Lapping FTW

[Bman212121]

Well I finally got around to taking my PC back apart. I took out the ThermalRight Ultra 120 Extreme and My Q6600. I had bought some 600 grit and 1500 grit paper, and also had some 150 and 220 grit that was lying around.

I looked at a few guides and they are all about the same. Use a flat piece of glass, start with a coarse sand paper and work your way up. Some suggest using water, some said oil, another one said don't use anything. I just did all of my sanding dry and it seemed to work fine.

My Q6600 seemed to have a concave shape where the outside of the IHS was the first to start showing copper. The TRU was very convex and the middle of it showed copper very quickly, and it took a long time to get it sanded all the way near the corners. It took me a lot longer than I thought it would to sand it down, about 3 hours total for both of them. The longest part was getting the nickel (Silver stuff) off. I would suggest definitely starting with 150 grit sandpaper that is decent quality. I think the stuff I had was more for wood than metal, so it didn't seem to sand quickly. The 600 grit and the 1500 grit worked better and gave a nice smooth finish. I don't have a digital camera so sorry but I didn't take pics. One more thing that is noteworthy. Be careful when sanding the processor as you'll start sanding your fingers as well. I ending up putting tape on the end mine fingers after my thumb started bleeding. :o

So the end result... I fired up Prime95 and I can definitely tell there is a drop in temps. I don't have any reliable data as I didn't do a baseline before, but I do know it was at least a 5C drop if not more than previous times I've done it. I hit about 46C loaded where I'm pretty sure I've gotten near 60C in the past. (Can't directly compare though because I'm not sure if that was at the same voltage and clock speeds)

One thing that I do know for sure is that the differences between all of the cores is much closer. It used to be cores 0 and 1 were always 5C higher than cores 2 and 3. Most of the time now Core 0 is 1C higher than Core 1, and Core 1 was about 1C higher than Cores 2 and 3. So it's usually 2C - 3C between all 4 cores, and they can get to within 1 degree of each other.

Overall I'd say it was probably worth it, but if I do it again I'm going to get some better 150 grit paper and hopefully it will go faster. :) Now I need to see if I can OC higher :D

[Bman212121]

Well I guess I'll just talk to myself... :p

I got my Q6600 to 3.6ghz (400 x 9) but I couldn't keep it P95 stable. I upped the voltage to 1.48 but even then it was having issues. So I just backed it off to 3.51 (395 x 9). It primed for a while but when I came back to check on it I had a nice big BSOD. So I just went down some more and I'm currently running it at 3.42GHz.

Here is a pic for once, so you don't need to read.

http://i37.tinypic.com/2exr34l.jpg

I think it's set to 1.4625V in BIOS, and it is pencil modded for VDroop.

When I have more time I'll try to make sure it's stable and figure out what else I need to make it run at higher clocks.

[bob saget]

pro :wonder:

[CaptNKILL]

I lapped my Ultra Extreme too. :)

I didn't do the IHS on my E6750, but my temps are so awesome I didn't need to. I'm idling at 28C right now with 1.5v and a 933Mhz overclock. I think my temps top out at around 50-52C under dual prime95.

I could probably squeeze another 200Mhz out of this thing if it wasn't for the "vdroop" problem. I'm just not comfortable running this chip at 1.55v or higher to compensate for the voltage drops under load.

[Bman212121]

lemme see if I can find you a pencil mod. I've looked at it before but this was the first time I decided to do it. The 780i board is ridiculously easy. It's literally take a pencil, find one resistor that's near the CPU_fan plug and draw on it for 5 seconds. My voltage was dropping from like 1.42V to 1.372V without the mod. With it it's more like 1.414V under load.

http://vr-zone.com/articles/Gigabyte_P35-DS3R_Intel_Bearlake_Review/4966-10.html

If that's not the exact same revision I might be able to find another link.

http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=190342&page=2

There is one on here is might also work. Sounds like that first one might make it worse not better.

EDIT: Yea it sounds like the 2nd one works, and the first might not work well. Did some more reading on XS and it sounds like a pencil won't be able to do the trick, you need either a conductive pen or solder. http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=142340&highlight=DS3R+vdroop&page=97

I probably wouldn't worry about it then. :(

[EciDemon]

Been thinking of doing some lapping as well,
With the cooler I use temps never got over 50c even at really low rpm (12.5-25%) when running 3.2ghz.

Now I bumped it up to 3.6, fan is set to keep cpu at 50c and will easily hit 50c when I run cpu stress tests.

[methimpikehoses]

I've been thinking about trying to lap my quad and my tuniq. The tuniq has always been a bit concave, and I bet I could get better temps If I lapped it. Any good guides out there?

[mullet]

Good job Bman!!!! Nice temps.

[Bman212121]

I've been thinking about trying to lap my quad and my tuniq. The tuniq has always been a bit concave, and I bet I could get better temps If I lapped it. Any good guides out there?

Here is a pretty straight forward guide.

http://www.techsupportforum.com/content/Hardware/Articles/150.html

Really it doesn't take a lot of fancy things to do it, the biggest thing is the time and effort. I've seen several methods of how to sand the cpu, which I mainly did figure 8's and then finished off with some back and forth motions, turning the cpu 90 degrees after a few passes.

The main thing is make sure you have a clean flat surface, preferably glass because it is one of the most flat things you have. I got some of my sand paper at our local hardware store, and some of the other at the automotive store. I'd probably suggest using 3 or 4 different grits like 150 or 200, 400 or 600, 1000, 1500. If you really want it to shine then you could use 2500.

jAkUp has a pretty good picture of what he used to lap his i7. He used a marble counter top and it came out better than mine IMO. I didn't go quite as far with all of the paper, but the end result still came out pretty good.

I also loosely followed these guides. http://www.overclockersclub.com/guides/lapping/
http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=105586
I'm not overly crazy about wetting down the sandpaper and using soap on my processor, so I just left it dry.

Good job Bman!!!! Nice temps.

Thanks :)

[methimpikehoses]

Cool, thanks. I'm going to be moving my stuff over to another case soon so I might as well try it out. ;)

[EciDemon]

Thanks for the link Bman, turns out the cnps9700 nt is already lapped (i didn't even remember) So I only have to do cpu :)

[Toss3]

Yeah lap dances are nice.. :bleh:

[hemmy]

Been thinking of doing some lapping as well,
With the cooler I use temps never got over 50c even at really low rpm (12.5-25%) when running 3.2ghz.

Now I bumped it up to 3.6, fan is set to keep cpu at 50c and will easily hit 50c when I run cpu stress tests.

50 is practically paradise, not an issue at all

[breathemetal]

Before I sell this rig to a friend I may just go ahead and do some lapping.
I wouldnt mind seeing a few degrees of better temps :)

This Zalman I have on it doesnt do a great job anyways, I may just lap that too.

[grey_1]

lemme see if I can find you a pencil mod. I've looked at it before but this was the first time I decided to do it. The 780i board is ridiculously easy. It's literally take a pencil, find one resistor that's near the CPU_fan plug and draw on it for 5 seconds. My voltage was dropping from like 1.42V to 1.372V without the mod. With it it's more like 1.414V under load.

http://vr-zone.com/articles/Gigabyte_P35-DS3R_Intel_Bearlake_Review/4966-10.html

If that's not the exact same revision I might be able to find another link.

http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=190342&page=2

There is one on here is might also work. Sounds like that first one might make it worse not better.

EDIT: Yea it sounds like the 2nd one works, and the first might not work well. Did some more reading on XS and it sounds like a pencil won't be able to do the trick, you need either a conductive pen or solder. http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=142340&highlight=DS3R+vdroop&page=97

I probably wouldn't worry about it then. :(

I think you are looking for rear window defroster repair kits. I think it's a Permatex brand. Usually at any auto parts store. Google around your favorite enthusiasts forums, I bet you see it mentioned.

Nice job on the lapping btw. I need to quit being lazy and get my Ultima 90 done.

[Bman212121]

Heh, that could be. I actually need to goto get one of those rear window defroster kits anyway to use it for it's intended purpose. :p

[grey_1]

Heh, that could be. I actually need to goto get one of those rear window defroster kits anyway to use it for it's intended purpose. :p

It's fate. :p

[jcrox]

Lapping really can make a nice difference. My E6600 with my very modest HSF idles at 23-25c (keep in mind it's -4F outside right now) @ 3.4GHz where prior to lapping I was idling @ 33-35c at these same settings :thumbsup:

[grey_1]

Lapping really can make a nice difference. My E6600 with my very modest HSF idles at 23-25c (keep in mind it's -4F outside right now) @ 3.4GHz where prior to lapping I was idling @ 33-35c at these same settings :thumbsup:

That's not bad at all J! How does the orb do under load?

[jcrox]

After 10 minutes of Orthos: 45c and 44c

[methimpikehoses]

LAPPing FTW!

I just lapped my xigmatek 1283 dark knight... stress test temps when from mid 80's to just over 60C!

Wasn't even a great lap job... just did 600 grit for about 20 minutes, then 1000 for 15 and 2000 for 10. Pretty easy, really.

[lee63]

LAPPing FTW!

I just lapped my xigmatek 1283 dark knight... stress test temps when from mid 80's to just over 60C!

Wasn't even a great lap job... just did 600 grit for about 20 minutes, then 1000 for 15 and 2000 for 10. Pretty easy, really.
Did you lap your 920 ?

[nekrosoft13]

Did you lap your 920 ?

not sure if i could do that, good CPU, what if you need warranty repair

[lee63]

not sure if i could do that, good CPU, what if you need warranty repairI guess your out of luck if it breaks.

I lapped most of my CPUs.. I'm to lazy to do my i7 right now though.

[methimpikehoses]

Did you lap your 920 ?

No, I heard that wasn't a good idea on i7's. Just the heatsink.

Can't believe the results! :cool::D