A note on Delidding...

[slim01]

Just thought I'd share my recent FAILED attempt at delidding using a knife set... In the hopes it might save someone else from making same the mistakes I did.

Thankfully, I am typing this from the same 4770k I almost ruined.
So far it's passed all the stress tests I've done previously, @ 4.3ghz *phew*

I watched almost every video (about 7 of them) and every guide online about delidding, and nothing prepared me for the awkwardness that ensued...

First of all (and this is how far I got)...
I couldn't even get my blade into the corner of the heat sink.
I tried for 2 hours... To do step 1.

I watched every video again, and just couldn't understand how everyone's knife was just slipping into the silicon seal like it was butter, then running it down the side to do the whole thing in minutes.

I tried EVERY angle... EVERY amount of pressure... Never got more than 1mm inside a corner. Maybe not into a corner at all - I couldn't even tell if knife was hitting the IHS or PCB.

One thing I know DID hit, is the PCB is my knife... Several times.
-Whilst trying to "ease in" under the IHS, with knife flat, the outside of the knife scratched the PCB. So I covered it in electrical tape to protect it.

Realised later on that the pcb was STILL being scratched under the tape... After I took it off and cleaned the mess, a bit of copper looked like it was showing - Which I *thought* was instant death. Looks like it just missed the "lines" or "paths" that run accross the CPU... Should I be ok?

So my advice - If the knofe won't go in - It's probably not you doing something wrong, it's the IHS being much tighter sealed than everyone else chip on the tutorials.


I want to order a Delid tool from OC here but for some reason they want me to pay a tenner for postage... A tenner! For a tiny tool.
I used to get free post, no ideas why it's been removed.
Have I been banned or something? I've been on here a lot recently.

 

[mattyfez]

What kind of blade were you using?
I used a Stanley razor (the kind that come in Stanley knives).

I thought I'd busted my chip as I warped the PCB slightly with pressure. But it's fine.

I used a naked blade on purpose to stop me being too forceful, as too much force would cause me a hand injury. So I kinda used my own hand as a safety mechanism lol!

 

[slim01]

What kind of blade were you using?
I used a Stanley razor (the kind that come in Stanley knives).

I thought I'd busted my chip as I warped the PCB slightly with pressure. But it's fine.

I used a naked blade on purpose to stop me being too forceful, as too much force would cause me a hand injury. So I kinda used my own hand as a safety mechanism lol!

I was worried about warping as well... I almost ALMOST picked up a hammer, as found a nice flat blade that I thought might lightly "tap" in there. I was pretty desperate at that point though... So decided a hammer was not wise!!

I literally used an entire knife set... With about 12 different blades (well, 10 now, 2 of them broke!). AND a stanley. And a naked knife.

OBVIOUSLY these chips aren't all made the same. I'm not sure if mine has more glue, or less, or what. But it was not coming apart.

Just bought a de*eur die mate from here... REALLY didn't want to pay that much. £30 for a very, very simple bit of metal...
There'es ones on flea bay for like £5 but... Well... The chips already taken a beating... I'm not going to trust it's second life to something no one has reviewed. DEFFO won't be using a knife again.

Hopefully the deb8er will come in handy again in future, so it's not a waste of cash. Also, I hope the cooling goes well enough to get a bigger OC!

 

[mattyfez]

Maybe the glue is inconsistent .. I've only ever delidded the chip I currently run.

It's very stiff to start with.. I just gently worked the corners to start with and eventually I got a bit of blade under one corner, just a bit of the the sharp edge maybe half a mm or so.. Once you get a bit of purchase it comes off easier

Breaking the initial seal is the delicate part, hence why you have to use a thin hard blade. I still ended up with some bending of the PCB, but once clamped into the socket with a heatsink bolted on top it seems all is well.

I wouldn't recommend tapping a blade in, I kinda used a sea saw motion on the corners by hand.. And I certainly wouldn't use a blade any fatter than the cutting edge of a Stanley blade..

 

[Jamin280672]

With my old 4770K I used a naked Stanley blade too, but just eased / wiggled it into the 4 corners, just a couple of mm to loosen it up a bit, try and bend the blade up towards the IHS as you do it so it doesn't divert downwards and dig into the PCB, I then used the old hammer and block of wood technique, gave it a couple of sharp whacks and the top popped off, this was before the time of de-lidding tools.

 

[slim01]

Maybe the glue is inconsistent .. I've only ever delidded the chip I currently run.

It's very stiff to start with.. I just gently worked the corners to start with and eventually I got a bit of blade under one corner, just a bit of the the sharp edge maybe half a mm or so.. Once you get a bit of purchase it comes off easier

Breaking the initial seal is the delicate part, hence why you have to use a thin hard blade. I still ended up with some bending of the PCB, but once clamped into the socket with a heatsink bolted on top it seems all is well.

I wouldn't recommend tapping a blade in, I kinda used a sea saw motion on the corners by hand.. And I certainly wouldn't use a blade any fatter than the cutting edge of a Stanley blade..

Yeah I thought that might be the case, as is often with these things. That's why I persevered for so long. But that "one" corner I could never get into. Some of the blades were VERY thin, but it just didn't seem to matter. Got in that 2mm or so, then nothing. Tried rocking the blade in, pushing in, slicing in (which felt like it was working but never went any further). Literally only thing I didn't do was tap it in. But that would have been VERY risky. Heard of people lopping through that seal with force, then BOOM. No more capacitors (or whatever those little noddules are).

 

[slim01]

With my old 4770K I used a naked Stanley blade too, but just eased / wiggled it into the 4 corners, just a couple of mm to loosen it up a bit, try and bend the blade up towards the IHS as you do it so it doesn't divert downwards and dig into the PCB, I then used the old hammer and block of wood technique, gave it a couple of sharp whacks and the top popped off, this was before the time of de-lidding tools.

What is the hammer and wood technique!?!? That sounds rather dangerous. #ballsofsteel

 

[Jamin280672]

What is the hammer and wood technique!?!? That sounds rather dangerous. #ballsofsteel

Oh yes, my chip flew across the living room and bounced off the wall, I nearly cried, and the Mrs who was helping killed herself laughing, I couldn't believe it when I put it in and it still worked perfectly, only better, approx. 25oC lower temps, this is that technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3FDYVzwNIw

That's how it used to be done when Haswell 1st came out, no such thing as a de-lidding tool then.

 

[slim01]

Oh yes, my chip flew across the living room and bounced off the wall, I nearly cried, and the Mrs who was helping killed herself laughing, I couldn't believe it when I put it in and it still worked perfectly, only better, approx. 25oC lower temps, this is that technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3FDYVzwNIw

Oh god.... I'm watching now... And has to be Russian! hahahah

 

[Jamin280672]

Oh god.... I'm watching now... And has to be Russian! hahahah

In that video it doesn't look like it cut into it at all though, just went straight to the hammer, like I said above, I cut into the 4 corners first a little to initially loosen it up a bit, probably why it shot off and across the room so easily.

It was the Mrs crying when I stole her clear nail varnish to coat those transistors or whatever they are to protect them from the liquid ultra I put on the core.

 

[Disco_P]

I didn't use a knife at all, just a vice on my 3570K. Heat up the glue, one edge against the pcb, one against the IHS and tighten. Popped off with no chance of nicking something with a blade. However from skylake on intel use much thinner PCBs which could warp so don't use vice only for those.

 

[pastymuncher]

Sounds like your 4770k was just like my 4670k and 4790k and that there was no gap at all between the IHS and PCB to get a blade into. I ended up doing the 4670k by using the hammer and piece of wood method while clenching everything possible as I was hitting it harder and harder. It worked fine but stuff doing that again as it was too stressful. I borrowed a delidding tool for the 4790k which was so much easier and stress free. The 4670k saw temp drops of 15-18 degrees C and the 4790k a whopping 25 degrees C so it is well worth doing. The thing is though that we shouldn't have to be doing this on unlocked cpu's that we have paid a premium for.

 

[Smffy]

Hot off the press

 

[Tee Hee Johnson]

£10 postage is likely due to the weight of the delid tool.