This heatsink is worth less

[Neco]

You should also take into consideration, that 95% of the praise you read about it, was probably coming from people who took the measures of lapping it, and buying the best thermal compound, and if that is the case it is nothing more than a situation of misinterpreted information.

One of the first thing I look at with cooling products other than performance, is the test environment. What they used during the test, and how they tested it. So I know what I can do to try and get the same results.

 

[Soja]

Like maybe a Zalman CNPS-7000. It's pretty big as far as heatsinks go, and all copper. It's so big, there are a few boards it won't fit on, so you have to check that out first. Usually you don't have to lap them as they are very smooth. They come with a 92mm fan not an 80mm like you wanted, but it's adjustable to low and high settings. Very quiet on the low setting, you can barely hear it. The heatsink is great, and it does its job nicely.

Isn't the CNPS-7000 for p4 and athlon64?

katelin, I have a friend who is running his 2500 barton at 2.2ghz 1.7v w/ a slk800 w/ temps under 45c and he didn't lap or use artic silver. Plain old slk800 and thermalright included compound.

 

[glock19owner]

You should also take into consideration, that 95% of the praise you read about it, was probably coming from people who took the measures of lapping it, and buying the best thermal compound, and if that is the case it is nothing more than a situation of misinterpreted information.

One of the first thing I look at with cooling products other than performance, is the test environment. What they used during the test, and how they tested it. So I know what I can do to try and get the same results.

Not me..matter of fact bought mine used...unlapped and use antec silver...ran out of AS3...but I do use a 92mm tornado fan...idle temps same as case temps...and full load temps are around 5c over system temps...

 

[Neco]

That's where the 95% figure comes in

 

[Caffinehog]

What's weird is that my old SLK-800 had a mirror-finish on the base. I wonder if they just don't have a couple lazy people on their production line.

 

[AcEmAsTr]

I've had the same problems with mine, I used to have a Volcano 7+, it ran better temps (6C or so) then my SLK800 w/ a Vantec Tornado. I was extremely disappointed, but, one thing I noticed was that the base on mine was extremely ****ty. It looked like someone took a comb made of metal and scraped it across the base. It was very bad and needed lapping... Probably the reason for the crappy temps.

[threadjack]
how did u get ure kt4v over 1.7volts????
[/threadjack]

 

[Drinyth]

I think it's probably more rare than not to have a badly machined SLK-800. I was just unfortunate to get one. Lapping really wasn't that bad though. Get yourself a bucket and some sandpaper. Turn on the TV and lap while watching a program. It goes by pretty quickly.

If you search for "lapping" on this forum, you'll find a bunch of different people giving advise on how you should lap a HS. Some people have conflicting opinions on the motion you should use while lapping. Others will debate how fine of a grit you should go down to. Some things that seem to be pretty common are the following:

1. Use wet/dry sandpaper. You'll want the sandpaper to be damp to avoid the HS sticking and possibly making things uneven. Use some dish soap to help lubricate things.

2. Regardless of your motion, be careful to apply even pressure throughout the heatsink to keep the bottom as flat as possible. As you move to finer grit, you should be able to apply less pressure to the HS and you go.

3. Make sure you're lapping on a flat surface. I used a glass coffee table as my surface. Make sure that the surface is entirely flat, otherwise your HS will take the shape of whatever is underneath.

4. Go to at least 600 or 800 grit. There seems to be a debate on if going higher than those values actually helps you at all. I personally probably would have felt comfortable stopping at 600. If your HS was like mine, even after using 400 your surface will feel much smoother than it did previously. At 600, it will be very smooth. I only used 1000 for about 5-10 minutes and only because I bought a sheet and didn't want to "waste" it.

I, too, was pretty upset that I had to do work on my HS. I felt that it should have come delivered to me in already perfect condition. I don't feel bad that I went through the lapping process. I didn't get AS3 the first time, and I felt most comfortable about my old thermal paste being gone after lapping the the HS. I didn't think that just cleaning the surface would have gotten rid of it all. And hand lapping your HS will probably provide and even smoother surface than a perfectly machined HS from any manufacturer. It was a good learning experience and I'll probably hand lap all my HS's that I buy in the future.

It was kind of a pain, but I was delighted when my temperatures dropped as low as they did. If you have any specific questions about anything, I'll be happy to clarify what I did or try and point you in the right direction. I say stick with it, and good luck!

 

[EmTSea19]

Isn't the CNPS-7000 for p4 and athlon64?

oops, sorry I missed that he had a barton. Still, if he is unhappy, he should return it and get something else.

 

[tio]

katelin, the SLK-800 is a very good heatsink. If the base is rough like you say it is, then wouldn't it be worth it to lapp it? I know you said that you're buisy and that you're disappointed that a company like Thermalright can't finish the bases of their heatsinks properly, but with a little time and effort you could have a top-performing heatsink.

Sometimes you just have to put a little effort into something to get the most out of it. For what relatively little time you would have to spend lapping the heatsink, I think you would be more than satisfied with the results, and would feel that the extra time spent was well justified.

 

[glock19owner]

That's where the 95% figure comes in

I wasn't paying attention...blonde attack ...

 

[breez]

I have lapped three heatsinks, one socket7 HS that went to my video card, Celeron stock HS and some Glacialtech ****ty HS (my friends). I think 400 is not anywhere near enough. Should be 800 in my opinion. I used up to 1200 though (I have 1600 too). I don't know if my work was good or not, but even after lapping the base isn't even. It's still different in the edges. Anyway, that should be OK, because the center area is flat and is everything that matters.

 

[Drinyth]

I wouldn't stop at 400 either. I was just saying that at 400, the base of my SLK-800 was better off than it was when it was shipped to me. The state that it was shipped to me in was *really* bad.

I'd go up to 800 too. I would have gotten 800 paper, but they didn't have any left, so I went from 350 to 600 to 1000. I could have stopped at 600 though. That was plenty smooth for me.

 

[wannaoc]

I go all the way to 2000, I start at 600 to get the block flat, then to 800 to smooth it a little, then to 1200/1400, then to 2000. That pretty much fixes anything that was wrong with it. Some people do use a buffing compund that brings the block up to about 5000 or even 10000 depending on the compound but I think there is a thing as too smooth.