Repasting Ivy Bridge IHS 10-15C Cooler

[Cecil]

Got a new I5 3570K, and wanted to finally pop the IHS off, and change the thermal paste.

Took about 10 minutes of being very careful and taking my time to get the IHS off. About another 20 minutes to clean off the adhesive that was used.

I'm currently testing temps with Prime95 AVX with 14400MB of ram used, 20 minute runs. Using a Zalman CNPS20LQ AIO water cooler with the single stock fan at 2k RPM. Doing this with all the panels removed from the case to be in an open air environment.


Stock IHS thermal paste at 25C ambient.
75C / 80C / 77C / 76C

MX-2 repaste at 24C ambient
61C / 68C / 66C / 67C

11C over ambient drop in temps.


Before temps, 25C ambient


Stuff used


CPU used


Started the cutting


Removed IHS


All clean


Back of IHS


Thermal paste (MX2) applied, pic makes it seem like there is more then there really is


Back in the board, had to hold the IHS when pushing the bracket down or it would slide around, or not be in the middle.


After temps, 24C ambient

[Maurice]

Looks good, but happened to the days of running it naked?

[Cecil]

Originally Posted by Maurice

Looks good, but happened to the days of running it naked?

Getting proper contact with these is very hard, and its very easy to crack the die, killing the CPU.

[Maurice]

so it's harder than it used to be?

That's weird

[P.I.M.P_SLi]

Originally Posted by Maurice

Looks good, but happened to the days of running it naked?

Heatsinks have become bigger and heavier. This makes it very easy to damage the cpu die without an IHS.

[TSXmike]

Planning on doing this soon myself. Just waiting for the rest of my wc gear to get here.

How come you didnt use coollab liquid ultra?

[P.I.M.P_SLi]

I have been meaning to try this out too, but just been too lazy since temps are fine currently. Might try this in the summer.

[Cecil]

Originally Posted by TSXmike

Planning on doing this soon myself. Just waiting for the rest of my wc gear to get here.

How come you didnt use coollab liquid ultra?

Dont have any, and it hasnt been long enough to see long term effects of it. IC diamond can damage the die, and coollab stuff is liquid metal that hardens over time. I dont really trust it for another 2-3C off. Plus I change hardware too often, and MX2 is cheap, usually free.

[Nagoshi]

Originally Posted by Cecil

Getting proper contact with these is very hard, and its very easy to crack the die, killing the CPU.

That, and isn't the LGA bracket about as high as the core it self, if not higher?

I mean there is very little height difference between the top of the IHS and the LGA clamp, I can't see it running nekkid without mods to the bracket.


And as also mentioned, heavy blocks or heatsinks put more stress on the die. Not to mention there's a whole lot more transistors packed into that thing than older chips, so they are way more prone to damage.



Cool mod Cecil, didn't think it would drop the temps that much!

[Witchdoctor]

Nice result C.

Looks to be worth the effort ..............

[DarkTower87]

Why not use thermal adhesive? That way it doesn't slide around.

Additional Comment:

Good job btw. Nice temp drop.

[Cecil]

Originally Posted by DarkTower87

Why not use thermal adhesive? That way it doesn't slide around.

Additional Comment:

Good job btw. Nice temp drop.

Dont think its been tried. But there is a slight gap between die and IHS, so if its too thin, probably wouldnt make good contact.
Plus thermal tape isnt as efficient.

[DarkTower87]

Originally Posted by Cecil

Dont think its been tried. But there is a slight gap between die and IHS, so if its too thin, probably wouldnt make good contact.
Plus thermal tape isnt as efficient.

Thermal adhesive not tape.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835100005

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by DarkTower87

Thermal adhesive not tape.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835100005

I tried this a few years ago. It works awesome. It sticks for ever.

[Cecil]

Originally Posted by DarkTower87

Thermal adhesive not tape.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835100005

Ah.
Isnt that really hard to remove though? If it wasnt applied just right, could rip the die off trying to remove the IHS again.

[Maurice]

You may be able to heat it up, and remove it, but from my understanding. Once it's stuck with this adhesive it's stuck for good.

[DarkTower87]

Yeah i dont think you will be getting it off once its on.

[P.I.M.P_SLi]

Originally Posted by Cecil

Dont have any, and it hasnt been long enough to see long term effects of it. IC diamond can damage the die, and coollab stuff is liquid metal that hardens over time. I dont really trust it for another 2-3C off. Plus I change hardware too often, and MX2 is cheap, usually free.

You may have to reapply the paste in the future. There have been reports of higher temperatures few months down the line. However, it will still be quite a bit better than pre-mod temps.

[ShrimpBrime]

That's a very nice temp drop Cecil. It's about the same with the AMD's if you can get the solder to let go.

Hopefully I'll work up the nerve to do this to the 3770K, cause any little bit of a temp drop will help!

Nice work!