Conclusion

Performance

While the process itself is not totally without risk, the temperature delta from before and after he procedure makes the relidding process worth the risk. At stock settings, the point can be made that the temperature is not too bad in the processor's factory configuration, but that argument begins to break down as you push the chip to its overclocking limits. The 20C decrease in the maximum core temperature speaks volumes on its own.

Pricing

As of March 02, the RockIt 88 De-Lid Kit can be found at Amazon.com for $38.00 with free shipping, as well at the RockIt Cool Store for $38.00. Note that if you buy it through RockIt Cool directly, the De-Lid and Re-Lid Kits are listed separately.

The Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra thermal paste can be found at Amazon.com for $13.31 with free shipping.

Conclusion

While there is risk inherent in tinkering with the heat spreader and die of the Kaby Lake processor, the use of a delidding device like the RockIt 88 De-Lid Kit reduces the potential for damage significantly over other delidding methods (such as the vice method explored in the previous article). The temperature decrease from simply cleaning and reapply high performance thermal paste to the die to heat spreader interface was significant enough to remove a stability factor from overclocking. The maximum core temperatures of 94C+ while overclocked to 5GHz put the system on the razor's edge of stability. Reducing that down to 74C alleviates the temperature stress on the processor and board components, increasing their lifespan. Further, I was able to push the chip to 5.1GHz after the modifications which is the fastest processor speed I've seen on my test bench up to this point.

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