Lapping

[Blaineoliver]

If you pierce the heatpipe you cause the liquid inside to escape, meaning it works at a fraction of the effectiveness of normal.

[matty-hodgson]

If you pierce the heatpipe you cause the liquid inside to escape, meaning it works at a fraction of the effectiveness of normal.

heatpipes have liquid in?

[Pob255]

heatpipes have liquid in?

Yep that's how they work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pipe

The liquid inside boils, changing state from liquid to gas, allows it to absorb far more heat than as a liquid.
The vapor moves up the pipe away from the heat source, and condenses releasing the heat it absorbed.
The liquid is then carried back by cappilary action back to the heat source, normally via a wick inside the pipe or by a powdered or ridged inside surface of the tube.

If you pierce the heatpipe you cause the liquid inside to escape, meaning it works at a fraction of the effectiveness of normal.

That's an understatement, once a heatpipe is pierced it's basically useless what little heat it conducts is but conduction and they are not thick enough/have enough mass to conduct any serious amount of heat.

[Professor Frink]

I didn't bother in the end.

Never knew about the liquid inside.

[Lozza81]

Does anyone know of a place in the UK which does a professional lapping for you?
One were you send it away to them in the post, perhaps and they do it by machining and then send it back to you?
I am thinking of doing my Thermalright 120 extreme 1366 RT myself, but I would prefer not to do the processor myself.
Also I assume lapping the CPU voids the Intel 3-year warranty?

[Pob255]

yep, the moement you lap you void the warranty.

[frazered]

kustompcs do a lapping service

i bought a lapping kit off ebay

[amjedm]

Does anyone know of a place in the UK which does a professional lapping for you?

Chilled PC do a lapping service - http://www.chilledpc.co.uk/shop/prod...roducts_id=130

They also lap CPUs.

We have had many requests for CPU lapping, yes we can perform this service with great success. Do not hesitate to contact us if you want that Conroe lapped .

[Lozza81]

Their pricing isn't bad, it seems only slightly more than buying a lapping kit with glass.

[amjedm]

Their pricing isn't bad, it seems only slightly more than buying a lapping kit with glass.

I've only ordered one thing from them (some blow hole trim), delivery was quick and service excellent.

[iranu]

You dont really get grades past 1500 that easily. I got a wet and dry kit that went uptio 1200. Didnt see much past that.

Yes you don't really need to go past 1200 grit. The KustomPC/Chilled PC kit goes upto 2500 but that's a bit ridiculous because you don't really notice it until you start to polish. Infact 2500 can sometimes look duller than 1200. (Also beware the difference between USA grit standard and European - I talk in European which seems to be what everyone else is doing).

At work we only ever go upto 1200 grit then start the polishing process (unless there are problems) usually with 5µm (5 micron) diamond paste and then 1µm for metallographic examination. (and 0.5µm alumina powder for some titaniums/nickel based super alloys if you are being flash).

I've used quality silver polish using a lint free cloth on a piece of glass to see how good a DIY finish I could get and it was pretty good around 5µm by my eye i.e I could start to see grain boundaries due to the polish etching the surface slightly (and a bit of relief) a bit like Brasso does although Brasso will leave scratches.

You can buy diamond paste on ebay for peanuts. I still laugh at how much all of my work labs throughout the last ten years spend on the stuff from Struers/Buehler. We could probably cut our costs by 1/2 to a 1/3 by cutting out our own grinding paper from sheet and getting independent sources for diamond paste.

edit: Yes I've had excellent service from Chilled PC each time I've used them even for items under £5.

If you do want to go nuts (oh yes you do!) then buy cheap SiC grinding paper/wet and dry (use it on the flattest surface you have with a little water (helps to tape it down and always wash heatsink after each grade). Search ebay for "diamond paste" 5 and 1 micron, some alcohol based lube and if you can get them, two wool polishing cloths (one for each grade of paste - I half-inched mine but I have rung Struers/Buehler/Kemet and blagged a couple before! - they can be expensive depending on type, but I've seen basic ones for $40 for a pack of 10) and you can get as good a finish as I could doing it semi-manually at work given a little more time and patience.

The real test is to do it to both heatsink and cpu and then assemble without thermal paste if you have the nerve!

[Professor Frink]

There seems some noticable difference between the 1500 and 2000 grit on here