PCFormat Forum Archive

Introduction
Most overclockers/Gamers live just to push their equipment a little bit faster; a 500 MHz
overclock just isn't good enough, we want 501 MHz, and then 502 MHz... As we push our
HARDWARE faster it produces more heat, this heat of course can take it’s toll on the
electronics within the computer. Just as we need that extra 1 MHz, we attempt to fight the
force of heat. 1° C could be the difference between life and death for our PC. To battle
heat, we'll buy the best case, the best heat sink and the best fans money can buy,oh and a dozen case fans or water cooling,there is still more that can be done to help cool your CPU, GPU

a process known as "lapping."


Why Lap? What is Lapping? Does it Help?
just about every heat sink will have a rough surface. To the naked eye it may look flat or even feel smooth, but there are microscopic groves/holes in the surface. These groves will trap air between the heat sink and the CPU, and cause a poor transfer of heat.Thermal compound (Artic Silver,etc.) is used to fill these groves and help transfer the heat from the CPU to the heat sink. Just like air, thermal compound is something else that the heat has to pass through to get from the CPU to the heat sink.
We lap the heat sink to make it smooth, allowing us to get the best possible contact between the CPU and heat sink. Even after lapping, there will still be grooves for the air to be trapped in, but the grooves will be much smaller, and cause less of a problem/interference. Lapping can be done on any heat sink or water block, regardless of its material. Just keep in mind that a softer metal will sand away quicker than a harder metal.


Equipment Needed
Heat sink
Sandpaper
400 grit (optional)
600 grit (optional)
800 grit
1200 grit
2000 grit

Flat surface
Water
Dishwashing Liquid


For a flat surface, most people suggest using a piece of glass or a glass top table. so I ended up using a Table top, This worked Great for me,
Time is also a very important item in the lapping process. Lapping can be done in as little as 30 minutes, for better results it tends to take close to two hours. You want to work slow and steady to make sure you do it correctly; otherwise you may end up with a heat sink that is worse off than when you started.,


The Process
You will start out with the most coarse paper first (400 Grit), and repeat the process for each higher grit.
Completely soak the sandpaper under water, and then place it on your flat surface. leave a bit of standing water on my sandpaper.
Next place a drop of the dishwashing liquid onto the heat sink's base. You only need to do
this on the part that we will be lapping. Now, spread the dishwashing liquid around so it covers the base, again, you only need to worry about the part that we will be lapping.
Place the heat sink on the wet sandpaper. Hold the heat sink by the side,and slowly move
the heat sink up and down the paper. Be careful not to apply any pressure to the heat sink, we want its own weight to do the work for us.
After about ten passes across the sandpaper, rotate the heat sink 90° and continue to sand until you've made a complete rotation. continue to do this untilyou'vemade 5 -10 complete rotations, stopping every couple of rotations to re-wet the sand paper, and reapply the soap.Repeat the process using the 800, 1200, and 2000 grit sand paper. In the end, you will
have a nice, mirror like reflection on the heat sink base. Congratulations, you've just lapped your heat sink and created a better surface for heat
transfer. You should notice close to a 5°C drop in CPU temperature


I started with my CPU heatsink first and then my GPU Heatsink.
Have a look at my end results.

After result GPU





before result GPU




After result CPU

sorry .but i wasnt able to upload this pic.will get it done asap




My temps before i lapped my cpu heatsink was 55* on ilde
MY GPU temps were 39 ilde now its 35 on ilde
sorry but,never had time to test it under load

now its
48 on ilde CPU

I Hope you enjoyed my explaination on lapping!

Good Guide Man Explains all there is to it. Nicely Written keep it up man

You want this to be a sticky, don't you?

What's the point behind dishwashing liquid? (besides destroying the ever powerful surface tension)

Sticky?yes

The reason for using the dishwashing liquid is(what you said)surface tension,if you don't use some, you'll find yourself applying to-much of pressure on the heatsink when lappping it(because of the resistance between the paper and heatsink--->I THINK), resulting in an uneven finish.which isn't good at all,especially when its your CPU heatsink

I did this with my ThermalTake volcano11+ a while back. Dropped my idle and load temps by about 5c

Any one doing this with a stock heatsink should note lapping is not recommended as this voids the warranty.

wizardofid i didn't know that.thanks man

junjun wrote:wizardofid i didn't know that.thanks man

Removing the heatsink thermalpad voids the warranty.

Replacing with stock heatsink with another also voids the warranty.

To retain the warranty it has to be installed by a "certified" IT professional and havea written prove that in was installed by said professional should any malfuction occur

thanx did not know it actually helped thought it more a waste of time but ill try it out

Is there any point in going higher than 2000, I've got some 4, 6 and 8000 grit lying around somewhere.

I didn't think lapping would make a difference on the expensive after market products, such as thermaltake and the like.

But a cool "how to"; what would be lesson 2 by the way?

Replacing with stock heatsink with another also voids the warranty.

Thats bull-****. I have never had any supplier refused to swop out a cpu, even when using waterblocks.

The heatsink supplied is a reference design only, a mobo manufacturer could for example supply said item with a mob as a bundle, and it need not be Intel/AMD's supplied one.

What about tray processors? They come without any hsf, you have to buy your own.

most of us don't even use the stock HSF on the cpu,i had a thermaltake spark7+on my CPu and when i had probs with the chip, i sent it back--->no questions asked.

But im not sure if you Lapp the Heatsink, do you still have your warranty?

junjun- your sticky wish was granted.

MrBean wrote:

Replacing with stock heatsink with another also voids the warranty.

Thats bull-****. I have never had any supplier refused to swop out a cpu, even when using waterblocks.

The heatsink supplied is a reference design only, a mobo manufacturer could for example supply said item with a mob as a bundle, and it need not be Intel/AMD's supplied one.

What about tray processors? They come without any hsf, you have to buy your own.

Yapp Yapp

It's not intel who voids it's the place you got it from that will void it, read your intel warranty clearly any cpu needs to be installed by a certified tech.

Going up to 8 thousand you would make it a dam mirror. It will help, a bit, but in my opinion is not worth all that effort.

Flagrat wrote:Going up to 8 thousand you would make it a dam mirror. It will help, a bit, but in my opinion is not worth all that effort.

To add

A mirror shine doesn't mean it's flat.....

Didn't it say something about using a flat object as a sanding backing? It should otherwise it could cause more harm than good.

Nice guide. I read the exact same guide on http://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/ ... gguide.php the other day.

Flagrat wrote:Didn't it say something about using a flat object as a sanding backing? It should otherwise it could cause more harm than good.

Yes it does but what I mean is doesn't matter how good the mirror shine is it's a waste of time because after a "X" grain of sandingpaper the grooves on the heatsink doesn't get any smaller....Do you see at what I'm getting at....

No. Sorry. I know my bit about metals. My brother is a knife maker and I did the theory. It will become mirrored because all the groves will become very small within the metal. It will never be perfectly smooth though. they will get dam small but it will take around 40hours of sanding. We know it kills the arms.

Yeah Flagrat, you're right. I've made a few knives with my dad, and it is a female dog to get it perfect... Although I think the temperature drop might be more, maybe 7-10degC with a very very VERY high grit sandpaper.

junjun wrote:Introduction
Most overclockers/Gamers live just to push their equipment a little bit faster; a 500 MHz
overclock just isn't good enough, we want 501 MHz, and then 502 MHz... As we push our
HARDWARE faster it produces more heat, this heat of course can take it’s toll on the
electronics within the computer. Just as we need that extra 1 MHz, we attempt to fight the
force of heat. 1° C could be the difference between life and death for our PC. To battle
heat, we'll buy the best case, the best heat sink and the best fans money can buy,oh and a dozen case fans or water cooling,there is still more that can be done to help cool your CPU, GPU

a process known as "lapping."


Why Lap? What is Lapping? Does it Help?
just about every heat sink will have a rough surface. To the naked eye it may look flat or even feel smooth, but there are microscopic groves/holes in the surface. These groves will trap air between the heat sink and the CPU, and cause a poor transfer of heat.Thermal compound (Artic Silver,etc.) is used to fill these groves and help transfer the heat from the CPU to the heat sink. Just like air, thermal compound is something else that the heat has to pass through to get from the CPU to the heat sink.
We lap the heat sink to make it smooth, allowing us to get the best possible contact between the CPU and heat sink. Even after lapping, there will still be grooves for the air to be trapped in, but the grooves will be much smaller, and cause less of a problem/interference. Lapping can be done on any heat sink or water block, regardless of its material. Just keep in mind that a softer metal will sand away quicker than a harder metal.


Equipment Needed
Heat sink
Sandpaper
400 grit (optional)
600 grit (optional)
800 grit
1200 grit
2000 grit

Flat surface
Water
Dishwashing Liquid


For a flat surface, most people suggest using a piece of glass or a glass top table. so I ended up using a Table top, This worked Great for me,
Time is also a very important item in the lapping process. Lapping can be done in as little as 30 minutes, for better results it tends to take close to two hours. You want to work slow and steady to make sure you do it correctly; otherwise you may end up with a heat sink that is worse off than when you started.,


The Process
You will start out with the most coarse paper first (400 Grit), and repeat the process for each higher grit.
Completely soak the sandpaper under water, and then place it on your flat surface. leave a bit of standing water on my sandpaper.
Next place a drop of the dishwashing liquid onto the heat sink's base. You only need to do
this on the part that we will be lapping. Now, spread the dishwashing liquid around so it covers the base, again, you only need to worry about the part that we will be lapping.
Place the heat sink on the wet sandpaper. Hold the heat sink by the side,and slowly move
the heat sink up and down the paper. Be careful not to apply any pressure to the heat sink, we want its own weight to do the work for us.
After about ten passes across the sandpaper, rotate the heat sink 90° and continue to sand until you've made a complete rotation. continue to do this untilyou'vemade 5 -10 complete rotations, stopping every couple of rotations to re-wet the sand paper, and reapply the soap.Repeat the process using the 800, 1200, and 2000 grit sand paper. In the end, you will
have a nice, mirror like reflection on the heat sink base. Congratulations, you've just lapped your heat sink and created a better surface for heat
transfer. You should notice close to a 5°C drop in CPU temperature


I started with my CPU heatsink first and then my GPU Heatsink.
Have a look at my end results.

After result GPU

before result GPU

After result CPU

I Hope you enjoyed my explaination on lapping!

You might have posted this some time ago, but I believe you just copied\pasted this guide and made some text changes. Bad bad boy. Whats the issue with just posting a link where you got it from ?

s

He is right. It does void the warranty. If the supplier does not ask questions, you are lucky. If they do, you are unlucky and will not have your cpu exchanged.

Standard practice is that it must be installed by a certified techie. Also, the cpu label must be in the inside of the box. To prove that it was purchased for that box (and removing it defaces the label) and is not allowed to be used in another box.

Same as the Windows label on the side of the box. Lately you are allowed to install the windows on another machine if the previous machine has been formatted, recycled or had the OS removed. Only problem with that is that you are not legally permitted to remove the label from the side of the box. So if you install the OS on another machine, you are not allowed to move the label - which makes it an illegal copy (without the label).

Wandering from the topic now - but yes - it does void the warranty.

Pervasive wrote:Wandering from the topic now

Err, and the date too.