Lapping the 2.4C IHS

[Liquid3D]

I agree it does depend on the situation. My 2.4C was OEM, so after 90-days it didn't matter. My 2.8C is retail, so I haven't lapped it yet. My 3.0C is lapped, and OEM, since I've removed the IHS from my 2.4C, and am now removing the IHS from my 3.0C. Water-cooling blocks have minimal, and infinately malleable clamp-down pressure therefore, it's safer to do these things, because you don't have worry about a pound of copper bolted to it.

Lapping is beneficial, depending how you do it. This is why I keep pushing the EasypcKits lapping kits on you guys. I don't own stock in the company, but until I used their Premium Lapping Kit, and did it correctly, all I got were 2C to 4C drops. I'm willing to bet SPQQKY (with all due respect my friend) Either didn't use a complete flat surface like a piece of glass, or use 400-grit all the way down to .10-micron paper. Perhaps he didn't continually clean the surface with 70% isopropyl alcohol (70% because then it's like wet-lapping) and continually clean (by tapping it pff) the sand paper. Also one move the heatsink/CPI in small figure eights or circles reversing directions. And alwsys allow the sand-paper to do the work. I f you press down with too much papaer , you may create an uneven sureface. I'm wiiling to bet that's what's happining in many cases, not enough lapping, and most P4 IHS surfaces I've lapped were uneven before I started.

It may sound complicated, it's not. It only takes about an hour to lap both surfaces correctly. Then you will see 6C to 8C drops. BUT you must use a high quality paste like AS5 once you see how thick it is, you'll understand.

Also you can practice "Tinting" rubbing a grain sized amount into the heatsink and wiping almost all away until it literally leaves a stain. Then place a small (tiny) drop of paste on the CPU center (not enough is actually better then too much) and simply tighten down the heatsink.

I'm doing an entire article on this step by step, removing the 3.0C IHS in the process, and cmparing temps. It'll be done next week. I have three reviews to do in 48 hours before that. This picture below is what your surface would look like when done, and I put the exact amount of paste to show that as well (the camera flash reflected the silver in it, it's the dark, thick, AS5);