*Official Retail G0 Q6600 Overclocking Thread*

[sesdave]

I'm skeptical about lapping CPU's or heatsinks. If done right, it might lower your temps, but I don't think the difference is really all that apparent. Some lapped CPU's look very cool with intense reflections.

I think it's your motherboard and the Thermalright Extreme heatsink that are giving you very good overclocks. That MSI board is the same as the platinum with lower quality heatpipes. Everyone is on the Gigabyte/ASUS bandwagon, but MSI has been making some outstanding motherboard over the years. The P35 NEO-2 is one of those great boards.

If the IHS is concave and the HS uneven lapping will provide better contact and reduce temperatures - check the 10c drop in the link posted previously. Achieving even flat surface on the CPU and HS is the objective - if already flat dont waste your time lapping. Mirroring adds nothing as paste will still be applied to complete the thermal transfer connection.
MB and HSF are part of the overclock but CPU heat output is a main contributor to restricting the overclock. He has a good CPU(lucky swine -lol) but he hasn't maxed his overclock out. So when raising FSb and other parameters he will be limited by the amount of vcore that can be applied for stability before the resulting temperature rise causes instability or fries the CPU. Water and air cooling have a limit to what they can hold the load temps at no matter how good they are - so any reduction in the heat output under load is good to achieve the maximum overclock. That is why people use phase for extreme overclocking.