Question What's Your Experience With Silicon-Lottery Re-lidding Jobs After Three or Four Years?

[BonzaiDuck]

I built my i7-6700K Skylake system around beginning of 2017. I likely need to replace the motherboard, and the final steps of testing the old one will set me up to do the replacement without extra work.

If I have to replace the board, I will want to migrate the processor to the new board.

The i7-6700K was purchased from Silicon Lottery with an extra 50 bucks added for their delidding service and prepping the processor with CLU or similar TIM to reinstall the IHS on the processor. I was assured that the materials used would make the IHS just as firmly glued in place as it had been coming out of the factory.

The heatsink is a ThermalRight Le Grand Macho, and I use IC-Diamond paste. I was reticent about using any of the liquid-metal formulations, because they tend to bond the heatsink base to the processor cap. Of course, IC-Diamond spreads on the IHS and heatsink base like wet concrete cement, and after four years, I'm sure that the oil base is pretty dried out. I'm trying to think of clever ways to remove it without doing damage to the processor.

So that's the first question. Has anyone had any bad experiences with Silicon Lottery's re-lidding in this regard?

And second, I came across an article last week that described how Intel's Indium solder itself deteriorates over time, leaving cracks or spaces in the solder so that heat transfer is degraded. Any experience with this after CLU relidding? I hadn't noticed any deterioration in processor cooling, but it wasn't something I was watching very carefully. The Skylake was OC'd to 4.7Ghz, and everything had seemed rock-solid until my accident with the static-charge and the USB controller.

I have one good shot to replace my motherboard with a minimal amount of work, and don't want to run into any disappointments over CPU performance.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Heat up the CPU, press gently, and twist. If you have to use a tool to torque the IHS off then do that (just try not to mangle the IHS; fins are not sturdy). Caked-on thermal grease shouldn't hold up very well to torque, especially if you get it nice and hot. Unplug fans and let the CPU throttle if you have to.

 

[moinmoin]

Somebody on here suggested using dental floss before.

 

[Justinus]

The 6700k never had solder under the IHS - Even the intel chips that do have solder, the solder is scraped off of the die and underside of the heatspreader before relidding with liquid metal.

I can't speak to SiliconLottery, but I have delidded and relidded several intel chips from 6, 7, and 8 series using a similar process and adhering the heatspreader with black silicone. The oldest one is about 4 years old and still as cool as the day I did the job. Have removed it from the socket somewhere after around 3 years to see it still looked like the factory sealing job.

I wouldn't sweat it. Repaste it with your paste and call it a day.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Somebody on here suggested using dental floss before.

That is also an option, especially if it's the old-school wax stuff that can cut your gums all to hell.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

That is also an option, especially if it's the old-school wax stuff that can cut your gums all to hell.

Good to hear you again on the forums. I've been away from "CPUs" for a while.

I was going to look for a fine copper wire, but dental floss sounds much more practical.

Even so, to answer yours and the posts of others -- I've had some gratifying communications in e-mail this last week with G.SKILL, a motherboard reseller, and -- Silicon Lottery.

SL reminded me that the processor retention plate will hold the IHS and processor together until after removal of the heat-sink and the latch lever! I must be missing some brain cells!

SL also provided an abbreviated statistical summary of their RMA history. For thousands of orders, they've only had short of a handful of complaints. The Grizzly Conductonaut apparently doesn't degrade.

So . . . . my flagship system is down for repair, and because it's my very best, some degree of panic and apprehension set in. I've spent over a kilo-buck just to acquire parts that I only MAY need. Of course, I give myself the justification that I can now build one or two more such systems before this year's end.

With that in mind, I found a retail-box, never-opened Kaby Lake i7-7700K. It's "stimulus"! So I bought it, and mailed SL a note to expect receiving it for their $39.99 de-lid/re-lid service. In fact, I'm going to make that a double. I obtained an i7-6700 (non-K) in a motherboard bundle.

I haven't spent a dime on computer hardware but for some SDXC cards and an $80 tablet for my Trooper's dashboard since the Skylake system was completed. That was four years ago. So my momentary departure from a miserly spending pattern is not such a bad thing.

As for the literal "lottery", I won't worry. I've found the statistics for over-clocking the Kaby. I may initially wish only to push it an extra 200 Mhz, putting me where the Skylake had been. Going beyond that could be more fun.

I'm just about ready to fire up the motherboard with the USB problem. If the problem "goes away" -- even for replacing the CR2032 battery or resetting the CMOS, the Skylake stays where it is. If I replace the board, Skylake becomes Kaby. Then I should have plenty of hardware for about two new systems by year's end.

I can be corrected, and those familiar with my past projects -- spending money on dated processors and boards -- may tell me to get a deca-core Intel and board. But I don't have need for ten cores and twenty hyper-threads, and the latest Comet Lake uses Skylake cores. So, "no big deal," I say!

Still, I have in my memory a four-year-old boy with a striped polo shirt and shorts, with tin cans folded around the soles of his shoes to make noise while he holds a giant Hershey's bar in his hands, his face and shirt smeared with melted chocolate on the warm day.

I suppose occasionally -- that's me when it comes to my computers. . . .