I want to sand/lap my heatsink - but I'm scared

J

jpinard

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 10, 2004
Messages
194
Hi everyone. I'd first like to start off saying I'm kind of a weak person (physically) because I'm sick a lot. I've read a couple guides on lapping a heatsink, but I still haven't found a mtethod that seems to guarantee a perfectly flat/level surface.

Because I'm not strong, when working on home projects I have a tendancy to sand on an angle. Now I got a piece of mirrored glass at Lowe's - but Im still scared I will not make my Zalman CNPS9500 flatter. It might be smoother - but maybe not perfectly level.

Also, I want to lap my cpu, since it is not perfectly flat (AMD FX-55). But if you do that anfd wear off the markings... how do you let a person know it's the "real-deal" when you go to sell it?

Thanks for the help. :)
 
write your name and date on a piece of paper and take a picture with the chip where you can read the ihs data and the piece of paper....

I would advise not wasteing your time laping the sink... just pop the lid off that chip and forget about lapping... lapping will not provide more than 1c temp drop and for me that's not worth the effort... I lapped a baseplate by hand one time and it took hours but then i found out i did it wrong... some people use mechanical advantage and can do it in like 15min..
 
Put some good thermal compound on it and skip the lapping on air IMO. 1 or 2 degs for a lot of work. If you are real close to a clock goal it will maybe get you to it but I doubt it. Don't stress the little things.
 
if you dont have a big heatsink fan, then pop off that IHS and dont lap, this will be better than lapping the ihs alltogether.
 
your goal is not shiny, it's flat. above a certain point (like 800 or so) it actually works against it, getting worse temepratures than if you had lapped it up to about 600.

Really.

My recommendation, skip the lapping the 9500 and the chip. Just use it as is if you value a warrenty. if you're overclocking, then pop the spreader. the spreader makes terrible contact. By terrible, I mean like a good 1/4mm higher on the edges than on the center. I lapped the heatspreader on an a64, and it took a long time. the edges were already worn through the silver stuff and onto the copper that it's made of, and the center is still untouched. it took hours and hours to get the center down too.
 
I've got to admit I'm surprised so many think it's not worth it. How difficult is it to pop off the heatwreader on an AMD FX 57? Do you have a big risk of crushing the core with a Zalman CNPS9500? I thought if I lapped both the processor and the heatsink I'd get like a 8c drop in temp.
 
8c drop maybe with the IHS off. Lapping the IHS is 1 0r 2 deg top IMO.
Put water on it and skip the sanding :D
 
Worst poem ever!


:D


Anyways, yeah, an 8'c difference maybe if you have a CRAPPY IHS... not that likely, however.
 
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