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lapping vs heat sink removal

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square_nothing

square_nothing

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I want to do one of the two, lapping will be much easier but if there is a reasonably improvement with removing the Intel heat sink I will consider it. Atm I am on air cooling but will be moving to wc soon. What sort of temp drops are common for each of them?
Also when the heat sink has been removed do you have to be really careful with thermal paste as the chip is now exposed and could short circuit? Or have they covered up any bare pins/component legs?
thanks for any input :)
 
lapping really depends on how flat your cpu and hsf are to start with. if they are uneven you could get 5-6c dif if they are already pretty flat you may only see 1-2c dif. i think you notice more of a difference on water than on air.

what do u mean remove the heatsink? as in run with just a fan??? wouldnt do that as your cpu wud fry. Would get a new heatsink and fan for your cpu anyway as the stock arent great.
 
StephenLawUK said:
lapping really depends on how flat your cpu and hsf are to start with. if they are uneven you could get 5-6c dif if they are already pretty flat you may only see 1-2c dif. i think you notice more of a difference on water than on air.

what do u mean remove the heatsink? as in run with just a fan??? wouldnt do that as your cpu wud fry. Would get a new heatsink and fan for your cpu anyway as the stock arent great.
Click to expand...

sorry if i was bad at exsplaning i ment doing this http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17499041
 
I believe you mean remove the heatspreader. It depends what model Intel cpu you have, it is impossible/very difficult with any recent cpu's as the core is soldered to the spreader as appose to thermal paste and abit of glue round the edges like the old A64's. I am not even sure original P4's could have the spreaders removed?

Either way lapping is a lot easier and quicker and potentially gives very good results, voids your warranty though
 
Xplo said:
I believe you mean remove the heatspreader. It depends what model Intel cpu you have, it is impossible/very difficult with any recent cpu's as the core is soldered to the spreader as appose to thermal paste and abit of glue round the edges like the old A64's. I am not even sure original P4's could have the spreaders removed?

Either way lapping is a lot easier and quicker and potentially gives very good results, voids your warranty though
Click to expand...

cool thanks for the info exsactly what i was looking for ;)
think ill lap my cpu and heat sink then, i know it voids the warranty, most modding dose. Imagen going to intel and giving them a destroyed chip and saying 'sorry but this chip is a dud can i have another plz' lol:D
 
yea newer intels are generally glued together pretty well so removing the heatspreader is very tricky and your a lot more likely to cause damage to the cpu, better off with lapping.
 
One thing I would check before lapping is whether the heatspreader has a convex top or not. Some newer CPUs (especially the dual-core pentiums are already pretty flat - so you won't see much temperature drop). You can test flatness by hold a knife blade edge to the top of the heatspreader (over the middle) with a light source behind it.

I have to say I've got some bitchian' temperatures out of some old skt 939 Opterons by lapping!! So like totally go for it!!

BTW my preferred method lapping is to use washing up liquid (!!) with wet/dry sand paper. I don't use the paper wet at all. Once it's clogged up I rinse it off under hot water and leave it to dry and move on to another piece of sandpaper. This works nicely as the metal isn't in contact with water and the washing up liquid lubricates the surface of the metal so it doesn't stick on the sandpaper (like when using water). The washing up liquid also locks up the metal particles coming off the CPU heatspreader/heatsink. You only need a drop!! :cool:

NEVER sand metals with dry paper as the fine particles of metal are highly carcinogenic!! :eek:

I would recommend wearing an antistatic wriststrap or antistatic gloves while lapping a CPU heatspreader (just in case!!) ;)

IMHO crazy folk that pop off CPU heatspreaders just need help!! :D

Bob
 
Lapping is for those that want to eek the last bit of performance when overclocking, i had issues with my q6600 hitting 81c on 2 cores at load when clocked to 3.8ghz, lapped both the cpu and my TRUE black and put 2 better fans on the cooler, managed to drop the temps to a more respectable 68-68-62-62, still a bit of variation between the cores but this is pretty normal.
 
I've had varying degrees of sucess with lapping, with my E6600 which was noticeably concave it knocked a massive 15C off my load temps and 5+ off idle temps... with my Q6600 which was fairly flat to begin with it only dropped a couple of C.

I wouldn't even bother lapping the/with stock HSF, if your gonna lap anything a decent aftermarket heatsink is essential.
 
Lapping my cpu was an easy enough affair, done it to 2000 grit, the TRUE was a different matter, took ages getting through the black nickel coating, dont think ive sanded as much since my painting and decorating apprenticeship days:D
 
Bob Wya Jnr said:
One thing I would check before lapping is whether the heatspreader has a convex top or not. Some newer CPUs (especially the dual-core pentiums are already pretty flat - so you won't see much temperature drop). You can test flatness by hold a knife blade edge to the top of the heatspreader (over the middle) with a light source behind it.

I have to say I've got some bitchian' temperatures out of some old skt 939 Opterons by lapping!! So like totally go for it!!

BTW my preferred method lapping is to use washing up liquid (!!) with wet/dry sand paper. I don't use the paper wet at all. Once it's clogged up I rinse it off under hot water and leave it to dry and move on to another piece of sandpaper. This works nicely as the metal isn't in contact with water and the washing up liquid lubricates the surface of the metal so it doesn't stick on the sandpaper (like when using water). The washing up liquid also locks up the metal particles coming off the CPU heatspreader/heatsink. You only need a drop!! :cool:

NEVER sand metals with dry paper as the fine particles of metal are highly carcinogenic!! :eek:

I would recommend wearing an antistatic wriststrap or antistatic gloves while lapping a CPU heatspreader (just in case!!) ;)

IMHO crazy folk that pop off CPU heatspreaders just need help!! :D

Bob
Click to expand...

thanks i will give that trick a go :)
just wipe it with some damp paper towel after to remove the washing up liquid?
 
Didn't see this above, but people have succeeded in removing the heat spreader on c2q chips. The approach is roughly sand for hours until it's all gone, but the results were reasonably good I believe.

This leaves a metal ring around the edge level with the chips, so when mounting a waterblock you don't risk cracking the die
 
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