To lap or not to lap

Colonel_Klinck · 18 Nov 2011 at 07:04

Hey all. I'm in the middle of building a new rig. Just wondering if people are lapping cpu's and heatsinks still? Last time I built I did lap both my Q6600 and heatsink and saw a slight improvement.

I have the 2500K and Corsair CWCH100 Hydro H100 arriving today. The Corsair already looks fairly mirror like in pics but obviously lapping the CPU will invalidate the warranty.Whats the general consensus on it now?

Philtor · 18 Nov 2011 at 07:12

Lapping will void any warranty and it's not worth it for the limited benefit it would provide.

Tekgun · 18 Nov 2011 at 08:11

Lapping a heatsink is one thing, the cpu would be far too scary for me

iBSOD · 18 Nov 2011 at 08:18

Get better thermal paste instead, like MX4 or ICD

MooMoo444 · 18 Nov 2011 at 08:33

Lapping only worth it if you're into extreme OC's and know what you're doing.

Sometimes lapping can make temps worse though if you balls it up.

Plec · 18 Nov 2011 at 09:31

If you have a decent cooler it's not really worth the effort of lapping any more as the big coolers are so efficient. Not unless you're a purist or on the bleeding edge of the CPUs limits (thermally).

The reallity is that you'll, probably, get diminished returns for a lot of hard work - not like the old days...

I still get the itch everynow and then - especially when the chips has lost its newness.

reflux · 18 Nov 2011 at 09:33

Lapping not worth it these days... I think the older chips had less even heatspreaders but these days processors run so cool anyway...

Colonel_Klinck · 18 Nov 2011 at 22:38

Cheers guys. Will give it a miss then.

bainbridge · 19 Nov 2011 at 18:41

Tinting & a pea-sized blob of ICD