Lapping Q6600

[annaconda]

*NOTE* : Please regret the date on the pictures. I took them yesterday, but forget to adjust the date in the camera.

Ok after been frusterated of not having a good contact between CPU and CPU water block and Offly high CPU temperatures even on the stock speed i decided to lap the Q6600.

There are some good info on the web how to lapp the CPU or Heatsink, and in all those procedures, people have been using water with soap or dishwasher detergent. There is a high risk involved in it, if the water goes into your CPU you are done. So i decided to go against it, and i would recomend any one to do the same.

Long story short, here is the setup of material you need for Lapping Q6600.

1. 320 Girt SandPaper (Home Depot or Lowes) $ 2.17
2. 600 Girt SandPaper.(Home Depot or Lowes) $ 2.17
3. 1500 Girt SandPaper. (Advance Auto Part or PepBoys) $ 5.17
4. 2 hours of free Time. (Priceless)
5. Paper towel or Cloth for cleaning.
6. Rubbing Alcohol 95%.

Total Cost = $10


GOAL : MIRROR LIKE FINISH


CPU Temperature before Lap with Monster water cooling:

Stock Idle= 40C Load= 50C

Overclock@ 3.5 Idle = 50C Load = 60C


When i started my shopping for SandPaper, i realized HomeDepot or Lowes don;t carry higher Grit SanPapers. So if you decided to lapp keep in mind you need to go to Auto Shop to get the Sandpaper higher than 600 girt, (just saved you some time).

Ok back to Lapping. First you want to mark the CPU with the marker on all four corners like you see in the picture.


Then you need some flat surface, e.g Glass, Kitchen Counter Top, or any thing which is pure flat and easy accessable.

I used Kitchen Counter top, as you can see in the picture i used the whole 9 x 11" 320 Girt Sandpaper sheet, and tapped it in all four conners for better control.



Don;t forget you should cover the pin side of the CPU, so you don;t damage the pins or save it from all the material which will come off from HS.

So i started my process upside down CPU on the 320 Girt. You have to be carefull, don;t put pressure on the CPU let the weight of the CPU to do the trick. You can HOLD the CPU from the sides as in the following picture.



You can either start moving CPU (Left to Right or Top to Bottom), but don;t do in circles, that will rub the edges more than the whole cpu, and i repeat don;t put the pressure on the CPU. Also keep in mind that rotate the CPU 90 degrees after each 30 lapps (Left to Right or Top to Bottom) that way CPU HS will be equally rub from all conners, clean the cpu after each rotation also clean the Sandpaper to reduce the residue, follow the procedure until you are done,

The following picture is the result of 15 minutes of lapping on 320girt Paper.




Those damn conners as i suspected the cpu was concaved shape. There was a lot of work to be done, so keep doing it. The following picture is after 25 minutes of lapping on 320girt paper. Things are looking good, and the center is making contact now, but still damn those corners.





After 1 hour of lapping on 320 girt Paper. Picture is not that clear but the whole copper is out, looks good. During the process i used the 2 x (9 x 11") 320 girt sheets, because that was the main process and you wanna change the sheets more often to get the good results.




Now switched to 600 Girt of Paper sheet for better shine and smoothness. Same process, keep in mind no pressure on the chip and consistant rotating, other wise you will be end up with the worse CHIP then you had. So keep it up SOLDIER victory is near.




The following picture is after 30 minutes on 600 girt Sandpaper. Thats what i was talking about nice shine, but we are not done yet.




Now the final step. Switched to 1500 girt Sandpaper, and after spending 30 more minutes results are amazing look at those pictures. What do you guys say, now i will post the results later.

My D-tek fuzion is also concave i belive from the center, so i am planning on lapping it to, but i will post the results with out lapp fuzion then see if it is worth lapping it. Make sure after all the lapping you check the surface with the blade or knife and do the light test (Light test: Hold the CPU and the Blade where the light source is, contact the blade with the CPU's surface and if you see light coming through and surface looks really uneven then you need more lapping). Clean up the CPU carefully with the Alcohol after done with lapping.

Stay tunned for results after work. Enjoy.














RESULTS:
Fr&^kin Amazing Results:

10C DROP in temperature Idle and Load, 10C People and this is just lapping the CPU. Wow can some one please wake me up 10 C. Wohooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Every one should do it seriously this is the cheapest and easiest 10C drop you can get.

Before lapping as i stated @ 3.51

Idle: Core1: 52C, Core2: 50C, Core3: 46C, Core4: 49C,
Load: Core1: 62C, Core2: 60C, Core3: 56 or 57 C, Core 4: 60C

After lapping @ 3.51

Idle: Core1: 40C-42C, Core2: 42C, Core3: 36-37C, Core4: 38C
Load: Core1: 50C, Core2: 50C, Core3: 46C, Core4: 48-49C


Amazing that's all i can say, F*&*K Intel. They should charge me $5 extra next time and lapp properly for me.

[ocZZZ]

Nice work/pics. I also lapped my first q6600 that was running really hot much the same way and my CPU was VERY uneven. However, after lapping both tuniq and CPU, the temp went down only 2c although each of the cores was within 1-2c of each other (instead of 5c).

[annaconda]

Well 1-2c is not bad, better than nothing.

[jarman]

i lapped my fuzion along with my E2140..pretty good temps. You should get some engineer's blue to test the conatct between the 2 surfaces

[ocZZZ]

actually, I would much rather have kept the intel warranty then gain 2c

Well 1-2c is not bad, better than nothing.

[annaconda]

actually, I would much rather have kept the intel warranty then gain 2c

Your warranty expires as soon as you overclock, but any way choice is yours. But i am quite happy with my results.

[ocZZZ]

that must be why noone in this forum ever RMA's any dead parts.. I was wondering about that

[AndyM]

Yep, that IHS was bad for sure, nice results. I'd avoid lapping the Fuzion though. It has a slight bow stock, which is visible laying it onto a lapped IHS with light pressure with something like Coolaboratory LM (cheap man's machinists blue ). However, under full spring pressure that bow disappears once tightened, the oring inside it compresses and lets the block make full IHS contact. Enjoy the new temps!

[Leeghoofd]

Hehehe do they have a way of finding out if and how much you overclocked ? I think if you stay on normal volts max 1.55 or so it's pretty impossible to damage a CPU if you give it adequate cooling...

[kinitex]

How do they know if you overclocked or not?

[Leeghoofd]

that must be why noone in this forum ever RMA's any dead parts.. I was wondering about that

Well I have never had to RMA an Athlon 64 nor an Intel CPU , some Athlon XP's though and a few mobo's , never had any issues with them to RMA

Ofcourse if you to some modifications to the boards eg cuttign heatpipes and co it becomes pretty hard to swap it , but if you keep the exterior intact no worries...

[annaconda]

Well you never know, they might have some type of blackbox in the CPU which tells them what causes the failure.

[Leeghoofd]

That was the rumour spread indeed, honeslty do you think Intel will verify each dead CPU they get ? imagine the cost if they have do that

[ocZZZ]

urgh! come on

Well you never know, they might have some type of blackbox in the CPU which tells them what causes the failure.

[annaconda]

urgh! come on

That was a joke, C'Mon guys.

But it is possible by putting some code in the CPU.

[Start]

That was a joke, C'Mon guys.

But it is possible by putting some code in the CPU.

From a theoretical standpoint of course its not impossible. From a realistic standpoint, highly unlikely. A processor is really densed already crammed with transistors. Putting some kind of implementation will increase their engineering costs and put more investment into protecting their product, instead of producing the best damn product they can (sounds familiar Sony?). Plus, honestly if Intel did not want people to overclock, I'm sure they could find a way so that a processor can not exceed over x fsb. But then they would pretty much lose the ethusist market.

Although losing the ethusist market would not hurt them so much because we area minority, we are also the most vocal and annoying ones (from a company standpoint ). So Intel rather just give us the RMA, instead of having to spending more money on an issue that is rarely going to happen.

[cantankerous]

Very nice results indeed. Was this your very first time doing this? I have never lapped anything but have always craved the results from doing so. I just really don't want to bugger up a brand new cpu. If I did I would really be upset as money isn't easy to come by for me. I know, don't do anything if you can't afford to replace it but man that flat surface looks great. I really should get up the courage to do this to my Q6600 when I do my build over the next couple weeks.

[annaconda]

Yes it was my first time. It is as easy as it can be, just follow the procedure carefully, and you should be fine.

If you do some search you will find out that people use some liquid in the process i did not because i don;t want to damage my CPU and don;t want any risk involved, so i did not use any liquid.

I don;t know why people even use it at all i did not see any difference and as you can see the results are as good as it can be, and there was not even a single problem i faced.

All you need is $10 worth of stuff and 2 hours at least of free time.

[AndyM]

It's wet or dry sandpaper, but liquid might cut down on aluminum oxide dust from the paper going airborne and making its way under the IHS very remotely shorting out something under there (not sure if aluminum oxide is conductive though...)

I just spray some windex on the paper I'm using for lubrication purposes.

[BlazingArrow]

Well you never know, they might have some type of blackbox in the CPU which tells them what causes the failure.

dude, just stop right there. Don't preach on an online forum about something you have no idea about. Intel has no way of knowing whether or not you have OCed your cpu.

Little kids and their outlandish assumptions...

[DFI pit bull]

Your warranty expires as soon as you overclock, but any way choice is yours. But i am quite happy with my results.

How do Intel know that you have overclocked?

[turtletrax]

Starting to sound like[H] Forums in here

What it boils down to is you either want lower temps or you dont. If you do, do you still want you warranty? If you do want your warranty and you are overclocking, will you swallow your honesty and RMA your proc that you overvolted and beat on? That simple.

[annaconda]

Starting to sound like[H] Forums in here

What it boils down to is you either want lower temps or you dont. If you do, do you still want you warranty? If you do want your warranty and you are overclocking, will you swallow your honesty and RMA your proc that you overvolted and beat on? That simple.

Good to see you here Turtletrax, i just wanted to see how this forum is ? some one mention that i should also post it here.

take care.

[turtletrax]

Good to see you here Turtletrax, i just wanted to see how this forum is ? some one mention that i should also post it here.

take care.

It is a great forum. Welcome!!!

[TheGoat Eater]

just a tip to all of you!
A no-brainer safety tip for those paranoid about the dust - easy fix is to get some 3M painters tape/auto painting tape and tape the bottom of the cpu and press down good, as there will be no residue when you remove it and it seals very well.

pics may come soon as I am receiving a E6850 and a q6600 soon and plan on lapping