1st Time CPU Lapping

I've been looking at tutorials and examples of CPUs that people have lapped, and I figured it would be a good idea to start a thread so that lapping veterans could give some CPU lapping tips to 1st timers/beginners! i.e. tips, tools, and tricks of the trade

Aha! so its under the intel section... thats why i missed it

I just sprayed my various grit sand paper with solvent (eye glass cleaner, windex, or simple water) after laying said paper on a sheet of glass, on a firm surface. My AMD proc was fairly sturdy without protection for the pins. Set down, drag with relatively equivalent pressure and in one direction. Pick up and set back down where you started -- only going in one direction. Clean by gently wiping the proc every few drags. Rinse, repeat with 800, 1000 and finally 1200 grit until you achieve something like my image below. Wayyyy easier than I thought it would be. Have compressed air and alcohol ready when you're done to make sure everything is dry before re-inserting into the motherboard. ArctiClean was stupendously awesome for cleaning off residue pre and post lapping.

a c i d.f l y said:

I just sprayed my various grit sand paper with solvent (eye glass cleaner, windex, or simple water) after laying said paper on a sheet of glass, on a firm surface. My AMD proc was fairly sturdy without protection for the pins. Set down, drag with relatively equivalent pressure and in one direction. Pick up and set back down where you started -- only going in one direction. Clean by gently wiping the proc every few drags. Rinse, repeat with 800, 1000 and finally 1200 grit until you achieve something like my image below. Wayyyy easier than I thought it would be. Have compressed air and alcohol ready when you're done to make sure everything is dry before re-inserting into the motherboard. ArctiClean was stupendously awesome for cleaning off residue pre and post lapping.

Click to expand...

Wow nice! I think I will try this out. Can you use alcohol to clean the stuff also?
Note: was it worth it? Have you seen a noticeable temp drop with that?

Just a nickname said:

Wow nice! I think I will try this out. Can you use alcohol to clean the stuff also?
Note: was it worth it? Have you seen a noticeable temp drop with that?

Click to expand...

The surface of the AMD shellcasing was fairly concave and the waterblock on my H7O was convex/uneven. The proper cleaning of the thermal pad on the H7O, proper removal of previous TIM on the processor and ultimate lapping of both ends netted more than 10C reduction in ambient and 20C at load on stock settings. I was over 60C load at 3.4 GHz originally. I want to say load at stock settings dropped to around 35-38C. now I'm at 4.0 GHz and around 52C at load. Also, 4.0 GHz wasn't stable -- now it is.

Worth it? Well, it took almost an entire day... but the results speak for themself.