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Just got my u-120 X and I have to say I'm a little puzzled. The base where it should contact the heat spreader is not smooth at all, it's actually grooved! You can see a scratch which is where I gently ran my thumb nail over the surface; I could feel the rough edges. Is this normal? If you own a u-120 or u-120 X, is your HS like this?
Have a look for yourself:
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/9039/roughjh8.jpg
Looks like you might wanna go out to the store and get some 600-1000grit and take that baby down a bit and smooth her out :D
Well, I'm wondering if this is the way these are designed to be? Anyone else out there care to comment if you own an u-120 or u-120 x (or even another brand of hs all together).
I remember back in the day when I got my XP-90 it was like this... I didn't like the looks of it so I just lapped the crap out of it to a nice mirror finish :)
I have a Ultra 120, It had that similar base with a unfortunate concave in the middle, I lapped that baby down to 1500 grit :D
Dropped my temps like 2-3c degrees more than unlapped
its normal,
Lap it. Many heatsinks seem to come kinda rough. I guess the TTBT was notorious for a bad finish for example.
Besides, the nickel plating just gets in the way of heat transfer ;)
sweet jesus, why does that look so uneven on that one side?
It's hard to tell from the pic if it is or not. If it is flat then you would only need to sand out the grooves.. unless you wanted to get down to the copper, not really sure how thick their nickel plating is tho. lap it and post results!Quote:
Originally posted by Spawne32
sweet jesus, why does that look so uneven on that one side?
my u-120 has those grooves too
Thermalright purposely keeps the finish like that, it actually allows the thermal paste to do its job, and fill in the grooves.
Anymore pics of the cooler? install pics maybe?
TIM is suppose to fill in the microscopic contours not the grooves the 120 have. The more contact with the IHS the better and the grooves get in the way of that even with TIM filling them in.
I can do a few tomorrow if you want. I did a real sh*t job with the wiring. I just wanted to get it in there and test it. I'll clean it up and do the pics in a few days.Quote:
Originally Posted by james111
Nice camera, you can really see the grooves. Btw, lap time! :banana:
just got my extreme in today. Mine looks very similar. Wondering if I should lap it...
Test on your system, and if you don't like the temperatures you can lap it. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by aclim
No need to modify it, the tech said it's by design. I have pretty decent temp by the way knowing that AS5 takes 200 h or so to "break in"
mine thhermaltake extreme is flat not concave like yours :D
I must say this is a pretty sweet pic, even the background matches. If Thermalright could photoshop that scratch out, they could use that on their frontpage :p:
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/9039/roughjh8.jpg[/QUOTE]
Thanks for confirming my previous post.Quote:
Originally Posted by graysky
Quote:
Originally Posted by Knight
Thats what ill do! :)
your not seriously suggesting what i think your suggesting are you?Quote:
Originally Posted by sladesurfer
don't really see how a grooved base could be better than a flat one and don't believe everything a tech tells you about a product it doesn't mean it's better. It takes longer to machine a mirror finish than a grooved one, only testing will tell tho.. so far they all look really good :toast:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hachi_Roku
I don't see how it could be better either to be honest with you. I just go with what Thermalright says because I personally am not an expert in heat transfer. But at the same time, I think Thermalright could have easily put a nice mirror finish on the base of the HS, considering the quality of all their Heatsinks. I don't know... Its just a brain teaser for me though, because when I get mine its getting laaaaapped!
Why the hell do Thermalright's sinks come with such a :banana::banana::banana::banana: finish?
I machine 1 tonne crankcases for diesel engines, and and the finish is better.
i take it there is copper under that nickel
I would bet money on it....Quote:
Originally Posted by adamsleath
Lap that sucker... should be done to every heatsink anyways.... except perhaps an Enzo!
zzzzzzzzzzz u guys make it sound like such a big problem but of the many cooler's i've bought many of them have bases that are even worse.
If that's how the base was when anandtech reviewed it, that just makes me think the cooler is even better than the review after i lap it.
I installed mine yesterday as is and it performs better than my Tuniq did lapped. They grooved their base for a reason and so I left it as is and I am happy that I did so.
Yes its nickel plated copper.Quote:
Quote:
Originally Posted by adamsleath
i take it there is copper under that nickel
I would bet money on it....
Lap that sucker... should be done to every heatsink anyways.... except perhaps an Enzo!
I honestly don't understand how you guys praise thermalright so much on the quality of their heatsink design but then act like they don't know what they're doing when it comes to the base. I checked the base with a razor blade and its completely flat, much more so than my old Tuniq or the Zalman I used on my old AMD machine. I have no plans on lapping and I really doubt anyone will see any improements in doing so.
Cool man, what kind of load temps are you getting (TAT or CoreTemp)? And what ever they with your old HS?
Any pics of your setup TouGe?
Please report ur temps before and afterQuote:
Originally Posted by TouGe
To be honest, I've found a lot of heatsinks from many companies do this now days. My personal opinion: I think it makes better images by optical illusion. I think the fine pattern actually creates a better reflection. Try it out: if you put an object close near the base, it will actually reflect very nicely, despite being a fairly rough finish. It seems to be the same pattern as those flat magnifying glasses you see around, I wonder if its some sort of optical illusion.
As you start lapping it at lower grits, 220, 400, the reflection actually becomes worse. Evens out at about 800. Starts to reflect nicely at 1000.
navig
I don't care that some phone guy getting paid minimum wage claims to be an expert on heat transfer. they tell you that because they don't want you to find flaws in thier products, it's brand managment. Microsoft does the same thing, if your software crashes and you call them for help, they will tell you it's actually a feature, and you should thank them for it.
grooves aren't better. if someone laps to 600 grit and gets worse temps, i owe them $10.
yeah lapping with some glass is really important especially lapping both the IHS and the heatsink, if you don't then you aren't getting full contact guarenteed
and the grit doesn't even matter, lap to 320 and you'll still probably get better temps
:slapass:
Just wanted to update the tread. I ended-up lapping the HS and found out that it was indeed concave. It's nice and flat now. I also lapped the q6600 CPU which I found out was also concave so it's no wonder I had higher temps.
I made several threads throughout the process:
Ultra-120 Extreme lapping
Q6600 lapping part 1
Q6600 lapping part 2
You'll find a table of before/after temps, a summary of what I did as well as some pics in those 3 threads. If you're thinking about lapping either your CPU or HS, I'd encourage you to google around (tons of great guides out there), and/or ask in here. Lapping either of them is actually pretty darn simple and rewarding temp wise.
Hmmmm, lapping a 330quid chip is a little bit out of my league.
No it isn't. You just need to use your head and work slowly and carefully. I have lapped the IHS 4 times totally (I was playing it safe, making sure I wasn't taking too much material off the thing). I think if you start with a pretty high grit paper like I did (800 then 1000), it makes it much easier to keep things flat and not take off too much at one time. I see you're @ 9x333 also cooled with an ultra-120.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hicks
-What are your load/idle temps in speed fan, also what is your "system" temp usually (mine is around 37-38C when the room is about 23C).
-What is the difference between the hottest and coolest core in your machine under load?
Now you have no warrenty. All for a few degree's, it's not worth it IMO.
Very true, I suppose it's not for everyone (just those of us suffering from OCD). Can you post an answer to my questions from the post before your last reply? I'm curious since I don't know anyone else with a q6600.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hicks
Thanks!
Erm, well i can't run the PC with side panel on, i think it's because the cooler is that tall, it's only a few mill from the side panel. Causes temps to go up 10C at idle.
Erm my idle temps are as iam typing this 32, 29, 27, 28. Load temps in orthos are around 55-65C.
7x440 w 1.41 Vcore. Room is 21-23.
Will it take a 32mm fan?
Was thinking of the IFX-14...Quote:
Originally Posted by lad
Quick question are you guy able to move you Heatsink around even after you put the clamp on. I find this weird since every other heastink i have used i have not be able move. My load temps are fine 41 to 40 between each core at stock volts on a 6420 at 3.2. Anyone care to comment
Yes, this is normal. It is due to the retention bracket design. If you want to read more about, it Anandtech has an updated review of the retail version where they mention this also.Quote:
Originally Posted by STickGuy
Quote:
Originally Posted by century child
Thank you
mine looks exactly the same except its not in the middle like that.. I was wondering the same thing, i'm going to just lap it smooth, but not down.
Definately worse having a grooved finish. Christ when using the mills in the lab i can get a better finish on aluminium blocks im shaping.Quote:
Originally Posted by hotrodtheman
When you see a high resolution picture using a TEM (transmission electron miscroscope) or SEM you will realize even a 2000 grit polished base will look like mountain range, you will then realise how rough that grooved base will look.
In an ideal world we should be able to find out the maximum particle sizes in the pastes we use, and try to attain a surface finish matching the roughness for those particles, to optimize heat transfer.
Hello Hicks, :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Hicks
can you please tell me exactly what case you have, so that I can check if it would comfortably fit in mine? I have a rather dull, ;) but still very good AOpen H500A (width 7.87"(200mm)).
Thanks!
Freddy :)
Sure, Lian Li PC-65.:)Quote:
Originally Posted by Freddy
Ha! Well put and right on the money! I'm sure machining surfaces to the equivalent of hand lapped would raise production costs and slow output. I'm guessing their R&D department experimented with many different configurations and settled on the one that gave the best performance/cost ratio -- not the best performance.Quote:
Originally Posted by Revv23
Thanks Hicks, :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Hicks
but then I'm afraid it won't fit... :( as my case is 200mm and yours is 210mm! :cry:
Freddy
Ya know, there comes a point when the cpu and HSF are so flat and shiney that the ability to squeeze excess TIM out from between them becomes the limiting factor...
I believe that's why AS says 200 hours of 'breakin time'. It's to allow some of the TIM to squeeze out the edges.
I could definitely see a radial pattern of very tiny grooves working to get closer contact between cpu and HSF, and better temps.
This is the same idea as IBM's news release of a few months ago...