Lapping a TR U120ex and E6420 - Page 4

Dalork · 7th March 2008, 5:44 PM

Well I went and did it, lapped both the HS and the CPU. Ended up doing 400 through to 2,000 with wet'n dry first. Found the weight of the TRUE120 was too much for the machine. Tried using just the lapping plates but with the finish already on the surface it turned out just too hard and gripped too much to do. We had got cutting pastes upto 50,000 and had planned on a mirror finish lol.

Buffing with paste was suggested but I was too scared of static build up. I turned chicken and left it at what was done with the wet'n dry. Anyways, seems once you get a fairly fine finish the surface tension becomes to much to freely work things so it would be a wasted effort. I doubt there would even be a 1 degree difference once you get the HS/CPU that flat and finished so again prolly pointless in trying.

2 things though.

1. Seems it was all a wasted effort in the end as it only shaved off about 3degrees and a loss of warranty rolf.

2. Seems it makes no temp difference now after lapping if I do or don't use thermal paste. (I did put thermal paste back on as I thought it may help stop/reduce the copper finish getting tarnished which I thought may insulate for all I know).

End of the story, prolly no gain in going past 1,200-1,500 grit and I would doubt any gain at all going passed 2,000. Don't waste your time folks

EC MEISTER · 7th March 2008, 8:29 PM

Good to see then, this might help out anyone else who is looking to lap themselves. So no point going higher than 1200, sounds good to me. That 50,000 mirror finish would have been to die for though, too bad, thanks for sharing that with us Dalork.

Dalork · 7th March 2008, 9:04 PM

Aye, thats about it IMHO. The only thing to gain with lapping is getting both surfaces totally flat. If you can get it so that the CPU clings for a fraction of a sec (with both HS and CPU dry) to the HS then you have both surfaces flat and very little air (not enough to insulate anyway) between them.

You wont get this effect at 1,200 grit but it's not really needed. Just a word of caution when you test to see if the CPU clings to the HS at all please have a cloth or your hand directly under it to catch the CPU. No matter how smooth you get it I doubt it'll work after you drop it a meter or so to the floor rolf.

A mirror finish would have been really cool, and I certainly think it can be done. But I couldn't be bothered and I can't see how there would be any gain to it. Thats pretty much my opinion on it, if your lapping work it to 1,200 and use a good thermal paste. Don't use a crappy paste though as the particles in it will be too large to get into the tiny groves left after lapping to this grade. I tried a basic/cheap paste and in-fact got a worse temp than with no paste. A good paste (I used Liquid Pro, many thanks Renza

) thats got fine particles is the way to go !

I think the 1,500-2,000 just polished it a tiny bit but would have had no real world gain.

EC MEISTER · 7th March 2008, 10:46 PM

Actually I got this effect at 1200grit for like half a second. It'd typically lift 20cm before falling off.

ChinoPD · 3rd April 2008, 9:19 PM

I bought some sandpaper, starting from 200 to 1800. My rig is nearly complete so I thought perhaps I better lap my TRU120e but I remember reading an article somewhere to check the evenness by using a razor blade. I don't have one but I thought the back end of the stanley knife blade was pretty flat so I used that instead. After checking both CPU and HS, I've decided not to lap the HS at all as it was pretty flat. I've ran the back of the knife through the surface then ran it again after turning the HS 90 degress, found no unevenness. However the E8400 was mostly flat but goes a little convex at the edges, but I'm not game lapping the CPU so I'll leave it at that.

Rusty X5 · 3rd April 2008, 11:54 PM

Yer, i was goin to lap my q6600 and TRUE120, but they seemed pretty flat anyway, so i didnt bother... I'm not whinging..25c idle q6600 @2.7

...though 3.6ghz would have been better....

mianiak · 15th May 2008, 10:26 AM

In regards to Lapping a CPU, Recently I Lapped my HS and when I placed my CPU on the flat HS I noticed that the CPU has a convex, where the HS originaly had a concave. Which makes me wonder,,, Is it possible that they were like that for a reason and is it possible that since I have Lapped my HS that it is less efficient now?

As for Lapping the CPU I have been searching to try and find out how thick the CPU casing is, but I have had no official luck, all I have found are a few images like the one below.
Before I even go ahead and attempt to lap my CPU I would like to find out exactly how thick the casing is.
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ 2100MHz Brisbane

7th March 2008, 5:44 PM	#46
Dalork Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Adelaide, South Australia Posts: 441	Well I went and did it, lapped both the HS and the CPU. Ended up doing 400 through to 2,000 with wet'n dry first. Found the weight of the TRUE120 was too much for the machine. Tried using just the lapping plates but with the finish already on the surface it turned out just too hard and gripped too much to do. We had got cutting pastes upto 50,000 and had planned on a mirror finish lol. Buffing with paste was suggested but I was too scared of static build up. I turned chicken and left it at what was done with the wet'n dry. Anyways, seems once you get a fairly fine finish the surface tension becomes to much to freely work things so it would be a wasted effort. I doubt there would even be a 1 degree difference once you get the HS/CPU that flat and finished so again prolly pointless in trying. 2 things though. 1. Seems it was all a wasted effort in the end as it only shaved off about 3degrees and a loss of warranty rolf. 2. Seems it makes no temp difference now after lapping if I do or don't use thermal paste. (I did put thermal paste back on as I thought it may help stop/reduce the copper finish getting tarnished which I thought may insulate for all I know). End of the story, prolly no gain in going past 1,200-1,500 grit and I would doubt any gain at all going passed 2,000. Don't waste your time folks __________________ Cheers Dalork People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.

7th March 2008, 8:29 PM	#47
EC MEISTER Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Ivalice Posts: 1,764	Good to see then, this might help out anyone else who is looking to lap themselves. So no point going higher than 1200, sounds good to me. That 50,000 mirror finish would have been to die for though, too bad, thanks for sharing that with us Dalork. __________________ i7-2600k @ 4.5 l Z68XP-UD3 l Gskill Ripjaws 16G 1600-CL8 l 128GB SSD l 2x3TB l CM 690 l Corsair HX-620W l HIS HD 6950 l Asus [Essense STX, VW222U] l Logitech [G500, G15v2 , X-530] l Win7 64bit \| [Logitech 'G' Owners Club Member #7777]

7th March 2008, 9:04 PM	#48
Dalork Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Adelaide, South Australia Posts: 441	Aye, thats about it IMHO. The only thing to gain with lapping is getting both surfaces totally flat. If you can get it so that the CPU clings for a fraction of a sec (with both HS and CPU dry) to the HS then you have both surfaces flat and very little air (not enough to insulate anyway) between them. You wont get this effect at 1,200 grit but it's not really needed. Just a word of caution when you test to see if the CPU clings to the HS at all please have a cloth or your hand directly under it to catch the CPU. No matter how smooth you get it I doubt it'll work after you drop it a meter or so to the floor rolf. A mirror finish would have been really cool, and I certainly think it can be done. But I couldn't be bothered and I can't see how there would be any gain to it. Thats pretty much my opinion on it, if your lapping work it to 1,200 and use a good thermal paste. Don't use a crappy paste though as the particles in it will be too large to get into the tiny groves left after lapping to this grade. I tried a basic/cheap paste and in-fact got a worse temp than with no paste. A good paste (I used Liquid Pro, many thanks Renza ) thats got fine particles is the way to go ! I think the 1,500-2,000 just polished it a tiny bit but would have had no real world gain. __________________ Cheers Dalork People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.

7th March 2008, 10:46 PM	#49
EC MEISTER Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Ivalice Posts: 1,764	Actually I got this effect at 1200grit for like half a second. It'd typically lift 20cm before falling off. __________________ i7-2600k @ 4.5 l Z68XP-UD3 l Gskill Ripjaws 16G 1600-CL8 l 128GB SSD l 2x3TB l CM 690 l Corsair HX-620W l HIS HD 6950 l Asus [Essense STX, VW222U] l Logitech [G500, G15v2 , X-530] l Win7 64bit \| [Logitech 'G' Owners Club Member #7777]

3rd April 2008, 9:19 PM	#50
ChinoPD Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Canberra Posts: 5,959	I bought some sandpaper, starting from 200 to 1800. My rig is nearly complete so I thought perhaps I better lap my TRU120e but I remember reading an article somewhere to check the evenness by using a razor blade. I don't have one but I thought the back end of the stanley knife blade was pretty flat so I used that instead. After checking both CPU and HS, I've decided not to lap the HS at all as it was pretty flat. I've ran the back of the knife through the surface then ran it again after turning the HS 90 degress, found no unevenness. However the E8400 was mostly flat but goes a little convex at the edges, but I'm not game lapping the CPU so I'll leave it at that. __________________ EX38DS5\|\|Xeon 3370+CNPS9500A-LED\|\|8GB F2-6400CL5-2GBPQ\|\|2xSapphire 5870\|\|1xVelociraptor+2xWD500GB\|\|XFi-Xtreme\|\|HX1000\|\|FT-01\|\|CMV221D\|\|G15v2\|\|Deathadder \|\|W7HP64bit UnRAID Server-4TB\|\|13"MBP07/09-Snow Leopard Successful Trades Fitness and other misc. blog

3rd April 2008, 11:54 PM	#51
Rusty X5 Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: A Very Cold Place Posts: 3,553	Yer, i was goin to lap my q6600 and TRUE120, but they seemed pretty flat anyway, so i didnt bother... I'm not whinging..25c idle q6600 @2.7 ...though 3.6ghz would have been better.... __________________ Main Gaming Rig: i5 3570K @ 4.4\|P8Z77\|16G Ripjaws\|Asus GTX580 DCUII\|120G Vertex 2 + 4tb\|Corsair AX860w\|G15\|G500\|G35\|BluRay\|W7 Pro64\|U2713HM Storage Backup Rig: i5 750\|P7P55D-E PRO\|8G Ripjaws\|Msi 560 ti HAWK\|13TB\|Galaxy 1000W\|G15\|G500\|W7 Pro64\|VE278 Laptop: i7 620M\|4G DDR3\|5470\|500G\|W7 Pro64\|15" 1080p

15th May 2008, 10:26 AM	#52
mianiak Member Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 10	In regards to Lapping a CPU, Recently I Lapped my HS and when I placed my CPU on the flat HS I noticed that the CPU has a convex, where the HS originaly had a concave. Which makes me wonder,,, Is it possible that they were like that for a reason and is it possible that since I have Lapped my HS that it is less efficient now? As for Lapping the CPU I have been searching to try and find out how thick the CPU casing is, but I have had no official luck, all I have found are a few images like the one below. Before I even go ahead and attempt to lap my CPU I would like to find out exactly how thick the casing is. AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ 2100MHz Brisbane __________________ : AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor : Asus ENGTX260 : Geil DDR2 2Gig PC6400 800Mhz Dual Ch CAS 5-5-5-15 GX22GB6400DC : ASUS M2n-E SLI : Seagate SATAII NCQ 320GB 7200RPM 16mb Cache : CoolerMaster 650W Extreme SLI Ready :