Thermal Grizzly sells a pre-delidded Core Ultra 7 270K Plus — 22°C cooler, twice the price
Thermal Grizzly is now selling the Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus with its heat spreader already removed — a process called delidding — and ready for direct-die liquid cooling. The standard chip retails for around $319.99 in the US and £299.99 in the UK; Thermal Grizzly's pre-delidded version costs approximately $450, a roughly 50% premium. The company claims the modification drops CPU temperatures by up to 22°C compared to a stock configuration.
The chip and what's been done to it
The 270K Plus is a 24-core Arrow Lake processor (8 performance cores, 16 efficiency cores) with a 5.5 GHz boost clock, 36 MB Intel Smart Cache, and a 125 W base TDP. It sits in the LGA1851 socket. Thermal Grizzly's version has had the copper integrated heat spreader removed, the die surface cleaned and prepped, and liquid metal applied for direct contact with a compatible water block.
Every unit ships with a USB drive containing the individual chip's validation results and a macro photograph of its die — a small but reassuring quality check for buyers spending this much. Guru3D confirmed the $450 pricing, specs, and the inclusion of the validation USB.
What you're trading away
Delidding voids Intel's factory warranty outright. Thermal Grizzly replaces it with its own 24-month coverage, though Tom's Hardware notes the policy excludes damage from overclocking beyond the chip's stock specifications. There are a few other constraints worth knowing: the stock heat spreader is included in the box but must not be reinstalled, since the height difference between the bare die and the socket frame can cause physical damage. You'll also need a direct-die water block and mounting frame — standard air coolers and conventional AIO brackets won't work here.
The niche it fills
The 22°C temperature headroom means either pushing clocks higher or running the system noticeably quieter at stock speeds. Thermal Grizzly is currently the only vendor offering pre-delidded Intel and AMD CPUs with a warranty attached — a small lineup of four models total. For most builders this is irrelevant, but for extreme overclockers who would otherwise crack open a CPU themselves and risk destroying it, paying the premium to have it done professionally — and covered — makes the math defensible.
The chip is available now directly from thermal-grizzly.com.
