Lapped my PII 940

[FoxRacR17]

Well I am in the process of setting up my first watercooling computer, I have put ALOT of money and time into this build. I got the HAF 932 and painted the inside semigloss black and it turned out pretty good for my first painted case. And since there was alot of "firsts" for me with this build, I decided to add another one to the list, I have never lapped a CPU IHS before, so I decided to give it a go...because well if I F'ed it up, that would mean I would just have to buy a 955 (DARN ) I dont know if this is typical with all phenom chips but on my particular chip the edges were raised ALOT as compared to the middle of the IHS. Here are pics in order of them taken.

This is after about 5 minutes with 400 grit


After about 30 minutes, FINALLY starting to hit the center of the IHS


Getting closer, this if after about an hour


After finally getting it all even, and working my way up to 1000 grit, this is the finished product


Here it is seated in my M4A79 Deluxe, Now I just have to wait for my loop to finish test leaking and bleeding and we will see what the temps are like. Before with the stock heatsink, thermal paste, and no lapping, OCCT was reporting that my temps were maxing out at 54C after stress testing it. Hopefully all this work with be worth it

[eRazorzEDGE]

looks very nice. i usually don't go all the way past the plating, just enough where it's flat.

however, if i were you, i would finish with 2000+ grit to get rid of those scratches. that's if you're wanting it to be the best it can be.

[demonkevy666]

did you go higher then 100 grit after it was flat ?
the IHS is quite thick.

[GunterFalstaff]

The high corners were evident in the old Phenom I's too... i would definitely agree with eRazorzEDGE on the higher grit sandpaper it makes a difference. Heres a 'post' i made when i did my first Lap job ever on the 9850 BE. It helps to sand in straight lines going one direction and 90 degree angles if you want that mirror shine. good luck man

[afireinside]

That's sure as hell a 100 grit finish, I think he meant 1000 considering he started at 400 and claims to have went up

With that said, I had great success when I lapped my AM2 X2 a few years ago. Gained 100mhz on the stock cooler with the same voltage. Been wanting to do my PII but I haven't had the time.

looks very nice. i usually don't go all the way past the plating, just enough where it's flat.

however, if i were you, i would finish with 2000+ grit to get rid of those scratches. that's if you're wanting it to be the best it can be.

Pointless other than having a shiny processor. 600 grit produces the best results, Cathar tested it a whiles back.

[eRazorzEDGE]

Pointless other than having a shiny processor. 600 grit produces the best results, Cathar tested it a whiles back.

i haven't seen this test, but the idea is to minimize the air gaps and every single scratch is an air gap that has to be filled with TIM.

[biohead]

i haven't seen this test, but the idea is to minimize the air gaps and every single scratch is an air gap that has to be filled with TIM.

that's correct, but even so after 600 grit there's no performance increase. maybe there'd be a performance increase with a 1000 watt heat load, but not in the case of a CPU.

imo once you get rid of the worst (concavity, scratches) and finish up with 600-800 grit, you're set. a performance increase after doing more finishing will be hard to determine, as it will be in the order of a tenth of a degree or so. nevertheless i applaude anyone who wants to make their IHS/base as pretty as it gets, i'm just too lazy.

[matttehman]

Looking forward to the results man! Also what TIM are u going to use. I have As5 and AC MX-2, and it really seems to be a toss-up as for what to use. There are soo many reviews favoring one over the other.

[FoxRacR17]

Haha, yeah that is supposed to be 1000 grit that I finished up with. I started with 400, then 600, then 800, then 1000. I didnt go any higher because I read that doing 2000 doesnt really show any real world performance increase, its just for show. So I decided to stop at 1000. Does it look alright for 1000 finish?

EDIT: I'm going to be using MX-2. I use to use AS5, but decided to give MX-2 a shot and I'm not sure if I like it to much, I seem to have a much harder time applying it and evenly spreading it across the IHS. Anyone have any tips on how to properly apply MX-2?

[Particle]

Yeah, just put a quarter-inch line of the stuff in the middle of your CPU and then sit your cooler on top. No need to spread it out with a razor or anything like back in the old days with exposed cores.

[soundood]

i know this isnt really needed anymore as particle says, but personaly i have always stuck too applying whatever it is to both the heatsink and the cpu,

i also like to apply it with a razor blade, making sure i apply a thin film to both,

but hey differant horses for differant courses

[Cyben]

I start at 1500, go to 2000 and then chrome polish.

[whe3ls]

reminds me of my old 3600+ i lapped

[gOtVoltage]

Just remeber to clean all residue left from Crome Polish..

It can leave the pores clogged with polish which the paste is suppose to fill.


I use Mothers Aluminum Polish to get a gold MIRROR finish..

clean with denatured alchohal......before appling paste ..I have also shaved IHS's X2/X4 too 1mm Me old 9950 liked it alot.

[ajaidev]

I use brasso that really give it a nice shine... There is a difference of 4-5 C after i lapped my q6600!!

BTW be careful now that its lapped the sheet protecting the cores is thinner applying pressure at a point can rupture the sheet and cause problems. We totally screwed a chip "9500" when we tried to use DICE and due to some reason the metal sheet ruptured and computer hung and never did start up again...

[demonkevy666]

Just remeber to clean all residue left from Crome Polish..

It can leave the pores clogged with polish which the paste is suppose to fill.


I use Mothers Aluminum Polish to get a gold MIRROR finish..

clean with denatured alchohal......before appling paste ..I have also shaved IHS's X2/X4 too 1mm Me old 9950 liked it alot.

do you think it's possible to pop off the to like someone did with a lighter on I7.

It seem Intel amd are you using the same yellow square to glue to the IHS lol

[-= rtz =-]

Finally... been waiting for something like this, cant wait to see what your results will be.

[FoxRacR17]

Ok, finally got my system put together, and ran a 1hr run of OCCT. This is with all stock settings so no overclock, because before when I was hitting 54C with stock heatsink, thermal material, and IHS not lapped. I think the 54C was with my cpu at 3.5GHz however. When I get some time off from work I will run another run of OCCT with my CPU at 3.5GHz and see what the max temp was. So is this good so far?