Arctic VGA Silencer owners did yours have mill marks? and how do you like it?

billstuck · Mar 23, 2004

I got it because my 9800NP fan is loud and I'd like to overclock more too.

Anyway mine has noticable milling marks I can feel when I run my finger nail across them. Not bad I guess, but I'm sort of new to this lapping and stuff. I bought a Zalman 7000 AlCu for my CPU and it had a much better finish on it. Does it matter or should I just install it with the arctic silver I have here or do I need ot sand it down?

IF sanding makes a 1C difference or whatever I don't care. Prolly not worth the time.

Thanks!

zip22 · Mar 24, 2004

people have gotten like 5C differences when lapping cpu blocks, so i dont think it is worth it with the videa card cooler. id say just install it

Sentential · Mar 24, 2004

Id lap it. Why not! It couldnt hurt. Besides you want the best for ur precious Raddie....dont you?

slater3333uk · Mar 24, 2004

Yeh you definatly dont need to but if you can improve the base finish it will allways help to some extent

Jognt · Mar 24, 2004

1: it will make you feel better
2: youll be able to say "i lapped my cooler

"
3: your temps will be a bit better
4: youll need less AS

heck, LAP the thing!

Canadian Bacon · Mar 24, 2004

Jognt said:
1: it will make you feel better
2: youll be able to say "i lapped my cooler "
3: your temps will be a bit better
4: youll need less AS

heck, LAP the thing!

While that's pretty much true, I'm gonna have to dispute that a bit:

1: you'll probably feel better by being lazy and not lapping it...think how much more time and energy you'll have
2: At least right now you can say you've got a big *** arctic cooler on your Radeon 9800...that's cool enough
3: temp difference probably won't be enough to notice that much of a difference
4: you're supposed to use a very small layer of AS anyways

-=Ambush=- · Mar 24, 2004

Lapping+Aluminum=A looong *** time.

*Nod*

Jognt · Mar 24, 2004

Canadian Bacon said:
While that's pretty much true, I'm gonna have to dispute that a bit:

1: you'll probably feel better by being lazy and not lapping it...think how much more time and energy you'll have
2: At least right now you can say you've got a big *** arctic cooler on your Radeon 9800...that's cool enough
3: temp difference probably won't be enough to notice that much of a difference
4: you're supposed to use a very small layer of AS anyways

gah, lazy people always think of reasons..

1°C difference is enough for me to matter

the less finished the surface, the more AS needed. (says so on the site

)

heck, you can use 1 hour of your time and lap it, just a bit, and see what you think of it.

lapping aluminium isnt that hard... aluminium is a soft metal...

billstuck · Mar 24, 2004

So what grit sandpaper should I use?

Jognt · Mar 24, 2004

i used 800, 1000, 1200 on my HS, you can do the same, depends on how rough the HS is actually...

id start with 600 if you can file/vile your nails with it... or even lower, then work your way up

im gonna buy a piece of 1400/1500 grit sandpaper tomorrow, so i can get a bit closer to the nice mirror finish

Hell-Fire -XS- · Mar 24, 2004

You could potentially see a large difference in temps after a good lapping is done.

Bare in mind that for computer components 3C or more is a big difference when it comes to overclocking.

I would let the weight of the block do all the work. Nail the sandpaper down and keep it wet throughout your lapping. Just hold the block on the sides and slide it back and forth as straight as possible. Also, for the added knowledge that you did it correctly, color the entire bottom of the block with a permanent marker and dont stop lapping until you cant see the black anymore. That is a good sign that you have it as flat as possible.

rhino56 · Mar 24, 2004

i have one on my 9800 pro, im on vacation for a week and not near my rig but when i get back ill run some tests and record the temps on it.
then ill lap it and do the same to see if there is any difference in temps.

hi_its_ryan · Mar 25, 2004

hard to just use the coolers weight with the vga silencer because its damn light. and aluminum is harder to lap than copper really

jlin453 · Mar 25, 2004

Without lapping, I'm getting the same results as I did with my Zalman vga heatpipe. Guess I'll try lapping; if things don't improve I'll be a bit dissapointed

jlin453 · Mar 26, 2004

Well I'd like to officially apologize for bad mouthing thsi product

. Yesterday I lapped it and took off the shim and now I can do 485mhz on the core with no aritifacts on 3dmark2001. Before I could only do 450mhz(with no lapping).

GO LAP IT

billstuck · Mar 26, 2004

I am getting the same results as I did with stock cooling also. Maybe I'll try lapping and removing the shim. Does the shim come off pretty easy?

drewthomas14 · Mar 26, 2004

yeah the shim is easy to get off. just use dental floss.

secretweapon · Mar 27, 2004

I lapped mine up to 1500 grit. Currently running 450 core 385 memory on a 9800 pro. Although my Sapphire 9800 pro didn't have a shim. The core was exposed when i removed the stock fan. I used arctic silver 5 on the core and everything is running beautifully so far.

Arctic VGA Silencer owners did yours have mill marks? and how do you like it?

billstuck

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zip22

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Sentential

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slater3333uk

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Jognt

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Canadian Bacon

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-=Ambush=-

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Jognt

All round good guy

billstuck

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Jognt

All round good guy

Hell-Fire -XS-

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rhino56

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hi_its_ryan

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jlin453

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jlin453

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billstuck

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drewthomas14

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secretweapon

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