YouTube tech creator and extreme overclocker der8auer shared a key tip for safely delidding Intel’s just-launched Core Ultra 200S (codenamed Arrow Lake) chips. According to his post on the overlock.net forums, you should heat the chip above 157 degrees Celsius to melt the indium and make delidding easier. They recommend a target temperature of 165 degrees Celsius, as heating too much could make the glue loose and damage some SMDs.
“If you try the EK delidder you have to be extremely careful not to remove any SMDs around the IHS. You have around 1.5-2mm of room. Now the problem is that you have to heat it up before delidding. This seems very important for Arrow Lake. I know of 2 cases where the CPU was attempted to delid without heat and both died. At the same time I know 10 cases of delidded CPUs with heat and they all still work,” said der8auer.
“You have to heat up above 157 deg C to make the indium melt. We recommend 165 deg C. Now the problem is that once the indium is liquid and you delid, there will be the point where the glue comes loose and it’s just a big bounce of the IHS. And in that scenario you will 99% damage some of the SMDs.” He added, “Trust me, I spent months developing the current delidder.”
Delidding removes the integrated heat spreader (IHS) on the processor so that you can directly attach a water block to it for more efficient cooling. This practice is widespread among enthusiasts and overclockers, as they could get the most performance out of these chips and break world records. Furthermore, Intel’s Alder Lake and Raptor Lake series chips are so notorious for running hot that delidding has become quite common for those processors.
However, this act is quite dangerous, and you could destroy your processor if you make one wrong move. One of the first Ryzen 9000 processors was killed this way when its I/O die cracked during the delidding process. But to break the world record, you must delid your current CPU. It’s the risk you must take to squeeze every ounce of performance.
So, to help fellow enthusiasts, some manufacturers, like EKWB and even der8auer (in partnership with Thermal Grizzly), have built delidders to make the process safer and easier. This could reduce the chance that you’ll damage your CPU. Note that you will forfeit your processor’s warranty when you do this, but that is just the price if you want the best possible speed from your chip.
