Mirror mirror !!!!!!!!!!

[Abarbarian]

Well I got tired of snowballing.

So I thought what can I do.


An above is the result of me afternoons labour.

Why on earth did Thermalright cover up that nice copper base ? You can see the silver covering disapearing bit by bit.The pic with the cpu in the box shows if you look closely, a high spot right in the middle of the cpu cover. The rest of the cpu pics did not turn out well. Apart from the finished ones. The pic with the tap is in cos I did the final lapping with 2500 paper with a steady stream of running water splashing on the paper to wash away any small impurities. The finish is not too bad me thinks. Gave them a real good brushing under running water with a toothbrush to make sure that no metal deposits were left behind. Now just have to wait for the sods to dry of thoroughly so I can build me pc.

 

[Madxgraphics]

Looks all good...Did you do a before temp check, sort of to see how much of a difference it makes after the lapping hass been done..I noticed a bottle of Fairy Liquid in the back ground..That comes in quite handy when doing any sort of fine polishing like that..Also I think the reason its covered in silver, is to stop the copper oxidizing...As we know it can happen pretty quickly..And I think it could happen if your machine was off for any length of time...Not a nice thing really..

 

[Waynos_Face]

Niccccccce!

Looks good mate, is that the thermalrite cooler, the 120?

 

[Abarbarian]

For Max,

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTU3MywxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

Did use a drop of Fairy at every stage of lapping and not too much water, as the ground finnings and Fairy combine loosely to provide a paste which can help to make the job a little easier.
No before temp check as it is a replacement cpu and I could not be bothered to fit it and unfit then fit it again. Mind you I'm gona be up the creek if it don't work, no chance of a RMA.

WF it is indeed a Thermalright 120 Extreme, six heat pipes up each side. Worked like a fridge on me 4800.

 

[Waynos_Face]

YEah its suposed to be the Air Cooler to beat at the moment, so whats your build gonna have in it then ????

YOu reckon its gonna get 30fps in Crysis?

 

[Abarbarian]

Course I will. At 800 x 600 on very low settings.

 

[Madxgraphics]

For Max,

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTU3MywxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==

DOH! Well there goes my theory out the window then..

 

[Abarbarian]

DOH! Well there goes my theory out the window then..

Well you were sort of right , folks have been having problems with copper heatsinks.

http://www.forumapex.com/heatsinks_fans/34629-oxidisation_on_copper_heatsink_fins.html

 

[floppybootstomp]

Nice job, oh Barbarious one

 

[Abarbarian]

Ta flops. It was a bit tricky with the 120 being so big and sort of clumsy with such a small base. Found the best way was to let the thing just glide across the paper with very little pressure aplied, fingertip control.Time taken was around one and a half hours, from finding the paper and glass to fully cleaned up.
Haven't a clue how much difference it will make but at least I will have the best me cooler can give.

Its my effort towards a greener planet. Every drop in temps means a frction of a watt less used so in a few millon years I'll have saved the planet.

 

[Abarbarian]

Phew thank goodness fitted the cooler and cpu and everything works.

Used Core Temp and with a room temp of 23 C I'm getting 6 C and 9 C at idle with the two cores. Is Core Temp accurate for Athlon 64 X2 5600+ AM2 cpus. Seems pretty low to me.

 

[Abarbarian]

Well I finally got around to doing a cpu upgrade. I bought a second hand Phenom 965 for £47 inc post of flea bay and decided to lap it to try and obtain the coolest temps I could as I knew it would run hotter than my old 5600. I know I will not have the best performance as I am on a AM2 mobo but hopefully I will be able to play some of my newer games in all their graphical glory. I am thinking of Skyrim and Crisis 2 here, I'm a tad behind the times here in the wilds.

Here is the lapping dancing tale.

As your hand makes them small circular motions at an increasing speed, you feel tremors running down your legs and shaking your hips, you are getting into the zone. That almost inaudible grainy swoosh as it slithers and slides across the wet dripping paper, the high notes as it swishes across a well worn part, the lower slower grainier semi stuttering on a virgin area, all making sweet music to your ears.
Stopping and standing still to wipe and gaze. Your image becoming clearer at every stop.
Until finally you see a smile beaming back at you. Journeys end.
A nicely lapped cpu.

First picture is not as clear as I would like but you can still see it is in a as bought at the shop and used once condition.



A couple of stops later.



After 8 different grades of wet paper, 400 through to 2500. The finished polished cpu.Would have been nice to have used some jewellers grade fine paste for the final polish.Then it would have been mirror mirror on the wall.

I had a little fiddling to do but the 965 runs just fine in W7 running at speeds of 203 MHz to 3415 MHz. It will not play Metro 2033 at very high settings though.Runs nice and smooth at NORMAL and 1024x768 res, hopefully I will get better results when I finally plug in the second 460.

Arch will not let me run a governor and the cpu runs at 3415 MHz, this may be due to my wierd set up.

Results from Arch,

╰─><(((“>$ inxi -s                                                                          02/07/14
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 32.0C mobo: 34.0C gpu: 33C 
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 1355 psu: 0 sys-1: 0 sys-2: 0 sys-3: 0 sys-4: 0 

╰─><(((“>$ inxi -C                                                                          02/07/14
CPU:       Quad core AMD Phenom II X4 965 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB 
           Clock Speeds: 1: 3415 MHz 2: 3415 MHz 3: 3415 MHz 4: 3415 MHz

Was a pleasant surprise to find that my original build had lasted 6 years with no problems. If this lasts half as long I will be a happy chappy.