I have made the decision to delid my i7 8700k due to high temps.

Cliff S said:

What are you using to protect the SMD's(surface-mount device) on the PCB, before applying the liquid metal? Nail polish?
Attachment 182946

Cliff, what CPU was in the picture you provided? I am looking at the 8700k in these 2 pictures and there doesn't appear to be any danger of SMD's.

doorules said:

I used liquid electrical tape for my chip. Very cheap and easy to apply. It is supposed to come off very easily as well. I would definitely use one or the other though just to be sure there are no issues with the liquid metal.

It requires a very small amount of LM to cover the die.

Thanks.

Delidding, Liquid Metal, & Test Methodology

After a few trial runs with liquid metal application and consultation with Der8auer and VSG, we eventually got the method down and improved thermals significantly. Delidding was done with the Delid DieMate X (we later learned that the vertical clamp is used for resealing, so is unnecessary to the delid process), after which process a cleaning of the IHS and die took place. We scraped off the silicone adhesive on the IHS-side to permit better contact and lower the copper plate closer to the die, leaving a thin layer of adhesive as a placement guide on the double-substrate Intel i9-7900X. Speaking with Der8auer, there is minimal thermal headroom to be gained by removing 100% of the silicone adhesive, and the delidding expert suggested that we leave a thin layer to better place the IHS. Going into these results, know that there is another 1-3C that could be gained from removing all the adhesive, according to Der8auer.
We eventually got liquid metal application down to a better science: A single dot of the stuff was placed on the IHS and CPU die, then spread into a thin layer across each surface. Nail polish was used for its nitrocellulose and akyl acetate, adding a protective layer over the SMDs on the substrate. We did not re-glue the IHS, but rather carried the CPU horizontally to its test bed, then clamped it down under the socket and cooler.

Liquid Metal vs. Thermal Paste Benchmarks: Intel’s Thermal Problem, Pt1 | GamersNexus - Gaming PC Builds Hardware Benchmarks

paulpicks21 said:

Cliff, what CPU was in the picture you provided? I am looking at the 8700k in these 2 pictures and there doesn't appear to be any danger of SMD's.

Just a pic I found for an example of what an SMD is, there are only the four "dots" to worry about on Skylake through Coffee lake to worry about.

Oh if you decide on nail polish you need to be careful about it's ingredients though.

We applied too much liquid metal on the first attempt. It formed like a pool, and shimmered when pushed around. As we learned later on in the process, ideal application is to spread a very thin layer of LM (you should see some streaks of liquid, not a pool) across the entire die. The opposing IHS surface should also be coated with LM, but be careful not to coat areas that could end up over SMDs on the board (capacitors, resistors, so forth). We used nail polish to protect the SMDs, as it forms a layer over the capacitors that prevents liquid metal from damaging the parts. We asked friend of the site VSG (of Thermal Bench) why nail polish works so well against liquid metal, to which he noted:
"Nail polish typically has nitrocellulose or another functionalized cellulose in it which forms a thin, stable film without a gap over items such as fingernails, or the capacitors you used it over. A alkyl acetate helps move it into place, and then promptly evaporates leaving behind just the thin film.
"Some nail polish formulations have benzene derivates. Toluene is a prime candidate used by some companies, which does a similar job as nitrocellulose. Look at the composition before buying or using these, as toluene isn't nice to play with even at lower concentrations."
If electrical tape is handy, ideally something that can withstand ~105C, this also works as a solution.
Ultimately, though, it's just good not to use too much liquid metal. Conductonaut is conductive -- go figure -- and will short components that encounter it. We used too much of the Thermal Grizzly solution at first, and pressure from the IHS caused the liquid metal to spill onto the substrate. Fortunately for us, this only came into contact with a capacitor. We had a short, failed to POST, and then removed the CPU and cleaned it. Cleaning off the excess resolved the boot issue immediately. Ideally, just use less than

Learning Delidding Hardware Benchmarks

Terminator know what happens when Liquid Metal gets warm


And why we should use water cooling