Part Recommendations

[ajlueke]

Hello!

One of the things I have talked about on this forum fairly frequently is the limitations of overclocking and liquid cooling with the current Ryzen line.  Due to the amount of solder use to maintain compatibility with older AM4 coolers, AM5 processors were often thermally limited at the IHS (Internal Heat Spreader).   Meaning, the rate of thermal transfer from the CPU die(s) to the IHS was the limiting step in cooling. 

So traditional methods of adding more cooling (bigger CPU cooler, more radiators etc) were not effective.  Simply because, they all improve the rate at which you cool the IHS.  But now, it seems there is another solutions.

EK-Quantum Velocity2 Direct Die D-RGB - AMD Ryzen Signature Edition – EK Webshop (ekwb.com)

There have already been articles demonstrating how Ryzen 7000 series processors benefit from direct die cooling, and I am curious to see some results using this product.  Of course, maybe we should wait and see if EK survives their current financial woes before diving in, but it is an exciting product none the less.

[BigAl01]

I'd like to see a video of someone installing that device.  Personally, I would never de-lid one of my processors.  I would be worried about damaging the chips inside.

[FunkZ]

De-lidding used to be much riskier, but Der Bauer has a tool that greatly reduces the chance of something going wrong. I agree @BigAl01 I still wouldn't do this personally. I don't go for extreme overclocks that would warrant direct die cooling, and it kills most of the resale value of the processor.

Prior to the A64 we were all doing direct die cooling, lol.

[eebiii]

When I was de-lidding CPU's, I was using a vise grip with rubber tape on the teeth, a hair dryer, and 420 channel locks. It has come a long way with de-lidding tools. Some have been around for awhile. I never saw more than 5-7C temp drops and that was using liquid metal for thermal paste. I ruined a few CPU's trying to get the block back off the die after using that stuff for minimal gains. Luckily, they were all Intel CPU's, so who cares. I woulkd like to try this though with AMD and here is your video @BigAl01 :

The Ultimate AM5 Water Block: EK-Quantum Velocity² Direct Die | EK HOW TO (youtube.com)

[BigAl01]

Very interesting.  I like that de-lidding tool, even though he didn't bother to heat the CPU prior to de-lidding.   Now where is the video for how this performs against other cooling solutions?

[eebiii]

Der Baur got -20 gains! Crazy! Might be worth it.

Ryzen 7000 Delidding - Unreal Temperature improvement with Direct-Die Cooling (youtube.com)

[BigAl01]

Now that's a significant improvement in CPU temperature.  Thanks for sharing the links.

[ajlueke]

Right.  The gains apply to the 7000 series specifically, the previous Zen series weren't nearly as thermally constrained at the IHS.  They question then always becomes, is it worth it?  Delidding the 7000 series is the first real gains I've seen in the overclocking space in quite some time. 

It will be interesting to see if the same applies to the 9000 series.  I imagine they will still have the same heavily soldered IHS, so one would think they will share the same thermal transfer issues.