Lapping a waterblock

nealkochhar

1. How do you do it?
2. Why do you do it?

Whas

you use a series of coarse to fine grit sandpaper on the bottom, until there is a nice smooth shiny surface.

doing this will aid in lower temps.

nealkochhar

Then consider it done!! I'll be damned if I can't utilize my precious memory to the max! I'm not sleeping till I hit 4ghz!

Jay D.

Do you really need to lap a block? I mean don't they come smooth?

I thought you only did it on cheap heatsinks that have manufacturing grooves.

breanliss

it just gets rid of any small holes that air can stay in

Duke3d87

Its $15 but this is a good kit: http://www.highspeedpc.com/Merchant2...tegory_Code=OC it has sandpaper that allows you to sand down the the 10th micron

Dugoth

Don't just do it by hand or something though, get yourself a pane of glass or something equally smooth and flat and lay the sandpaper on top and make sure it's flat to the glass. Then set the waterblock on top of the paper and, without pressing down, slide it up and down about 10 times, giving it a quarter turn each some, then check the wear. Do this a couple times, then go to a finer grit paper and repeat the process. I think the reccomended grits are something like 600 (coarse), then 1200, then 2000 grit for the process to get a mirror like finish. There are some arguments for using your CPU rather then the sheet of glass (and vice versa, using the waterblock) so that they will mate even better but I think the challenge of doing that properly negates any minor improvement you might get, and it may require a liquid/paste type grit to accomplish rather then paper. You really shouldn't need to do it for most of the highend waterblocks though and, in some cases, if the company that made the waterblock processed it to a very fine flatness lapping can actually be a detriment rather then an improvement.

rasputinschild

I would just look into getting a differant waterblock. Even if the kit does what its supposed to flawlessly human error will never fail. Its hella much easier to just get a good block.

nealkochhar

Nah I'll keep mine. It's a Danger Den RBX so I highly doubt it's low end.

Paladindjinn

You still don't understand, lapping is a huge thing one mistake and your block is gonna loose alot of heat absorbtion. It's not for the beginner. You should have had at least 10 succesful trials before attempting something your going to use.

robotguy9000

yeah i wuld reccomend getting a kit.

nealkochhar

Nah forget it. I checked and it's mirror-like so I'm good. I just replaced the accelerator nozzle

lethal_dosage

yes i would say never lap a heatsink or waterblock if you paid about $50 for it. It should be good without lapping it.

Duke3d87

if you get the kit you wont screw it up. The kit comes with everything you need to get your CPU perfactly flat. And if there are still valleys, thats that AS3/5 is for.

robotguy9000

ah!, good point, dukey!

breanliss

what i dont under stand what is the point in it when as (artic silver) is going to go right under it anyway ive heard its to get air ubbles out but how could it hurt it that bad anyway

robotguy9000

wow dude, i cant even read that.

breanliss

what cant you read about it

robotguy9000

ah, never mind, i just got a little confuzzeled. but yeah, arctic silver will fill them in. but the less, the better.!

Duke3d87

most likely becuase if you have too much AS5 then it acts like an insulator? I dont know, but it think solid copper is better then using silver flakes...that might be the reason.