Lapping the thermaltake big typhoon base

[[XC] leviathan18]

well yesterday i bought my TT big typhoon now some pics vs the stock cooler

http://img484.imageshack.us/img484/4383/dsc03559small3ec.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

now the pic of the awfull finished base

http://img465.imageshack.us/img465/976/dsc03564small7rq.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

now how to lap it and have a nice mirror finish

first buy wet sand paper grits 360 400 500 600 1000 1200 and 2000

grit from lower to higher in one direction i.e. from north to south with the 360 grit then from west to east with the 400 and then repeat from north to south with the 500 and so on till the 2000

then buy rubbing compound perfect it II from 3M number 05973 and rub the base then after 5 hours the final result is this

http://img455.imageshack.us/img455/6452/dsc03567small2lf.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

hope it helps...... :toast:

thanks to my friend UnG for the inspiration :toast:

[IYP]

wow, thats beautiful, nice work man

[[XC] leviathan18]

thx bro im so ******* tired xD

[Magnj]

wow...you better have your IHS off with that baby for prefecto contacto

[[XC] leviathan18]

im going to take it in consideration is there any way to put the ihs on again if i sell my cpu???

[dinos22]

good job

look at that base :eek:

[[XC] leviathan18]

if you guys have one TT big typhoon do this little mod worth the effort

[Major_A]

I commend you for taking the time to do that, but from personal experience it's never really worth it. You spent another $5+ and a lot of time to see maybe a 1-2 degree drop in load temps.

[[XC] leviathan18]

well everything for better temps :toast:

[Major_A]

True that. It does look damn good, it would be nice if they'd do that from the factory.

[Ugly n Grey]

Nice work Lev, you went from a chunk of copper to a mirror :) :toast:

[[XC] leviathan18]

i think a finish like that makes the cooler a lot more expensive...

the rubbing compound did all the magic when i finished with the 2000 grit i was scared it was still scratched so i remembered that i had this rubbing compound (specially made to polish car paint) that i bought for another project that is in hold (paint case guide) and give it a try one little drop of the compound and mirror finish... almost magic

[[XC] leviathan18]

well after running prime for 3 hours my temps now are 50 degrees load with the case closed and 48 degrees with the case open, from 53 before the laping (with the case open)

my spec is athlon 3500 @ stock newcastle


edit: room temp about 30°

[uOpt]

3 degrees down?

/me runs out getting sandpaper. Who needs bread?

[[XC] leviathan18]

if i open the case is 5° delta (im using stock fan) is pretty silent i cant hear it im very pleased with the results

[dogsx2]

if you guys have one TT big typhoon do this little mod worth the effort

I have one, I did it, I think it was worth it.

[Dave_Sz]

What's the point of lapping the heatsink when the CPU itself isn't really all that smooth? You have as5 anyway to fill in all the gaps.

[[XC] leviathan18]

i used as5 and if the base is smoother and well polished you transfer more heat...

[saaya]

beautifull!
thats the best lapping job ive ever seen!

[[XC] leviathan18]

thanks saaya :toast: sad i didnt had this for the XS GP .... well until next time hope to have better HW to kee up with ya guys

[[XC] moddolicous]

Nice job leviathan! After some burn in those temps should be high 49's. Maybe u should look into lapping the IHS (with glass to make it flat). U could also lap the die, but u should be EXTREMELY careful. Plus if thats running 24/7, u should make it run D2OL.

[[XC] leviathan18]

i tried to run D2OL but i had some troubles with it.... perhaps later i will read all the guide (im pretty lazy....)

lapping the IHS mmmm with glass???? care to explain me more???

i tried to give it a nice thin of as5 my temps are pretty good for my ambien temp and i have a newcastle you guys runing 90nm have better temps and more OC im trying to build some money for a 7800gtx and 3700 sandy

[nkcd]

It's beautiful....but

I don't see the point of using polish compond beside making it looks mirror finish AND negate the effect of lapping. The places where polish compounds filled-in should be for AS5 instead to transfer more heat. Polish compound would simply reduce the effect of a fully lapped HS. I've tried both, and without the polish compound, my temp was 4C lower at full load.

[[XC] leviathan18]

this isnt normal polish it has particles that acts like a higher grit besides i took a small hydro jet and cleaned the base

3M rubbing compound is designed to use with car paint at the final stages is a very nice thing :D

[[XC] moddolicous]

For some reason I remember reading that when u sand with glass, that it makes the surface much flatter. Something on those lines. Maybe I'll search google for this.

[dinos22]

3M rubbing compound is designed to use with car paint at the final stages is a very nice thing :D
this 3M rubbing stuff you swear by can you tell us more about it....i don't think out Australian hardware stores carry the same product but if i can explain it properly i might get lucky :D

[[XC] leviathan18]

a pic is better than 1000 words

http://img486.imageshack.us/img486/2718/cimg0074medium1fp.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Dave_Sz]

i used as5 and if the base is smoother and well polished you transfer more heat...

That's not really true. When I got my xp-I ran it for around 3 weeks as it came from the box with as5, roughly 350hrs of nothing but prime or occt. Then I took it out and polished it to 1500 grit followed by 000 steel wool. The temps dropped by 2* after another 3 weeks but that's only cause the room temp dropped as well.

Rubbing compound leaves residue behind doesn't it, is it even abrasive enough to smooth out copper?

[.sentinel]

No it doesen't not if you clean it after using the rubbing compound. It is the equivalent to 5000 grit sandpaper.

[[XC] leviathan18]

is very abrasive and it doesnt leave residue i cleaned the whole thing with a small hydro jet

[Fr3ak]

I also used grid paste to get rid of the scratches on the plate of my BT. Its the best stuff I used so far to get a mirror like finish. And there is nothing of it left, after cleaning is with some water. I used a white handkerchief to make sure that there is nothing of it left. If there was, it makes the cloth a little gray. After cleaning it with water I used a hair dryer to make sure that there is absolutely nothing left on the plate.

Usually I use that polish stuff to get rid of scratches on the paint of my car, but experiance has shown, that its also very good to lap heatsinks :)

[dinos22]

hey man

you did a much better job than me but defiantely inspired me to do the same here........i don't know if it made any difference as i didn't have any data on my new dual core Opteron but it's doing OK

I lapped the base with 180, 360, 600, 1200 grit paper on granite kitchen bench...couldn't find that 3M stuff :p

i wasn't after perfection as you can see but something that will get rid of the major grooves that's all.....looks better now

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/8987/dsc022070ad.jpg (http://img257.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc022070ad.jpg)http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/1572/dsc022089zf.jpg (http://img257.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc022089zf.jpg)

http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/5639/dsc022107mm.jpg (http://img108.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc022107mm.jpg)http://img108.imageshack.us/img108/5625/dsc022110aj.jpg (http://img108.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc022110aj.jpg)

http://img316.imageshack.us/img316/2235/dsc022121mi.jpg (http://img316.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc022121mi.jpg)http://img316.imageshack.us/img316/6451/dsc022132qh.jpg (http://img316.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc022132qh.jpg)

http://img316.imageshack.us/img316/7300/dsc022156vt.jpg (http://img316.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc022156vt.jpg)http://img316.imageshack.us/img316/3016/dsc022164pv.jpg (http://img316.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc022164pv.jpg)

http://img316.imageshack.us/img316/50/dsc022226ee.jpg (http://img316.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc022226ee.jpg)http://img316.imageshack.us/img316/7028/dsc022279nm.jpg (http://img316.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc022279nm.jpg)

[[XC] leviathan18]

looks a lot better but if you use the 2000 grit you will have a better finish

:toast:

[dinos22]

looks a lot better but if you use the 2000 grit you will have a better finish

:toast:
hehe our tightass Bunnings warehouse chain was hardly even stocking 1200 grit paper......so what's 2000 grit stuff like :slobber: hehehehhehehe

[[XC] leviathan18]

with the 2000 grit you will get rid of 80% of the scratches if you can find it buy it

[freecableguy]

lappers - do you try to lap by moving the whole cooler on a piece of sandpaper on the table or do you flip the cooler over and lap that way?

[dinos22]

lappers - do you try to lap by moving the whole cooler on a piece of sandpaper on the tablei've done it that way^^^^as per photos above

[Sailindawg]

do you try to lap by moving the whole cooler on a piece of sandpaper on the table

I taped the sand paper to a sheet of plate glass from a 11"x14" picture frame and put the glass on a table. I use the glass plate to ensure a smooth lapping surface. I used 800 grit, 1000 grit, 1500 grit and finally 2000 grit sand paper from am automotive store. The same paper you would used for paint work. I wet sanded the entire time. After the 2000 grit, I didn't have any of the fine lapping paste, so I used toothpaste. Toothpaste is slightly abrasive, great for removing scratches from plastic lenses. Rinsed with water and the base was nice and flat to a straight edge and mirror shine smooth. About 2 hours worth of lapping.

[infiniti029]

huh what lapping paste? i just use a dab of dishwater soap.

[[cTx]Philosophy]

Hmm I went from 200 all way to 1000 (2000 wasnt anywhere in Homedeopt) and was kinda pissed at my results, I also used some dish liquid..

As for previous post about glass, it was once said to use a pain of glass or mirror to put the sand paper ontoi because of it having a perfect flat surface VS some plywood or say linoleum floor etc etc etc... That counter is a perfect flat im sure as well..

Temp decreae I cant really sai because I did so many mods in one day I dont know which one was good or bad for temps or anything for that matter
I lapped 90C
Removed IHS from 3800
Removed retention brackets from 90c and maufactured some bolt thru design using wall mirror mounbt brackets..
Did volt mod to ASrock mobo
and changed push pull config of fans
Load of 3800X2 @ 2.5 pre mod was 53 loaded
After barely ever saw 39... and lap was id say half as decent as even Dino's is, nothing compared to liviathan's work of art..

[guangg]

thats way cool man.

/me looking at my poor xp90c base

will try it out someday when i have the time too.

[Rayman]

i may try this if i can get the energy to take this thing bac off my mobo lol

[[XC] leviathan18]

lappers - do you try to lap by moving the whole cooler on a piece of sandpaper on the table or do you flip the cooler over and lap that way?

i moved the sand paper with a sand block is easier and faster

[celemine1Gig]

i moved the sand paper with a sand block is easier and faster

Now that explains why the mirror effect seems to have some distortion in it. The reflection of the camera, you took the pic with, is not 1:1, especially on the sides of the heatsink base.
I bet the sanding block will never be as plane as a piece of glass and your hand motion will never be horizontal only, but always a bit vertical at the edges, too.
That said, I'm sorry to say, but your heatsink base may look very nice now, but it'll never be as good as it could've been when moving the cooler itself on a fixed piece of sandpaper on a glass-plate.:(

But hey, if it still improved your temps, that's OK. I just wanted to point out that next time you should do it like explained above, in order to get even better results.

[Revv23]

i find that lapping past 600 grit is pretty useless...

like fractions of a c...

still when i do it, i go up to 1000 grit...

the stock finish isnt so bad though, if you make more then a C from all that work than congrats to you.