Lapped my Ultra-120 eX (pics and results)

[graysky]

When my Ultra-120 X and I have to say I'm a little puzzled. The base where it should contact the heat spreader is not smooth at all, it's actually grooved! You can see a scratch which is where I gently ran my thumb nail over the surface; I could feel the rough edges.

Have a look for yourself:


Anyway, others encouraged me to lap it which I've never done before. After wrestling with the idea for a couple of days as well as reading many articles/guides, I decided to give it a go. Plug: [url=http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=105586=SLi_Dog[/url] wrote a great guide for HS lapping.

$20 worth of sandpaper, a $2 piece of flat glass, and 4 hours of careful work (and sweat) later, I was left with a pretty darn flat HS. You can see by the pictures that this particular one was quite concave instead of being flat which isn't good for keeping contact between the HS and IHS of the CPU.





Did it work you're probably wondering. The temp data as measured in speedfan.exe for a ~1 h x264 encode (uses all 4 cores with a CPU load of >99 %). I had speedfan log the temps (which it does every 3-4 seconds) and I averaged the whole data set per core for the 2nd pass of the 2-pass encode (the 2nd pass is the most CPU intensive). Room temp for both experiments was ~23 °C. By the way, I added a constant of 15 to each core in speedfan since it incorrectly displays temps for quads by 15 °C.

System specs: Q6600 @ 9x333=3.01 GHz (stock voltage), P5B-Deluxe in an Antec p182 case.

Before lapping the HS:

Core 0: 66.9
Core 1: 66.4
Core 2: 60.6
Core 3: 60.6

After lapping the HS:

Core 0: 64.9
Core 1: 64.4
Core 2: 59.0
Core 3: 59.4

Delta:

Core 0: 2.0
Core 1: 2.0
Core 2: 1.6
Core 3: 1.2

[d44ve]

looks good... but I would defenatly go higher than 800 grit. Personally, if I had scratches that were that of 800 grit sandpaper I would recomend lapping that

[graysky]

@d44ve - maybe, but I'm pretty happy the the temps I'm getting now that I lapped the CPU as well.

[demonbrawn]

I would agree that if you lap, generally people go with at least 1000 grit, but most go with 2000 grit to finish. 800 is still at the point where it is evening the surface, not finishing it like 1000 or higher. I'm sure you would've seen somewhat better results if you had continued.

[d44ve]

Originally Posted by graysky

@d44ve - maybe, but I'm pretty happy the the temps I'm getting now that I lapped the CPU as well.

Hey, thats all that matters. Here is a link to my thread!

Decided to Lapp My CPU

Walkthrough on Lapping my Maze4

[anticlutch]

I'd bet that using 2000 grit sand paper on both the cpu and the heatsink would yield lower temperatures... but good job on your lapping project

[Ketxxx]

800 grit isnt enough. Keep going till you reach 2000 grit

[freaksavior]

yup, like ket said, use 2000

I used 800/1000/2000/

Each one about 15 each way, so 60 laps with each

[d44ve]

Does no one read my walkthrough.... I guess you can only bring a horse to water, but you cant make him drink

J/K

[Solaris17]

Originally Posted by d44ve

Does no one read my walkthrough.... I guess you can only bring a horse to water, but you cant make him drink

J/K

easy dont let ppl asking you about stuff and all those thnx go to your head i think after all this time d44ve is getting conceded

[d44ve]

Originally Posted by Solaris17

easy dont let ppl asking you about stuff and all those thnx go to your head i think after all this time d44ve is getting conceded

It was a joke

But I can appreciate the head check

[newtekie1]

Yeah, you need to go to at least a minimum of 1000 or 1200 grit to get a good lapping, you need to go to 2000 to get a near mirror finish which isn't really important IMO. Though 800 is a hell of a lot better than what it looked like when you started.

[Solaris17]

Originally Posted by d44ve

It was a joke

But I can appreciate the head check

lol i was kidding dude your fine i read the walk through though had no idea how to lap just that i needed to polish my surface with sandpaper.

[freaksavior]

if i get the ultra, i'm FOR Sure lapping it