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Lapping a northbridge or GPU

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moz_21

Member
Joined
Jul 7, 2002
Location
MN
Ok, first off, what is under the northbridge or a GPU?

Second, how far can they be sanded before things go south?

My Nforce2 is not flat at all and I want to know. Also applies to GPUs so I put that in the title.
 
The Nforce chipsets are have a copper core in them, as well as Nvidia GPUs. You'd want to lap until you can see a silver or copper color obviously. The outside is plastic coated, then a small bit of aluminum (think foil), then the copper core.

I can't seem to find the really good guide that I came across a while ago, but here is an interesting way of doing it.

The Article I read a while ago reccomended covering the surroundings of the NB with a piece of wax paper (or sheet of plastic if you have one) with a hole the size of the NB in the middle of it. Then take your sanding paper, and use something relatively flat to lap it with. I wouldn't reccomend wet sanding in this case, but you could add just a little bit to the sandpaper itself, not the board.
 
The copper is the core or a round piece of copper directly over the core? Because if its the actual core, won't it hurt to sand it?

I also know that my Geforce3 has the silver round thing in the middle (with the words) without lapping it (also early Nforce2 boards) but now the Nforce2 is fully plastic.
 
Sorry to confuse! The copper is over the core - From what I have read about the subject it is quite thin, though, so they've reccomended stopping or very lightly sanding when you see copper.
 
Would it be possible to remove the whole plasic cover? I am guessing that it would be like a P4 with the tin heatspreader?

I more or less gave up on it for now - FYI the center is very recessed.
 
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