Quote Originally Posted by [cTx] InfectedSin View Post
Your right to some degree that it is not beneficial. Because remember, the heat will transfer faster, but only over a distance of a few nano-meters. so there may be a difference but it is most likely minimal.

but hay, who am i to stop you from beeing as xtreme as possible right?
Well, it's not a question of being "as xtreme as possible", most of all because I never lapped a CPU in my life, nor I have the time or extra money to do it.

I was just remembering my Physics classes. I mean, if you don't have holes and crevices for the TIM to fill (which is why TIM exists in the first place...) when you lap a CPU and heatsink, and this doesn't seem all that farfetched, according to what I've read here, then one of two things happens:

1) The TIM has a lower heat conductivity than copper, meaning using it will end up insulating the CPU-to-heatsink heat transfer, actually being worse using it than not (TIM is used to fill holes, providing contact points where they don't exist, meaning they will ALLWAYS have better heat conductivity than air; if there are no holes to fill, and the TIM has worse heat conductivity than copper, you'll be negating some of the performance increase of the lap process);

or

2) The TIM has a higher heat conductivity than copper, meaning using it will end up being a waste of money, since, again, there are no holes to fill, and copper can only transfer so much heat; in this case, the heat will not "transfer faster", because of the "lowest common denominator".

Ultimately, this would explain why some people don't see improvements on temperatures after lapping - the TIM holding them back -, actually meaning that, if you "mirror-finish", then you're better off NOT using TIM... Weird, huh?

Does this seem absurd at all? It does make sense to me, but, as I've said, I'm a law major, to the last time I even had a Physics class was like 12 years ago... hehehe

Cheers.

Miguel