FUGGER swears by lapping Nehalem CPU's, 100mhz more top end so I can see this being a good thing. I'd lap before de-lidding though, maybe if I was into H2O heavy it would appeal to me but I need a cpu I can jst throw into a box with a bunch of other stuff and not worry about it.

i7's are really hot!! especially the es ones that i had tested were priming nearly 100c even they were at stock speed and voltages :) so i can try maybe

I lap all my cpu's and blocks, as stated by FACE411 just lap it close to the cores is the best choice, I lap mine in tell I see the faint out line of the cores.

yeah that takes balls.. not sure i would even do that with a $100 cpu let alone anything i7 for the gains you would get from doing it =p