WEBVTT

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Intel's x86 architecture was made so popular by the original IBM PC that 40 years later,

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40 years after the original 8086 CPU, we are still using it. So it's pretty important. But

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when Team Blue decided to celebrate that anniversary with what basically amounted to

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an upclocked and upmarket Core i7-8700K, we were a little underwhelmed. I mean,

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I have been asking Intel for years to do something truly special with their really high-end stuff.

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And like, look at this. It's got the same cores, the same IHS, the same green substrate,

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the same non-soldered thermal interface material. So we figured if Intel's not going to do it,

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then we're going to do it. We're going to build the 8086K that should have been,

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and we're going to do it in style.

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Before we could do anything, we needed to make sure that our CPU was performing the way that we would expect,

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because we'll be comparing our end results later on to make sure that we didn't make it worse.

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With that out of the way, it's time to shut it all down, pull the CPU, and delit it. We've delitted

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plenty of processors before, but this time will be slightly different, because now we need to lap it,

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which for the uninitiated means removing the upper layer of nickel plating and leaving behind a smooth,

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flat, and smooth CPU.

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It's a flat copper finish for us to play with.

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Two hours, and two bloodied thumbs later, Anthony eased off the manual work to finalize

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the design that we'll be etching into the top of the IHS. We weren't sure at this stage

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whether or not the resolution would be too fine to etch into the size of a CPU, but once

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we finished with the design, we decided it was time to practice our gold plating with

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a dead CPU. Extra hours of lapping not shown.

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So this is our lapped heat spreader.

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Got this in there.

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Got that exposed copper going on there.

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I guess the smoother this is to start with, the less gold we would have to waste applying

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it thicker and then polishing it down, right?

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Right.

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Okay.

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What we need to do is we need to wrap this around like this, so that there's no metal

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actually showing.

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Okay, so what is this?

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That's to absorb the liquid.

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Okay, and none can be exposed at all?

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It can be exposed, but don't do it too tightly, because the fluid needs to be able to flow

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with the electricity.

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Okay, so this hook is just going to hold our...

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Our piece then?

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No.

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Oh.

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We're going to brush it on.

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We brush it on?

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Yeah.

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So our gold solution is actually clear.

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Dip that in there.

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That gauze will actually clear up, and once it's fully soaked...

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You just brush the gold on.

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Yep.

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They say to do it as if you're petting a cat.

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After a while, we should start to see some yellowing.

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So it paints on a pretty thin layer, eh?

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Yeah, it's basically microscopic.

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Oh, it is starting to yellow a little bit.

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It's really subtle.

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Wow, it's hard to...

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It's hard to tell, because it happens so slowly.

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Brush plating really wasn't what I was expecting when I had said, hey guys, let's make a gold-plated

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CPU, largely because I had actually never heard of it, but it ended up working out great.

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Check out the difference from the start.

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Now applying conformal coating to the PCB or substrate that's going to be nearby anywhere

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you're going to be using liquid metals.

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Pretty standard operating procedure.

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So we've already done that all over the green part here, but the unusual thing we're doing

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today is we're going to plasti-dip a CPU.

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So we're going to go ahead and cover up the dye, and that's just for thermal performance

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reasons.

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We wouldn't actually be harming it by plasti-dipping it.

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Then we're going to go ham.

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Oh, Lordy, I put that on a little thick.

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Oh, boy, oh, boy.

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The adhesion to the conformal coating is not ideal.

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And I wish I'd gone on a little lighter, but what's done is done now.

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So now that we've got a smooth, gold-plated IHS, you're probably thinking to yourself,

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well, hey, almost home free, right?

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Throw it in your guys' laser cutting slash engraving machine.

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I mean, wow, those test runs of the pattern look great.

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And boom, it's off to the races.

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But unfortunately, because we don't have like a solid state laser or what's it called?

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I don't know.

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I don't know.

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What's the other one?

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Fiber optic.

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Fiber optic laser.

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And for that matter, like almost no one around here does because they're really expensive.

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We're going to need a different plan.

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So we're going to do it the old fashioned way.

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It's off to the jewelry store.

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We're going to engrave it.

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That sounds like a plan.

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Anthony's going to engrave it.

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I'll find someone.

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I heard he knows a guy.

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While Anthony gets our practice piece over to the engraver, it's time to gold plate our

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real IHS.

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So he took a turn with the electroplating kit.

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Anthony got back after a bit of polish and some touch ups here and there and a second

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trip to the jeweler.

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I think the end result speaks for itself.

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So something we didn't account for in the original plan was the extra thickness that

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would be added by the plasti dip.

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So a quick extra step we had to add was just sanding down the bottom of the IHS a little

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bit to account for that clearance because it's the glue that we're going to apply around

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the edges when we relit it, that's going to hold it on.

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So that's sort of important.

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So now all that's left is to peel this off, exposing our die.

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Liquid metal the die.

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No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

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And that's more like it.

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It's so chilly in here that it's not staying very liquidy.

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I'm going to wipe some up.

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I just want to err on the side of a lighter rather than a heavier application here.

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I think that's pretty close actually.

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Let's put our CPU back together.

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Oh.

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That was spot on.

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Nailed it.

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What?

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That should be tight enough.

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Okay.

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Now we leave that for about an hour.

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All right.

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We'll be back.

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This is it.

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This is we think the limited edition CPU Intel should have made.

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Black PCB, gold spreader, custom engraving.

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And should we make sure it still works?

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Probably a good idea.

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That is so cool.

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If you're into that sort of thing anyway.

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So we want to enable XMP and disable multi-core enhancement.

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Oh, it looks like...

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Yeah.

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So just F10.

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Cool.

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27 degrees.

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Looks good.

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Oh, cool.

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So the IHS is lapped.

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We've got liquid metal on it.

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Theoretically, it should be better than before in terms of its temperatures, but we also

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engraved it.

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And we don't know if that's going to cause micro ridges around the engraving or anything

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like that.

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There's a very good chance it could.

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And we don't know if that's going to cause micro ridges around the engraving or anything

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like that.

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There's a very good chance it could.

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And we don't know if that's going to cause micro ridges around the engraving or anything

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like that.

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There's a very good chance it could.

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And we applied a new layer of metal on top of it that obviously wasn't lapped.

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So we don't know exactly how flat it is.

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So we're hoping for the best, but we won't know for sure until we actually test it.

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We're using an air cooler, so we don't have to wait around for the coolant to reach equilibrium.

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Max.

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So 64 to 75 degrees.

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67 to 71.

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Does that sound reasonable?

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Yes.

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Look at that.

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We had a spike and then it settled in.

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Yeah, because that was in turbo.

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Now it's no longer turboing.

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If we look up here.

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Oh, okay.

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But was that the same way you tested it last time?

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Did you take your temps with turbo or without?

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Without.

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Without?

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So sustained.

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Oh, so then we're killing it.

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Oh.

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Yeah.

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We're at like 62 degrees.

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Yeah.

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We're not finished our before and after testing yet though.

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Now this CPU's thermals were not good enough before we liquid metalled it to really do

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any overclocking.

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So all we could do was turn on multi-core enhancement and then, where's this guy?

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And then max out these power limits here.

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So 4095 here, 127 here, and 4095 here.

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So now we can have a look at what kind of a performance improvement we can get now that

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our true limited edition, very limited edition, one of a kind.

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And CPU can be fully unfettered.

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So let's hit it again.

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We're running at 4.3 right now, 4.3, 68 degrees on the hottest core.

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Wow.

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Dang.

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That max turbo though.

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We could just run that all day.

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As it turned out, we didn't gain much in gaming, but when it came to blender, we saw a tangible

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improvement in performance thanks to our better thermals, which were much better than stock.

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When we removed the turbo, we got a much better performance.

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When we removed the power limit, we hit the same temperature, but our gold plated CPU

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remained at five gigahertz on all cores with a Noctua NHU 12S.

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With a beefier cooler, we could do five gigahertz all day long.

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So even after running for 10 minutes, our thermal results are still looking great, which

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means the last before and after is a good old fashioned Cinebench run while we wait

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for that to go.

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I should probably say like, in fairness to Intel, there's a lot of stuff that you don't

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have to change in the manufacturing pipeline in order to do something like gold plated heat

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spreader.

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Like the kind of validation a company like this does.

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I mean, let alone turning the substrate black, they'd have to do all kinds of materials testing

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and science and stuff in order to do that.

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So I'm not giving them too hard of a time, but I also do think they could do better.

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And that's the purpose of this video is, hey, come on guys.

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If we can do it, then I think a multi-billion dollar company can probably do it too.

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So our final result is...

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1390.

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1386.

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1386.

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So we have lost no performance.

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We have better thermal results and presumably we'd be able to overclock this damn thing

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now.

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Probably at this point.

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Freaking A.

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So thanks for watching guys.

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If you liked this video, you can hit that button.

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I mean, if you disliked it, I guess there's the other one too.

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If you really liked it though, get subscribed or check out where to buy the stuff that we

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featured at the link in the video description.

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Also in the video description is our merch store, which has cool shirts like this one,

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and our community.

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I'll see you in the next video.

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Bye.