Another update:
Back in December I posted about how I was getting a lot of blue screens and that I had to back off my I7-7700K overclocking from 5GHz to 4.8GHz (both at 1.35V CPU voltage). Obviously my cooling had degraded a bit and CPU temp's were running in the 80's (centigrade) with all of my radio stuff running. That's pretty darn hot, actually.
After a bit of egging on by W4KCN, he finally got me excited about de-lidding my CPU and re-doing all of my thermal interface material. I have to say, it was one of the best things I've ever done. Temp's fell dramatically by 30 degrees C and now the PC happily runs in the 50's with all the radio stuff running, and, more importantly, now runs at 5GHz reliably again. Max. temperature using the Prime 95 stress test is in the high 80's. I don't think it would be reliable up there at 5GHz, but since the PC never runs that hot I'm not worried about it.
I used the following products:
De-lidding tool from RockitCool (borrowed from W4KCN
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
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Copper replacement heat spreader from RockitCool:
![Image](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1134/8418/products/Copper_IHS_MOBO_1024x1024.png?v=1515426816)
Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut liquid metal thermal interface material between the die and heat spreader.
Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut thermal interface material between the heat spreader and the cooler (replacing MX4). Beware: this stuff is hard to spread. If you use it be sure to warm it up by dipping the tube in some hot water for a few minutes--wish I had done that. My cooler has a copper interface. If I ever re-do it I might go liquid metal next time.