Just lapped my heatsink

Just finished lapping my heatsink. The temperature dropped about 4 degrees under load. Not to bad

It took several trips to find the different grits of sandpaper. I went to 2 different hardware stores. Neither of them had wet / dry above 600. Eventually I was able to locate what I was looking for in the auto section at walmart.

I think it was worth it, but there is no chance im doing it again any time soon for any reason whatsoever. No ye old arm isnt tired. Its just a alot bigger job then it first appears. Especially when you use a heatsink that bolts to the motherboard and you have to take the whole system apart.

Cool!

Nice Heatsink to go along... what are your temps at now?

what heatsink was it? i am still thinking about doing this to my slk-900u just because, but today when i went to home depot, they didnt even have 600.. even i have 600 at home... i wanted a little more because i want to make it really shiny hehe..

28-32 idle depending on ambient temp / 2 intake fans, 2 exaust fans not counting power supply

45 under load with smartfan2 max speed
47 under load with panaflow

It has been really difficult to measure temperatures this past week. All last week it was 90 degrees F outside with extremely high humidity. My room temps is easily 85 F or more.

The temps are not outstanding but what lapping allowed me to do was keep the temperatures I had several weeks ago when ambient temps were much lower. Now I dont have to worry about downclocking for the summer.

There was definatly problems with my heatsink. I made an x on the bottom of the heatsink with a black sharpy. It took almost 45 minutes to get it level. The very center of the heatsink bowed inward right where the cpu met the heatsink. This was at 400 grit. I even dropped to 320 for awhile it was so bad. by the time I made my way back up to 1200 grit it was almost 3 hours later

i went to canadian tire automotive section, they had all the way up to 2000 grit

helpful lapping guides:
http://www.extensiontech.net/reviews/cooling/hsf/lapping/
http://overclockersclub.com/guides/heatsinklappingguide.php#

Well, 4 degrees is 4 degrees... I'm very surprised that you had to lap it that hard, as I've heard Alphas aren't too bad? *shrug*
I may be getting one of the same heatsinks, so I'll be sure to lap it.

And I think those are excellent temperatures for that heavy overclock! Good Job!

And OLMI:
It is a Alpha PAL8942, as found in his signature.

I agree and was just as surprised as you. Originally my intention was only to remove the machine marks.

The guides out there that show the marker trick was extremely helpful. Had I not used the sharpy I wouldnt have even seen the problem. It seems that just because things looks perfectly flat to the naked eye that isnt always the case.

*edit again*
bad advice removed about how I used my coffee table glass. its not looking to good.