Overclocker der8auer on his youtube channel publishes a video on how he managed to delid the AMD Ryzen 7 1700 CPU.
Basically, he went through a tedious process of heating up the CPU at 170c, and used a pair of razors to cut through the lids. This is while he’s heating up the processor to lessen the bond of the solder and the lids.
Taking a closer look reveals the glorious PCB of the Ryzen 7 1700 with all the innards still attached – a perfect example of delidding I must say. Notice that the lid area is so close to the capacitors so it really is a pain to guess the maximum length of the razor you can use. A good amount of lacquer coating is also present.
Back at the IHS, we can see that AMD used a gold plating between the iridium soldering and the heatsink itself. This is far better than the poor thermal interface materials used by Intel on their current generation CPUs.
der8auer later on pointed out that delidding is not really required for the AMD Ryzen 7 CPUs since the materials used are of great quality. He is still going to test it and see if there’s any tangible temperature difference without the IHS.
Delidding a CPU is not an easy task and requires a great amount of caution to the end user. Never attempt it if you do not have the proper tools and technical knowledge required.