Have you de-lidded an Ivy Bridge CPU?

How did your de-lidding work out?

  • Awesome! Greater than 5 degrees celsius improvement averaged across all cores!

    Votes: 39 60.0%
  • Not so well. My chip no longer works.

    Votes: 17 26.2%
  • It works but it no longer functions properly or as well as before de-lidding.

    Votes: 9 13.8%

  • Total voters
    65
Completed the delidding this evening. I used a regular razor blade, bare, and was very careful and took my time. Started with one corner and then another corner, then when the corners were done I worked on the sides.

I was thinking of lapping before I took the IHS off, however putting the blade up to the IHS and it was pretty flat already. I was surprised at that because the two Core 2's I lapped were not flat at all prior to lapping.

Waiting for some CL Liquid Ultra to arrive from FrozenCPU.

Before delidding, 4.5 @ 1.25 (didn't try lower) was in the 80's with highest core reaching around 87-88.

Oh, and there is quite a bit of comedy in this thread. ;)
 
Delid completed and put back together.

Went ahead and purchased a new case too. Picked up a Fractal Design Define R4 Black Pearl.

Awesome case.

Anyhoo, used CL Liquid Ultra and put it back together again with the Kuhler 920.

Stock temps never get above 55c under IBT "very high" settings. That's good considering they were in the 60's prior to the delidding.
 
Delid completed and put back together.

Went ahead and purchased a new case too. Picked up a Fractal Design Define R4 Black Pearl.

Awesome case.

Anyhoo, used CL Liquid Ultra and put it back together again with the Kuhler 920.

Stock temps never get above 55c under IBT "very high" settings. That's good considering they were in the 60's prior to the delidding.


What clock speed for 60s? 60s is some what cool for IBT depending on speed and voltage you were running.

You may want to try putting CL Liquid Pro between IHS and die use the CL Ultra between the IHS and block. That is reported to work very well. Also your temps drops don't seem that great but it really depends on the over clocks you were running before. Delidded there should alot nice temps on higher over clocks close to 5GHZ.

When delidding if your temps don't drop that much you may have to play around with the mount to make sure you got good contact between die and IHS and IHS and block.


Congrats.
 
3.7

BIOS was corrupted and turbo wasn't working. I have since fixed that.

4.5 @ 1.25 is running in the high 50's and just barely touching into the 60's now. I haven't tried doing anything else yet. I knew 4.5 @ 1.25 was stable already from before the delid, but I just didn't like the temp.

I'll consider the CL Pro. For now I am very happy with what I have! Thanks for your posts on the subject. Really helped me decide I could do this without too much hassle.
 
I'm too lazy :p

I personally have no need, I don't really need to overclock, and I don't really have the change to buy a new one...
 
I'm too lazy :p

I personally have no need, I don't really need to overclock, and I don't really have the change to buy a new one...

It's your call really. Alot of chips do just fine without de-lidding. Mine hit 4.7 before de-lidding, it hits 5.0 now at the same temperature in IBT as 4.7 used to since de-lidding. If you have no use for 5.0 which most people don't then you won't need to de-lid. But if you are in pursuit of the absolute best performance your chip can offer than I must recommend this modification.
 
Delid completed and put back together.

Went ahead and purchased a new case too. Picked up a Fractal Design Define R4 Black Pearl.

Awesome case.

Anyhoo, used CL Liquid Ultra and put it back together again with the Kuhler 920.

Stock temps never get above 55c under IBT "very high" settings. That's good considering they were in the 60's prior to the delidding.

Great to hear. I observed an additional 10 degree drop switching from ultra to pro on the die. Just a head up if you ever need the headroom.
 
I got 4.5 @ 1.20 volts with memory running @ 2200 with timings of 9-11-11-28 1T. I have the IGP enabled too. I top out @ 77c with a crappy cooler. It was hitting 98c before the de-lidding, so I got a 20c drop in temps. Paste is Ceramique.

Now I'm waiting for that Swiftech H220 to become available.


Edit: Oops, it's a 3570K
 
I've delidded mine and regret nothing. Lapped the surface with progressively fine sandpaper and used a single sided triangular razor. It all came off pretty easily, and I replaced the die TIM with some liquid pro. Placed everything back in the mobo and used some NT-H1 between my rasa block and the shiney IHS. Temps dropped about 35C in total with the lapping and delidding. Running 1.5v temps only barely top 70c at during a few hours of Prime, most of the time they hover in the high 60s. It's a funny thing to be limited by voltage rather than temperatures, I wish my chip was better! :D

See some pics of my process here: http://www.overclock.net/g/a/816173/official-delidded-ivy-bridge-club/
 
The one thing that bothers me about these processors is the total lack of quality control at the assembly plants. Or at least the Costa Rica plant. My processor is from the week 39 batch. It hit the throttle level extremely quickly. My brother in laws runs like it should. He is getting slightly higher temps then I do after I de-lidded mine. His was from the week 38 batch. This screams of poor quality control.

He bought his from Microcenter about 2 weeks after I bought mine from the Egg.
 
Changed the TIM with MX2, got a 11C drop over ambient temps.

Before temps, 25C ambient


Stuff used


CPU used


Started the cutting


Removed IHS


All clean


Back of IHS


Thermal paste (MX2) applied, pic makes it seem like there is more then there really is


Back in the board, had to hold the IHS when pushing the bracket down or it would slide around, or not be in the middle.


After temps, 24C ambient
 
Whoa I just noticed the thread starter, I KNOW YOU MAYNE!!! :p

Good to see a friendly face on a new forum. :)
 
I've delidded mine and regret nothing. Lapped the surface with progressively fine sandpaper and used a single sided triangular razor. It all came off pretty easily, and I replaced the die TIM with some liquid pro. Placed everything back in the mobo and used some NT-H1 between my rasa block and the shiney IHS. Temps dropped about 35C in total with the lapping and delidding. Running 1.5v temps only barely top 70c at during a few hours of Prime, most of the time they hover in the high 60s. It's a funny thing to be limited by voltage rather than temperatures, I wish my chip was better! :D

See some pics of my process here: http://www.overclock.net/g/a/816173/official-delidded-ivy-bridge-club/

You have to pump 1.5V into a 3570K JUST to reach 4.9Ghz?!? That is an insane amount of voltage man, especially if you expect that chip to last more then a year or two.. What Vcore is required for 4.6-4.7Ghz? If it is under 1.4V, then I would seriously back the speed down..That extra 200-300Mhz really isn't going to be noticeable, but the short lifespan of your cpu may be...The 22nm process isn't as robust as the 32nm SB cpus..

While I know not every cpu is the same, my 3770K @ 4.8Ghz uses only 1.272V, and that is with all 8 threads loaded using Prime95 with AVX AND my GTX 480 (100% load) doing a 35 hr torture test..I recently switched from using IC Diamond as my Primary TIM to CL Ultra, and was able to reduce my load temperatures from 70,80,81,78C to 52,54,62, and 52C!! I am going to start my 5Ghz push as soon as my new gpu arrives and I rebuild my loop...
 
I'm now a believer of the CoolLabs Ultra. I picked up a tube a few months ago, haven't really gotten the time to apply em till today. My old 2009-era Dell XPS 1640 laptop (T9600 / ATI HD3670) was GPU throttling because it kept hitting 84C on the GPU and so after 15 minutes of intense gaming, so it would throttle down the clocks and I'd get absolute hell framerates at 1-2 fps for a full minute. I opened the thing, tried my best to clean up the old gunk (applied thick, they used half a tube or something). I applied Coollabs Ultra, and now the temps idle at 27C GPU and maxes at 63C on Furmark. The fans don't really turn on anymore, and even at 100% load the fans are still at 30%, a much bigger difference than before. My laptop is now silent.

It wasn't even hard to apply because you use the brush, but it's scary stuff though, it's like playing with mercury. Even with a terrible cleanup - it had residue permanently baked on there it's a hell of a difference. I wasn't expecting that much of a drop because the heatsink for this laptop is a itty bitty thing with a surface area of a mid 90s video card heatsink.

Going to put it on my main rig tomorrow, gonna delid that 3770k / D14 and report back the drops. :D Very excited.

KJFEUhu.jpg

(image of thermal paste gore - what manufacturers do.)
 
Uncapped Tualatin and AMD 754 chips back in my watercooling days. May have to try my hand at this new IB. I take it bare core is only ok for waterblocks with the stock retention system removed.

Edit: CL Liquid Pro or Ultra?
 
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yea thats a mess.. I wanted to leave a post here though because I may attempt a delidding soon. My temps suck ass and for some reason I have a spread of over 10 degrees from my core 0- core 3. **over ten degrees C its around 20F
 
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What TIM would you guys recommend for under the heat sink, im about to run to microcenter to grab some things. Im thinking about trying tuniq mx-4 and the tpc-812
 
Here I am again, reporting back.

Fuck, computer stuff is supposed to be FUN, god damn it. This shit was the most stressful computer-related activity I've done in YEARS. While I was using a razor blade pushing I was sweating bullets, and after ~two hours I finally got it apart, and then I saw a nick on the pcb where there was copper :eek: and my heart sank. I soldiered on anyways, put CL Ultra on both die and IHS, popped everything back together (shittiest 10 mins ever), and lo and behold, everything booted up proper! Checked CPU-Z, ran IBT, running P95, seems like everything's totally fine. Maybe I lost some extraneous functions but that remains to be seen....

Overall report:
Old layout: 3770k > MX-2 > D14
3770k @ 1.400v
Ambient: 22 / 20 / 18 / 16
Average P95: 77 / 80 / 81 / 77
Peaks: 80 / 88 / 88 / 81

New layout: 3770k > CL Ultra > D14
Idle: 23 / 19 / 15 / 14
Average: 50 / 52 / 55 / 56
Peaks: 62 / 69 / 70 / 71

At first I used Feather shaving blades, they cut through the glue just fine but they were so thin that it didn't actually help separate the IHS from the PCB. They were also double-sided (and a hole in the middle) so it's actually a bit hard to apply pressure. So I had to do it all over again with an actual box cutter blade (the thin Japanese kind) to separate it. Not fun at all.

So, verdict is 10 - 15C drop pretty much, but fuck, NEVER AGAIN. Never going to delid again. Also no pictures because I was sweating bullets and I cut my fingers twice (where actual blood :p). Probably a lot more than that, because it tingles as I type.

So far a couple hours P95 and still running good. Should be stable overall, I hope.
 
Kool, thanks for the advice. Im testing the MX-4 Tuniq against the Artic sliver i was using previously. Right now the temperatures about match the cured AS5.

Tuniq has "TX", Arctic Cooling has "MX".

There is MX-4 and TX-4, so not sure if you have Tuniq TX-4 or Arctic Cooling MX-4.

Both of them are pretty thick though, and both MX-2 and TX-2 are thin and easier to work with.
 
I really like Artic Cooling MX-4, it's very easy to work with.
 
ahh sorry yea its TX-4. They really didn't have that many different brands at microcenter.. they had TX-4 and MX-2.
 
Here I am again, reporting back.

Fuck, computer stuff is supposed to be FUN, god damn it. This shit was the most stressful computer-related activity I've done in YEARS. ...

So, verdict is 10 - 15C drop pretty much, but fuck, NEVER AGAIN. Never going to delid again. Also no pictures because I was sweating bullets and I cut my fingers twice (where actual blood :p). Probably a lot more than that, because it tingles as I type.

So far a couple hours P95 and still running good. Should be stable overall, I hope.

This is EXACTLY WHY I took the time to link to IdontCare's EXCELLENT de-lidding guide that was posted over @ Anandtech..If you followed that guide you would have be finished in 15 minutes without any problems..I really wish you guys would read through the thread before attempting this if you aren't comfortable..
 
This takes me back...

I delided my Q9450 when I was doing my first good water loop. Back then it was a good 3-5 degree gain. It's insane Intel did this to these chips... I remember the thought of, "I paid like $300 for this last month and I might be wrecking it right now..."
 
lol yea thats exactly how I felt when I first bought this chip, but now each day brings this processor closer to the knife. With a difference of 10-12C from top core to bottom core I could imagine what it looks like under the IHS.

HTb5Yo1.png


Is this normal?

Edit: Ive resat the heat sink several times and redid the thermal grease and fully cleaned it each time.. I cant seem to get better temps then this.
 
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+1 successful unlid with CL LU. Priming now at a conservative setting of 39x, 1.232Vcore and seeing over a 20C drop (86 to 64C). Time to turn up the screws.
 
+1 successful unlid with CL LU. Priming now at a conservative setting of 39x, 1.232Vcore and seeing over a 20C drop (86 to 64C). Time to turn up the screws.

Congratulations..Now to continue on with getting excellent results @ high speeds, please, please dump that HSF and pick up a decent AIO cooler..they are so cheap these days that there is no excuse to use a traditional air cooling setup..

I personally feel you are much less likely to damage the CPU die as well, since you do not have a pound of metal hanging off the motherboard..
 
Congratulations..Now to continue on with getting excellent results @ high speeds, please, please dump that HSF and pick up a decent AIO cooler..they are so cheap these days that there is no excuse to use a traditional air cooling setup..

I personally feel you are much less likely to damage the CPU die as well, since you do not have a pound of metal hanging off the motherboard..

The solid copper Ninja's weighed about that much, the regular Cu/Al ones are much lighter.
I'll likely hit the limits of the board before cooling holds me back.
 
mobo shows it as an memory error, not CPU, so I guess that the cut killed some memory lanes.
Well, I lost only two first memory slots in i5-3570K, so I was more lucky. ;)
I tried to remove IHS with a safety razor blade, applied it to corner, saw that it goes too hard and gave up. But nevertheless I managed to scratch the CPU outside of cover.:( It seems that lanes go just under surface of the top side.

So I moved memory to slots 3&4 operating single channel mode, and for compensation overclocked it to 1800 from 1600 (12.5%).:)

With IHS I can run CPU at 4500/1.35V (yeah, not the best CPU, it seems). It's throttling with LinX and going to Blue Screen in Prime95 at 95 Celsius, but for my real application it works somewhere at 65-75 degrees, with spikes to 80-85 (depending on room temperature). Also my cooler is not the best - just Scythe Katana 3. MB is GB-Z77-D3H.
 
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Let's bump this LOL, de-lidded my 3770K.

http://imgur.com/a/wybx7

4.3Ghz and 1.160v from bios, I have measured it with multimeter under load to be 1.155v.
Before I had MX-2 between cooler and cpu.
After I have MX-2 between cooler and cpu, and now I have Liquid Pro between IHS and the die.
On both screenshots the fan were spinning at their maximum so to have some what comparable.
If you can't make out the number's:
71-80-77-72 -> average 75
55-63-61-58 -> average 59.25*C
Temps lowered by 15.75*C. How about that :D

Edit:
And new 24/7 OC
NPAU6HW.jpg

Multimeter 1.186v

Success-baby.jpg
 
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I got a 3770k from the Intel retail edge, so decided to delid it. I got great results.

Pre
4.6 GHz @ 1.352 V
IBT on Max
Temps 76C, 86C, 86C, 83C

Post delid: kept heat spreader on after, used Liquid Ultra on die, and AS5 between spreader and WB.
same setup
4.6 @ 1.352V
IBT on Max
Temps 61C 68C 64C 65C
That's a 15-22 C difference. I think that's amazing. I can get a little better if I swapped out the AS5 for something better, but right now those temps are great.

Pre:
4600maxtemp.png


Post:
4600maxtempafterdelid.png
 
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