Heatsink Lapping [Archive] - Overclockers Forums

Dunga Bee

10-31-01, 03:15 PM

I did not lap my Glaciator because I didn't really know about lapping when I got it, but I have seen good results from everyone that has lapped.

Here (http://virtual-hideout.net/articles/sk6_lapping/index.shtml) is a good article about how to lap and the results. Good reading.

killem1x1

10-31-01, 04:20 PM

I have done my swifty mc462-a, and my homemade convert "core" for my GF3 Ti500.
I got about 3c better on my t'bird, and another 7 for the core speed on my gpu (don't hwve a temp probe for it yet) ;)

Wicked Klown

10-31-01, 05:36 PM

i lapped my Golded Orb and dropped the temp about 3-4C. but don't get me wrong i'm now using a watercooler.

RangerJoe34

10-31-01, 07:13 PM

lapped my thermo got 4-5 c better

abb1

11-04-01, 07:59 AM

Allright, you have me convinced. I just lapped my heatsink for 2hrs and got it to a bright mirror finish. Beautiful!!! No reduction in temperature at all. My temps stayed at 48 degrees on my A7V266.
Abb :(

Oh well, it was worth a shot.

BrainStorm

11-04-01, 11:44 AM

have you thought that you might have polished it too far? Someone wrote an article here at overclockers.com that anything beyond about 600 grit actually reduces the effectiveness of lapping. So you might try relapping with just 600 grit at this point and determining if it helps. I'd like to see what happens in your case myself.

abb1

11-04-01, 12:23 PM

My effectiveness was not reduced or gained. I think I am just going to leave it. It was just an experiment anyways,hoping I could shed a few degrees off.
Abb

Taylor

12-16-01, 12:23 AM

Originally posted by abb1
My effectiveness was not reduced or gained. I think I am just going to leave it. It was just an experiment anyways,hoping I could shed a few degrees off.
Abb

How are you measuring your temps?

Sonny

12-16-01, 12:51 AM

I see you have a A7V266E & a XP chip. There was an article in the MainPage that the on die temp diode does not work. It stayed 48°C at idle & load plus ASUS admited that it didnt work;)

Fightingpiper

12-16-01, 02:25 AM

Dont any of you have a bench grinder that you can put a polishing wheel on? Now that would make your lapping 1000 times faster. Just make sure you use the correct polishing compound for the metal. BTW I haven't lapped my Volcano6cu yet because I was too new when I built my XP to even know what lapping was but when I get the courage to unlock that baby my little cheapo bench grinder is goona finally get some use.

abb1

12-16-01, 08:04 AM

Originally posted by sonny
I see you have a A7V266E & a XP chip. There was an article in the MainPage that the on die temp diode does not work. It stayed 48°C at idle & load plus ASUS admited that it didnt work;)
I have my setting on 1-2 ATHLON/DURON. They do not have an internal diode that works yet. The other setting is for reserved. That means it is reserved for future BIOS updates for future thermal advances. This was confirmed by ASUS Tech. If you have an Athlon XP, then you have to have the themcpu setting on 1-2 ATHLON/DURON.My temperature reads 46 degrees at load. 42 at load with my Delta fan (but sounds like a vacuum cleaner).
Abb

Yodums

12-16-01, 09:24 AM

I don't think bench grinder would work they aren't that flat.

Abb did you try lapping on piece of glass since they are flat? Make sure you put a razor blade to the finish and hold it up to the light to see if there are any gaps.

AntmanMike

12-16-01, 10:21 AM

also make sure you are using a thermal compound between the heatsink and the CPU.

Sokkan

12-17-01, 11:46 AM

Lapped my heatsink today. Temps went down 8C under heavy load.. Why didn't I do this a long time ago? :D

Maximus Nickus

12-17-01, 12:38 PM

My Alpha PAL 8045 came lapped with a mirror finish!!!!!

Don't forget you can clean your HSF will Isopropyl Alcohol to get rid of grease, then apply your as2.

xCarne_Asada

12-18-01, 12:16 AM

Originally posted by nick_cw
My Alpha PAL 8045 came lapped with a mirror finish!!!!!

Don't forget you can clean your HSF will Isopropyl Alcohol to get rid of grease, then apply your as2.

where did you get your Alpha?

Sonny

12-18-01, 05:27 AM

Originally posted by xCarne_Asada
where did you get your Alpha? He got it from Bart (http://1coolpc.com/home/):cool:

Ottoman

12-18-01, 10:31 PM

IT ACTUALLY WORKS!!!

I busted out 600 grit than straight 1500 grit...

except I have 3 mating surfaces... core=>heatplate=>hsf so it was more wrist breaking...
but I focused mainly on where it touched and not the entire thing

then I rubbed in a really thin layer of AS2...

and from idle's of 35 C it's now down to 31 or less when I open my window and let in the cool candian air.. drop my room temprature some...
I've got 30 celcius!

and they say ASII needs 48 hours to really 'sink in' so it should be even better I hope....

and another added bonus, I turns out my 750 is actaully a mislabled 850! sweet:beer: :beer:

Yodums

12-18-01, 10:51 PM

Ottoman you'd probably drop lower if you started from wet
400
to
600
to
800
to
1000
to
1500

and then to 2000 since you seem to like going smooth

Grande Juan

12-18-01, 11:03 PM

Just lapped my stock HS, and replaced thermal pad with ASII. Temps. dropped 4c under 100% load, definently worth it. DON'T USE A BENCH GRINDER! 400/800/1500/2000 you can do it sitting around watch TV, its not that hard!

funnyperson1

12-18-01, 11:12 PM

hmm, i wouldnt suggest using a gorb on an amd...

Ottoman

12-18-01, 11:27 PM

well it was fairly decent surface to start with..

but yes I did use wet..

wet 600, dry 600, wet 1500, dry 1500...

my Gorb was better than my old stock hsf..

and I haev a sunon 120mm about 2 inches from hit blasting on the side....

I'm goin h20 asoon as I can get a waterblock.. got my bong and pump and everything else.. just need a block...was told not till after xmas...

so this was kinda a lapping experiment, and something to do..

xCarne_Asada

12-18-01, 11:45 PM

how do you know a heatsink is lapped really well?

Maximus Nickus

12-19-01, 04:59 AM

You can't feel loads of ridges and it has a mirror finish!!

Yodums

12-19-01, 05:39 AM

Originally posted by xCarne_Asada
how do you know a heatsink is lapped really well?

Should feel very smooth, has a really good mirror finish although when you finished lapping you'll have to clean it right away because there's still metal that hasn't come off lying on the surface.

ButcherUK

12-19-01, 05:01 PM

Remember if you touch the surface of a lapped heatsink to clean off the grease before you install it. Finger grease is not a good heat conductor. :)

Yodums

12-19-01, 05:27 PM

And make sure you apply Artic Silver on the base of the heatsink obviously so heatsink goes all in the gaps of the base.

Maximus Nickus

12-19-01, 05:47 PM

If you touch the base then use Isopropyl Alcohol to clean it, it evaporates and isn't conductive.

Proffesionals use it to clean the heads of steroes and such.

Suprised that lapping didn't give any better temperature, although temperature differences will show up more evidently in hotter environments, IE: A 1.8Ghz CPU as to stinct to a 1Ghz.

Nick
:beer:

Yodums

12-19-01, 08:20 PM

Originally posted by nick_cw
If you touch the base then use Isopropyl Alcohol to clean it, it evaporates and isn't conductive.

Proffesionals use it to clean the heads of steroes and such.

Suprised that lapping didn't give any better temperature, although temperature differences will show up more evidently in hotter environments, IE: A 1.8Ghz CPU as to stinct to a 1Ghz.

Nick
:beer:

Also you will see a huge difference if you have a bad surface ie: Blue Orb I heard lapping shaves around 7-10 degrees.

DodgeViper

12-19-01, 10:46 PM

Here is a photo of my Alpha. When my Alpha arrived it had small ridges on the surface. The results after lapping and hand polishing.

Fightingpiper

12-20-01, 12:53 PM

Alright when I posted about a bench grinder I did not mean to use the hard grinding wheel. As stated in my previous post I have a POLISHING wheel for it. A polishing wheel a very soft Cloth wheel that you can use various grades polishing compounds with. Works great for shinning up my old hardware in my house so im sure it will have the same effect on a heatsink. I have an old heastsink that im gonna try it with and will post my results.

Cheers!

Fightingpiper

12-20-01, 01:13 PM

Ok heres my piece o junk stock coolermaster that had less than 5min on a polishing wheel. This heatsink started as dull aluminum and now shines. My web cam isn't the best so it doesn't show just how shiny it is. Heck for a couple of minutes i think the results are great. Granted if this was a much nicer Heatsink I would probably spend a bit more time but it still would be only a fraction of the time you would spend wet sanding.

Yodums

12-20-01, 02:48 PM

Polishing it will not help, no lapping guides show that polishing will effect the outcome.

Fightingpiper

12-20-01, 03:25 PM

oops heres the pic.

flounder43

12-20-01, 03:31 PM

If polishing isn't important, then why is it everyone likes to show pictures of their shiny heat sinks?

Sure, you want the hs as flat as possible, and that could NOT be accomplished with a polishing wheel. However, if I merely wanted to increase the surface area that comes into contact with my cpu core, a quick buffing of the hs will help. It removes any imperfections, oxidation, and generally makes it less porous. We are talking about super fine polishing, with a cotton wheel. I could also see this as the last step of a lapping project, as it is hardly abrasive at all, just to shine it.

DodgeViper

12-20-01, 09:49 PM

First and foremost you should NEVER use any type of grinding or polishing machine (moving wheel) on your heat sink. You can have the softest cotton wheel on a bench grinder and if you apply uneven pressure you will hollow out a spot on the HS. After I hand lapped my HS using 600-1500 wet and dry paper I used a product called SimiChrome to HAND polish. I then followed the polishing with Acetone to remove any polish that may have found its way into the surface. Once finished I used a very small amount of ASll which spread evenly across the chip.

Yodums

12-20-01, 10:44 PM

flouder: They are posting their shiny heatsinks as of showing off to how flat their surface is.

Although thats not my point exactly Dodge Viper got my point that using any buffer or anything can screw the surface of your things and even leave some crap on it. Before in tech class we made plastic keychains and the final task was to buff it and when I buffed mine it was fine. When some "newbies" in my class buffed it they did not sand it down far it enough or flat enough so it leaves a crap mark in that scratch. Obviously when finish lapping a heatsink you'll end up with mini scratches no matter what.

So that's why I wouldn't recommend it besides who sees the bottom of your heatsink rather than your CPU? :)

DodgeViper

12-21-01, 12:27 AM

tsunami,

The reason I polished my HS was infact to remove the very fine scratchs left behind after using 1500 grit paper. By getting the surface as flat as you can make it, the more the surface of the HS will come in contact with the CPU chip. When my Alpha was sent to me it had small ridges in the surface. Because of these ridges, only 50 percent of the HS was making contact to the CPU. Alpha must assume that ASll or another brand would fill the voids left from the machining process. By lapping and polishing the surface I am able to present a HS that will transfer heat better than the stock Alpha would have ever done. Considering the fact that the CPU is less than say, 30 times the size of the HS, this leaves a very small contact surface for the HS to do its work. So for me having a flat smooth surface is the better, it will transfer the heat away from the CPU.

VegetaQ

12-21-01, 10:09 AM

Originally posted by DodgeViper
tsunami,

The reason I polished my HS was infact to remove the very fine scratchs left behind after using 1500 grit paper. By getting the surface as flat as you can make it, the more the surface of the HS will come in contact with the CPU chip. When my Alpha was sent to me it had small ridges in the surface. Because of these ridges, only 50 percent of the HS was making contact to the CPU. Alpha must assume that ASll or another brand would fill the voids left from the machining process. By lapping and polishing the surface I am able to present a HS that will transfer heat better than the stock Alpha would have ever done. Considering the fact that the CPU is less than say, 30 times the size of the HS, this leaves a very small contact surface for the HS to do its work. So for me having a flat smooth surface is the better, it will transfer the heat away from the CPU.

Usually if you use some 2000 grit paper you will get a Mirror finish. Thats what I did to my dragon orb 3 (Yes a wastse of sandpaper. but I got a good 3-4 degrees cooler out of it) and it works great. Nothing but sanding. And thermal paste.

Yodums

12-21-01, 05:32 PM

Originally posted by VegetaQ

Usually if you use some 2000 grit paper you will get a Mirror finish. Thats what I did to my dragon orb 3 (Yes a wastse of sandpaper. but I got a good 3-4 degrees cooler out of it) and it works great. Nothing but sanding. And thermal paste.

Definitely not a waste of sandpaper it got your comp cooler and possibly a better contact.

P2P

10-27-03, 02:02 PM

Originally posted by abb1

I have my setting on 1-2 ATHLON/DURON. They do not have an internal diode that works

what dont have working diodes?

P2P

vejita-sama

10-27-03, 04:02 PM

I'm actually having trouble finding 600grit+ sandpaper (my Home Depot didn't have any).

Question: How long do you lap for? I mean 5" for each grit or is there a general rule of thumb?

P2P

10-28-03, 11:32 AM

use a permanent marker to draw over the area b4 you start on each level of grit .
when you cant see any trace of the ink give it one or two more passes then move on to the next grit

P2P

sQUiRLy

10-28-03, 05:09 PM

Originally posted by vejita-sama
I'm actually having trouble finding 600grit+ sandpaper (my Home Depot didn't have any).

Go to wallmart aoutomotive and get some 1000 and 1500 3M metalworking paper (wet/dry). Use a little water and a touch of soap for a lubricator. Clean and prep frequently.

IMO a mirror finish will allow more surface to surface contact creating better heat dispersion but the results aren't astronomical because premium thermal compounds efficiently fill the gaps.