloric based (has some advantages where the corrosive nature during cure is not an issue) Both acetic and HCl will evaporate with some time. Other RTV are two part products and may or may not involve acid. Sulfur containing products can interfere with RTV curing.
Someone bolt that table to a wall or add some cross struts or something...that wobble is really destracting.
Thx for the video...i will probably never delid a CPU but knowledge doesn't hurt ;)
I'm always thinking when I see table wobbling, that Steve should buy new table :D
I recently put a waterblock on my 1080Ti, going for liquid metal on the die. Because I had so much LM left, I went ahead and yolo delidded my 6600K. I didn't bother resealing it, just dropped the chip into the socket and puth the IHS ontop, clamping it on with the holddown. Without the GPU in the loop and on a 360mm radiator, the CPU is now basically at the water temperature even while stresstesting.
Love the vid, usually I stick with Kryonaut - especially if I'm doing it for someone else.
Removing the stock adhesive* really improves temps.
a common way to tell which way IHS goes and I have seen this on ALL Intel CPU's I have worked with (some AMD too) is that the gold triangle is bottom left of CPU and holding it with triangle in bottom corner the text on IHS is the right way up
Saying you need to seal at the start really threw me off. Then later you clarified, I think. Was contradicting information though. Had to google to make sure not sealing was okay, since I'm not gonna be moving or removing it after my delid and LM application.
*Steve* Thank you for producing this detailed instruction.
just buy conformal coating it is easy to get from amazon.
Mark Burton thank you.
Thank you for this video. I watched a number of other video's, but the additional information this video provided made me feel more comfortable.
There is one very important point about what silicone to use that I have never seen any de-lidding tutorial bring up. Don't use silicone that uses ammonia as part of its curing process. Its often sold as "bathroom and kitchen grade". this stuff releases ammonia as it cures and ammonia destroys electronics.
Hey Steve, the q tips you buy at the dollar store are wound tight as can be, theyre not super absorbant so they work great to apply the liquid metal too. Also.. You'll never believe how cheap they are!
Thanks for the tips I delidded my 7700k and OMG I dropped like 20 degrees with thermal grizzly. I now have a very stable 5ghz and temps around the 60s and 70s under load using just a bequiet tower in a push pull config with around 600rpm on all fans in the case
Don't use nail polish and just use the correct stuff called Conformal Coating (can be found on Amazon)
You do not need to put liquid metal on the ihs. Just applying to the die does the same job.
Even if your cpu will be working vertically, you don't *have to* seal it. Unless you put far too much LM the high surface tension, coupled with the oxidation layer on its surface will hold it in place.
I have multiple devices with CPUs working vertically under LM with no problems. Including a "bare die" laptop cpus in a micro-sff system.
if i join your patreon, would you consider getting a sturdier table pls?
That one is making you a little seasick is it?
I like using liquid electrical tape. Seems to work just fine, and goes on thin enough to not cause issues. It has a pretty high temp rating as well.
Dude, you need to discover Kon-form.
De-lid, clean, mask the die, spray conformal coating on chip. While the coat is wet, remove the mask, add TIM, reseat the IHS, and the Kon-form will act as a seal and glue to hold the IHS on.
Sorry, I forgot to mention that the conformal coating protects the components from the electrically conductive liquid metal and from the heat produced by the die.
I delidded my 7700k a year ago, and I left the default sealant on the substrate, to hold the IHS in the same position, but a year later, when I had to switch coolers, I discovered that the IHS glued itself to the substrate/CPU. It seems to me that the liquid metal soldered the two together. For obvious reasons, I did not try to do a second delid. It is still great for my temps, tho.
Did you ever try applying heat?
Am I the only one getting distracted by their wobbly table?
God damn you!
god damn, i can't unsee it now -- it's making me nauseous
Wooh. It IS the table. The whole time I thought it was just the camera. You just rocked my world.... Literally :D
Great. Now I can’t unsee it. Thanks.
Damn you!!! I didn't notice it until i read this comment. Lol
I've often wondered that instead of using thermal paste that if using layers of gold flake would be better because gold is soft and highly conductive and gold flake would probably fill in all the little spaces just good as the paste and with a lot more conductivity
This would be a worthwhile experiment
Omg, someone has to test this ^^
Copper or silver would be better since they have a higher thermal conductivity
@@raymondrogers3929 No, it wouldn't. Research the materials. @RestrictedHades gets it.
Fantastic intro
I have an 8700k delidded and overclocked to 5.1ghz @ 1.39 volts. In realbench I max out at 65 degrees C with ambient temp between 24-25 C w a 280mm Corsair h115i. Without the delid I could barely make 5.0ghz and it would jump over 80 C in realbench
Edit. Added room temp
for the love of god mention your room temps as well
Airbag888 thank you for looking out good sir!
Murkky kind of a pet peeve since my room temps usually are around 32C 9 months of the year making most temp measurements irrelevant particularly for gfx cards which throttle faster than cpus. Thanks for adding it!
What I learned:
1) It's ridiculously easy, if you know what you're doing (at least with Coffee Lake)
2) You should watch a tutorial or two, and not be sloppy, but that's it
3) You certainly don't need tools that cost nearly as much as the CPU
4) That being said, use a vice. Don't put anything sharp anywhere near your CPU (Linus' blade method)
5) Delidding helps, even with crap cooler.
6) Proper airflow probably helps more. Clean those filters
7) It helps, but if that couple of degrees make any difference in your setup, you are running it at a load/speed that you probably shouldn't be
8) probably not worth the lost warranty, if your CPU comes from reputable vendor
Really helpful, thanks for the video 🐨 think I need to search for a guide from you guys to actually delid the cpu in the first place and then practice on my older cpu.
Ive considered doing this to my 6700k thanks for info. Especially nail polish.
The thing that holds me back is the price of delid kits along with the LM
please use the buildzoid method of liquid metal application, take the syringe of LM and jam it on to the Q-tip and then push the LM into the Q-tip and spread like paint from there
completely negates the risk of accidentally shooting way too much out
Some questions, planning to delid soon:
1. How do you know what size the LM application on the IHS should be? I guess you would just eyeball it but In this video it looks like you put a larger amount than is needed to cover the die. Does that matter?
2.Would you say it's necessary to cover the surrounding components with nail polish, or is that just for peace of mind? Is it ok to use liquid electrical tape?
3. What are your thoughts on scraping off all adhesive and resealing using 4 drops of gel superglue on the corners of the IHS?
Thanks in advance and amazing job as always.
1) Eyeball it and go a skosh larger just to be sure.
2) Not necessary, but definitely an added safety factor/peace of mind.
3) IDK on this...
hell yeah JB Weld RTV silicone , saved my ass too when i changed my valve cover gasket as an extra layer of sealing haha, no more oily spark plugs.
the package of condutonaut says " use a pinhead sized amount" and its VERY serious its easier to add a little more than it is to remove a small pool that over flowed
I did delid my G3420 to keep it from crashing at stock speed.
It had dried up white thermal paste inside.
Afterwards it stayed below 54°C with the stock cooler on the lowest RPM.
The temperature difference between cores went from 18° to 2°.
And I used silicone for a aquarium for resealing. It's stable up to 125°C, which is still overkill. So, the high temperature stuff is a waste.
I use a toothpick to get just a small amount of silicon to apply to the IHS and lock it all down in the socket to dry overnight.
FYI, run if the mill white vinegar dissolves RTV. Idk what it would do to the pcb/components, but it eats silicone.
I would think Red RTV might be a better choice, its also a high heat RTV. Black RTV is a oil resistant high temp sealant. I don't see contact with oil being an issue with a cpu.
sorry if someone else has already mentioned this but you might try Permatex Black RTV. you can pick it up at any autoparts store and seems to work well
Wondering why you would not use conformal coating in lieu of the Nail Polish, Just ease of availability? or maybe conformal coating cant withstand liquid metal? I use it on any electronic with possible water contact with good results. Seals everything up good.
I left my CPU unsealed, and I seated the IHS wrong. I heard a snap right after I clamped the CPU in the socket, and the IHS had gone at an angle since there was the full pressure on one side of the die. I killed my 8700K. Then I bought some silicone adhesive and made it look like nothing happened. The warranty covered it and I got a brand new 8700K for free.
I applied it to only the CPU and it worked fine. Still dropped 20C on my 7700K. You don't need to apply it to both sides.
Also I used non-hardening silicon to reseal so it held the IHS on well but remained soft and easy to remove again when I wanted to look at it.
can u make a video about air vs liquid cooling on a open tower like the cougar conquer please? theres no videos or much info on youtube or the net :/
Definitely recommend liquid electrical tape rather than nail polish. Liquid electrical tape is meant for this very purpose. You don't risk it being conductive, it won't mess up the substrate or pcb, it will last forever. It's also black so you know if you missed a spot. Still see a capacitor? Add more. It takes overnight to cure but you know the SMDs as safe as can be.
Do not forget about the deterioration of Intel's compounds.
I have several extra 2500k's and 3570k's.
They commonly end up in lab builds, and with minimal difference in overclock ceiling, I'd grab a 2500k for max freq, and a 3570k if I really needed the pcie 3.0 bandwidth.
I really needed both for a recent storage accelerator build, so I intended to push a 3570k as far as I could.
I was amazed at how the thermal ceiling had dropped over the years.
I though maybe it was just that processor, so I tested a couple of others.
I found that all of them had dropped about 500mhz.
I delidded one just to have a look, and it was visibly apparent just how much the compound under the IHS has contracted and shrunk.
So if you're an oldster like me with an accumulation of parts, you very likely have a 5ghz processor waiting to be released after delidding and lapping.
It just happened to mee.. I was manually (by hands only and a couple of simple tools like knives) delidding a friend's i5.. The capacitor went off but wee managed to melt it back in place by hot-blew-air pistol.. Everything was fine, though be used TG Kryonaut, not that liquid metal. The results were still AWESOME
How long does liquid metal last? Is it as long as thermal compound?
When I was younger used to work at a medical company that assembled cryogenic cooling units using stirling helium coolers no bigger than a couple power supplies put together. Cooled to -200F in a couple minutes. All these people doing liquid N2, I'm kind of kicking myself for not trying to get my hands on one of those coolers then. If you could mediate the condensation it would be like constant liquid N2 without the N2. Since you wouldn't be using liquid coolant, you could go ahead and mount the board upside down and get gravity to help you drain off the moisture, seal up the area around the cpu, make a couple of drip shields perhaps and it woulda been good to go. Might have needed a 1200w supply on a 4 core and single graphics setup, but hey, it would have been sick as all get out. Prolly coulda routed a pipe or coldplate to the GPU as well.
If i am appllying LM on my CPU and GPU laptop, use nail polish, electical tape, or kapton tape to sealing the PCB. Sorry for bad question in english:). Thank you
Thank you for the post. Helped me through the process of delidding.
You can use electronics lacquer, to protect the components, as its purpose is just to protect from shorts the electronic components.
Great video, i like the in-depth approach to this topic!
I've just bought i8700k series, but honestly, I'm being pretty skeptic.
Not sure if i would took the risk, mainly because the process of delidding looks very sketchy. I think that I'll run it like this for some time, check it's stock performance, and maybe after some time try to dare myself to do this.
deadseriousforsure chances are if you Overclock you’ve already voided your warranty. If you use the tool you shouldn’t have to worry about damaging anything
great video, been entertaining the thought of delidding my cpu and you've answered a lot of questions so thanks for that ^^
Rather than "nail polish", consider buying some purpose-made "conformal coating" specifically formulated for coating electronic components and covering PCB material.
This stuff that I will link after has a UV reactance that allows checking for full coverage after cure: www.amazon.com/MG-Chemicals-Silicone-Modified-Conformal/dp/B07BSK5S7B
That way, you can use a UV light (even one in your case) to check and see if you got coverage to protect from the liquid metal.
you know the glue is very similar to windshield glue and a trick a lot of people use to remove windshoelds in cars is to start a hole and run a guitar string thourgh the hole and saw back and forth. if you could cut a slot in a piece of wood to hold half the chip with the other half sticking up and put a peice of nylon string or maybe even dental floss where the glue meets the ihs and the package and saw back and forth i bet the string would work its way throught he glue. could be a safer alternative to the razor blade method
Super useful info here. Thanks for sharing your results!
I want to see the difference between paste and liquid when it comes to delidding.
Couldn't you use a thermal pad the same as I used to use on the chipset when applying a waterblock direct to the silicon die? Then you can basically flood the wafers and even get the sides cooled more efficiently. I have also done a couple of laptop CPU's like that with great results.
Got a successful delid on my 7700k thanks to your vid. Literally dropped the package 12°C under load
i was delidding way before it was popular. i did it to a opty 144 because id used artic cooling paste an it was so sticky it just ripped it out the socket an stuck too the heat sink.. after doing this just 2x, an im pretty sure it broke the bond with the tim an ihs. It was hitting thermal limit[90deg] an shuting dwn in assassins creed..the first one lol... so i delidded it, but instead of putting the ihs back on i sanded down the black heat sink mount on the board so i cud mount direct too the silicon....i knocked 15-20 degrees off my max temps.....SWEET!!!!
I don't know about the i7-9900k, main difference between it and i7-9700k is threading, the latter only has one thread per core, the former two, but aside from that they are very similar. i have i7-9700k not delided, air cooled with an EVO 212A dual fan, and clocked at 4.9Ghz 1.42v on the CPU it gets to around 90C on an 8-core kernel compile. I can't get it to run at 5Ghz with 1.42v, to do that I have to crank up to 1.45v, and then it is electrically stable at 5Ghz, but during an 8-core kernel compile it hits 100C and throttles at times.
i recommend using tip of toothpick to apply the sealer ~ it will leave a nice little amount of sealer.
I have been dissatisfied with my i5-8600K's temps. The chip itself overclocks extremely well, though. Then I thought, hey, I should delid and give it a shot. After watching Gamers Nexus and Bitwit (which refers to Steve), I'm going for it.
OMFG.
Ive been watching videos about the dilidding process for hours trying to figure out wtf to seal with and I even had a thought earlier "ya know, probably just jb weld". Ive never used the stuff but my bud s=wears by it.
I saw a 30C improvement on my original 4770k from launch when I delidded it a few months ago. It throttled at stock and overclocking was not even an option, when I opened it there was only TIM on one side of the die and a bunch off of the edge onto the PCB like it didn't get applied in the center. Previously it hit 100C and throttled stock, now I hit 70C at 4.5ghz.
I used a razor and never bothered gluing the ihs back I wanted to make sure there’s minimum spacing issues. I just needed make sure that prime95 didn’t thermal throttle to 100c instantly on my 4670k on stock fans. Idk what’s my current results but it goes to 70-75c after a few minutes which is a lot better than before
nice video!! educational as always!
How about a benchmarking guide with test-programs and basic procedure for checking delidding or OC?