It took no time at all for someone to de-lid an Intel Core i7-8700K six-core mainstream processor. For those that don’t know de-lidding is removing the integrated heatspreader or IHS. Once this was done it revealed that Intel was still using thermal paste between the IHS and the CPU die. This is disappointing as liquid metal would be better and result in lower operating temperatures.
The de-lidding also revealed that the “Coffee Lake” die is larger than the “Kaby Lake” die. It has a die area of approximately 151 mm², compared to the 126 mm² of “Kaby Lake.” This is of course because of the increase in core count from 4 to 6.
