Question Delidded Ryzen 7950X: solder residue ?

anvoice

Honorable
Jan 12, 2018
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This is a very simple question, but I cannot find an answer online. I just delidded a Ryzen 7950X and am trying to clean up the Indium Tin solder residue from the silicon. The recommended ways to do this include using a razor blade and/or liquid metal. I've carefully scraped most of the solder off with a razor (it was far too thick to use liquid metal directly) and tried quite a few applications of liquid metal on the remainder.

While it looks and feels reasonably flat, I'm not sure it's completely clean, but if I keep this up I might run out of liquid metal. Below is a picture: there are darker areas, but then a whitish residue that could be solder for all I know. Is it safe to stop and apply fresh LM, or do I need to clean it more? I do know I need to clean up the traces of the LM from the rest of the package before I power it on.

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Deleted member 2838871

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This is hard to know. Very few people delid the cpu themselves. If reaction with the liquid metal stops, that would imply it could be clean enough. This whole process is a live and learn type or thing.

I delid a CPU once... an i7-7700k in 2017 and it did help a whole lot... temps went down 15C or so. I bought a tool for $30 that made the process idiot proof.

Don't see a need for it with the new 7950x3D however... the chip runs cool and the Noctua D15 has no problems.
 

anvoice

Honorable
Jan 12, 2018
131
7
10,615
I delid a CPU once... an i7-7700k in 2017 and it did help a whole lot... temps went down 15C or so. I bought a tool for $30 that made the process idiot proof.

Don't see a need for it with the new 7950x3D however... the chip runs cool and the Noctua D15 has no problems.
This is a 7950X, not the X3D. If I recall correctly Der8auer saw significant temp improvement on the delided chip, since the IHS is unnecessarily thick. Someone on another forum suggested using flitz polish, guess I'll go that route if there is no other advice.
 
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Deleted member 2838871

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This is a 7950X, not the X3D.

I read your post. Your runs hotter than mine... but not as hot as the 13900k. I tested mine with an all core cpu burn for 30 mins and mine peaked at 86C and that's with an air cooler... hence my comment about a delid not being necessary.

Good luck with it.