How to Delid Your Processor, and Why

AH DELIDDING, THAT OLD, TERRIFYING PROCEDURE, usually only recommended for the elite.

- ZAK STOREY

YOU’LL NEED THIS

PROCESSOR

DELIDDING TOOL ($43, for Delid Die Mate, or $102, for Delid Die Mate-X)

LIQUID METAL OR THERMAL PASTE

(Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut, or Noctua’s NT-H1). + extras

For the uninitiated, delidding is the act of separating the integrated heat spreader (IHS) from the top of the processor, and then replacing the stock thermal paste that the manufacturer has used with something a little more premium—usually liquid metal or a better thermal paste.

Once upon a time it used to be quite the daunting procedure, involving all sorts of razor blades and torture devices, with a myriad of techniques used to carefully splice your processor away from its IHS, hopefully without damaging the silicon underneath (or yourself for that matter).

For many, it was rarely ever worth it. As temps on the high-end parts remained resolutely below that 70C mark, even with the weakest of aftermarket coolers, the big question was then: “Why bother?” Hell, even when overclocking, it was rare to see temperatures shoot past 7585C before you hit your silicon limits, especially with a decent AIO cooler. But times changed, and as the core war ramped up processors began to get hotter, as the two kings of desktop computing added more and more cores. It wasn’t uncommon to see an Intel Core i7-8700K peak at 75C when under load, regardless of overclocks. And although the company has taken steps to solder some of its higher end parts (the 9000 series, Core i9-9980XE and beyond), for those still stuck on Coffee Lake, or harboring a Skylake-X HEDT chip, delidding offers substantial improvements for both a superior overclocking experience, and far lower temperatures across the board.