And I do mean the heatspreader was removed, delidded. Which is a gnarly job as that thing is soldered on there. Even with Intel's new design that reduces the height of the DIE for better thermal transfer.
Germany distributor and Caseking (etailer) employee Der8auer beheaded the beast, Intels Core i9-10900K has been examined and cooled differently by applying liquid metal. He also looked at what has changed under the heatspreader since Intel's Core i7-8700K and Core i9-9900K. Comet Lake-S is still based on Intel's 14 nm process, the CPUs are not exactly marveling under load in regards to temperatures. With the heat spreader removed and the solder applied replaced with a layer of liquid metal he put the heat plate back on. After two runs with the Cinebench R20, he dropped around seven degrees in temperature. And sure, that can make a difference to a pro overclocker.
These were the results:
| Pre-Delid | Post-Delid - 1st. Run | Post-Delid - 2nd. Run | Pre-Delid and 2nd. Post-Delid difference | |
| Core 0 | 81 ° C | 73 ° C | 74 ° C | -7 ° C |
| Core 1 | 79 ° C | 74 ° C | 75 ° C | -4 ° C |
| Core 2 | 87 ° C | 78 ° C | 78 ° C | -9 ° C |
| Core 3 | 83 ° C | 75 ° C | 77 ° C | -6 ° C |
| Core 4 | 85 ° C | 77 ° C | 78 ° C | -7 ° C |
| Core 5 | 85 ° C | 76 ° C | 77 ° C | -8 ° C |
| Core 6 | 85 ° C | 75 ° C | 77 ° C | -8 ° C |
| Core 7 | 80 ° C | 74 ° C | 76 ° C | -4 ° C |
| Core 8 | 81 ° C | 73 ° C | 74 ° C | -7 ° C |
| Core 9 | 81 ° C | 73 ° C | 75 ° C | -6 ° C |
He then compares the Core i9-10900K with its predecessors and the chip still looks like a Core i9-9900K with a slightly longer die. However, there are some differences in the details. The die height is significantly lower. While the die of the Core i9-9900K still measures 0.88 millimeters, which was 0.58 millimeters for the new processor. However, the newcomer can't get to the die height of the Core i7-8700K: at 0.44 millimeters.
Intel Core i9-10900K gets decapitated and cooled with Liquid Metal
