delidding the 7740X

[batboy]

I spent half the holiday weekend benchmarking. I chased a world record (I'm currently ranked #4 globally in the PCmark10 benchmark). I upped the voltage and booted up at 5.3 gig (had been benching at 5.2). I was only 120 points away from winning when my temp alarm went off. The computer finished the benchmark, but I had a much lower score than expected. I'm sure it thermal throttled. Now, if I try to OC more than 5.0 GHz and add more then 1.25v, I get a huge spike in temp under load.

At first I blamed my watercooling loop, but now I think the CPU needs to be delidded. I probably cooked off the what little bit of the crappy TIM that Intel had on there. I've been googling and searching. The Kaby Lake-X is not soldered (nor is Skylake-X). I have a delid tool, but have determined it will not work on socket 2066 X-series CPUs because they're too big.

So, I don't know what to do. Buy the special socket 2066 delid tool that I'll probably only use once (if it's even available) or try to delid it the old fashion way or leave it alone and maybe step up to the 8-core 7820X CPU with more PCIe lanes and quad channel memory (and will probably need to be delidded too)?

 

[mackerel]

I'm waiting for tools to be available before delidding my 7800X. If you can't wait, you can attempt a manual one with the possible risks involved, with an early upgrade if you should kill it in the process.

 

[batboy]

Ok, I know what I want to do. I want to get that record with this CPU. So, that bugger is coming out later today. Maybe I can modify the delid tool that I have? There's a video on youtube of a guy delidding a socket 2066 CPU with a razor blade. I cringed the whole time, I swear it looked like he'd slip and slice himself up. I did a couple Pentium 4 CPUs that way back in the day. You got to be really careful. The Kaby Lake-X appears easier than the Skylake-X (which has tiny delicate circuitry around the chip). There's also a vice method of delidding which is similar to how the tool works. While the processor is out undergoing surgery, I'm going to do a little work to the waterloop. But first, I'm off to Home Depot. I need to finish up a honey-do home project.

 

[batboy]

Ok, I need to hurry and pull that CPU before my wife gets home from work. "What am I doing? Nothing, dearest. Just trying hard to not destroy an expensive CPU."

If somehow I manage to get this IHS off, I'll probably will want to put it back on. Too risky to mount a water block onto a naked die, right? I've seen several methods discussed including epoxy and liquid metal.

 

[mackerel]

On my 115x delids, the first time I used superglue but it looks horrible and I'm not sure I got the spacing as good as I could. After that, I just didn't bother at all. Let the socket mechanism hold the IHS in place. If I were to try fixing again, I've since found out there is high temperature silicone you can get and use.

Possible problem with bare die on waterblock is the different height.

 

[Mr.Scott]

RTV Ultra Black works great.

 

[batboy]

Yes, you're right. Most water blocks are designed to clamp down at a certain pressure. Without the IHS, it's all out of whack. It can be done of course, but harder. I thought about a little high temp RTV that is used on engines rebuilds and I thought about letting the socket mechanism hold it down like you said. One fellow on youtube did it like that too.

EDIT: Scotty, I didn't see your post until after I posted mine. I have red, blue, and black RTV. I need to dig them out and see which is high temp, one or two are and seems like one is resistant to gasoline and oil, but probably won't need that type... I hope...

 

[Alaric]

Looks like delidding Intel chips will be a thing in to the foreseeable future. https://www.techpowerup.com/236781/intel-skylake-x-hcc-cpu-delidded-by-der8auer-also-not-soldered

 

[batboy]

 

[trents]

RTV Ultra Black works great.

Ditto!

 

[batboy]

The only tube of RTV that I can find is completely solidified. I got more around here somewhere. So, instead I used a product from Loctite called, "Repair Extreme All Temperature. I've used it many times around the home and it usually holds great. It's what I had on hand, but it should work.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself. The delid procedure appears to be a success. I tried several methods, but the only thing that worked for me was using a razor blade. I took my time and was as careful as possible. My delid tool is too small to handle the socket 2066 CPUs.

I should have taken a photo of how the naked CPU looked when I first pulled the IHS off. The TIM on the core looked okay. I expected it to be only covering half the core or something, but looked fine and uniformly covering the core. If anything, maybe a little thick. I cleaned it all up and then finally remembered to take a pic.

I reapplied the thermal paste and I ran a thin bead of adhesive around the IHS and clamped it back on. I'll let it set up overnight and reinstall this 7740X first thing in the morning. Maybe take for a test drive before breakfast. [I just hope I didn't kill it. I saw a faint scratch or two, but nothing that should cause a problem.]

Oh, in case you're wondering, I'm posting from my laptop. Niters.

 

[Johan45]

So, what we all want to know....did it help?

 

[batboy]

It's alive! I'm running at 5.0 gig with 1.25v for the time being, testing and making sure it's ok. I don't mind saying that I was as nervous as a long-tailed tomcat in a room full of rocking chairs. Last night even this was too much OC. It's looking like temps are back to "normal" again.

I ran the same stress test that I did before I delidded. Max load CPU temp was 10 degrees cooler, that was good. I still need to work on my loop today. I was going to do the watercooling upgrades at the same time as the CPU mod, but decided not. Because I wanted to be scientific and do just one step at a time, then retest to make sure the delidding showed improvements. Now, if I can make additional cooling gains with revamping the loop, maybe I'll take another shot at that world record.

Obligatory photo of the delidded CPU.

 

[Sentential]

Nice job man! Now all you've got to do is get some Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut and some Super33 electrical tape and you'll be good to go!

 

[batboy]

The best thermal paste I had was AS5, so that's what I used.

You don't like my electrical tape sleeving? LOL... I do have a roll of super 33, but that's for real electrical work. I use generic vinyl electrical tape for case modding. The really cheap stuff pisses people off even more.

 

[Tír na nÓg]

Ouch! AS5 or any conventional TIM won't shave a lot of C. Need liquid metal TIM (coolaboratory or such).

 

[batboy]

If it's back to the way it was before I cooked off the stock TIM, I'll be happy. But, for long term, it'll be easy to pop that IHS back off, if I need to redo it. I don't know much about liquid metal. Perhaps I should look into that a bit more.

 

[Nebulous]

My hat's off to ya batz! Well done! Shaving 10c off is nothing to sneeze at.

 

[Sentential]

The best thermal paste I had was AS5, so that's what I used.

You don't like my electrical tape sleeving? LOL... I do have a roll of super 33, but that's for real electrical work. I use generic vinyl electrical tape for case modding. The really cheap stuff pisses people off even more.

Oh that's not it at all, Super33 is rated for 105C* and is what most people go for when they use electrical tape to cover power leads/exposed chips. I assumed you were going to leave it delidded or use liquid metal

 

[Nebulous]

Forgot to mention when I delidded both my 3570K & 4790K I used Noctua's NT-H1 under the top with really good results. I didn't seal the top back on either. I used the clamping force of the mobo's cpu hold down to hold the top in place.

I used the razor to delid the 3570k and the vise to delid the 4790k.