• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Lapping the CPU?

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.
maxxoverclocker

maxxoverclocker

Member
​
Joined
Jul 13, 2004
Location
Vista, CA
I was sitting around today thinking about water cooling (lol i know i have no life) and noticed that almost everyone laps their heatsinks, but what about processors? Is there any benefit to it? Any disadvantage other than not being able to read the cryptic specs on ur processor? I have only heard of people doing this when they apply a phase change cooler to their setup. It would seem to only make sense to me if you are going to lap down your heatsink to make the surface a mirror finish it would only make sense to do the same to the object you are applying it to. Anyone got ideas on this?
 
Yes, do search.

The thread that 9mm posted talks about lapping an Athlon XP chip. Most CPU's nowadays have an internal heatspreader (the big grey sqaure thing that we see with all those letters and numbers on it), which covers the CPU core. Some people take this off when OC'ing, as it saves a few degrees, but does void warranties.

To answer your question, attempting to lap or polish the silicon CPU core itself, in my opinion, is an assured way to destroy your part and its warranty. However, it would be safe(r) to lap the internal heat spreader, and achieve similar results. Do be careful when doing this as well.

Good luck,

Odie :)
 
I polished up my Barton core when it was new, when I looked at the thermal goop impression, it was a white square with copper lettering, so the lettering was raised.
I used 2500 grit paper, and only dragged it accross it a couple of times to flatten the lettering.

I highly do not recommend doing a full lap job though, many people dillude themselves into thinking it's really flat ;}
 
Yeah I was talking about the Pentium 4 so it would have the heat spreader and was wondering if taking the wording off this would be safe, thanks
 
Oh yeah, my new prescott looks like someone got themselves a new beltsander at Intel. For sure that's gonna be lapped some. Just not wet-lapped because of the breather hole...but goodbye warranty (if that's a concern).
 
By lapping the CPU you might improve temps by .1 to .3C not really worth the risk. ALso mirror finsih does not mean it's flat. Even with a mirror finish parts can be raised up and such.
 
Exactly, I wish BillA still did the flatness tests for OC reviews, but I understand why he doesn't.

Flatness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder without expensive tools to be the judge.
I'll have to wing it, and hope for the best.
 
Also I was wondering about dry sanding, i have only heard of wet sanding and was wondering if there were any noticable differences between the two (becides the water) as in is dry sanding more risky/less desirable results? (if there were no breather hole of course)

Oh and do you have to use a finer grit when dry sanding?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
Ancient hardware VMM cooling
Replies
3
Views
207
don256us
don256us
S
CMT32GX5M2X6200C36 *4 Sticks Z790-E GAMING WIFI i9-13900K XMP Unstable
Replies
4
Views
707
Woomack
W
rainless
nofltr Developer Diary
Replies
1
Views
152
rainless
rainless
Railgun
Dusting off the OG Titans
Replies
6
Views
265
Railgun
Railgun
Kenrou
Cablemod Issues Massive Warning not to use their 12VPWR Angled Adapters
Replies
10
Views
466
Flamethrower1972
Flamethrower1972
Back