Heatsink Lapping

[lynx]

Most metal polishes work by filling the microscopic pits in the metal surface.

These are the very pits that you need to be filled by the thermal compound, so it can't work properly if you've already filled them with metal polish.

What you really need is some proper lapping compound.
Apply this directly to the glass sheet, and repeat as before.

Ideally you should also do this with the processor, it's no good having a shiny heatsink if the surface of processor cap is like a mountain range.

I think it's been said before, but none of the above is actually lapping.

Theoretically the final process should be to match the processor to the heatsink - this is true lapping. Personally though I reckon that stage is probably a waste of time.

[S!X]

Theoretically the final process should be to match the processor to the heatsink - this is true lapping. Personally though I reckon that stage is probably a waste of time.

I did see someone who posted their results on a forum from CPU lapping and apparently the temp drop was about 10 degrees. I can't seem to find that link in google anymore though Even if it pays off that much who the hell can be bothered with that? I'd imagine it'd be quite a delicate and time consuming process because any screw ups could cost you dearly.

[lynx]

I don't see why you would make a mistake doing that, or what sort of mistake.

If I did it, I'd push the pins into a block of expanded polystyrene foam or similar, to protect the pins and give a better grip.

I doubt whether you would see a change of anything like 10C though, unless you were talking about the complete process and you started off with particularly poor examples of both cpu and heatsink.

I think this is probably the review you were thinking about. Notice that it is a slot 1 processor. The original cooling on those was pretty abysmal in the first place. Simply dismantling and re-assembling with decent paste would probably have given quite a temperature drop. Notice also that the 10C drop is actually only 8C, nice bit of rounding there.