So i just got a set of these used that have quite a few scratches on the heat sink. I was thinking i should lap the heat sink but it has 2 holes in the top of the heat sink. I know they don't produce much heat but still would rather a flat surface.
Can i fill those holes with 2 part epoxy so i can lap them?
How big are these "holes"? Do you mean pitting? or actual holes in the lid?
don't worry about it, they should be filled in by thermal paste fine. It won't make a huge difference to the temps from the scratches and things.
As above but it couldn't hurt to lap them a bit to reduce any raised edges around scratches assuming it's just the IHS that's scratched.
They are actual holes you can see the CPU board through the holes. According to what i find on google its for the adhesive to vent when manufactured.
I'm not worried bout thermal paste getting in the holes i use non-conductive paste. I want to seal the holes so the metal shavings while lapping wont get in the holes.
I put a straight edge on it and there are a few low spots in the heat spreader
those are supposed to be there.
It's drilled in the top to let gases escape when they "glue" the IHS to the chip. Intel has said that it is fine if thermal paste get's into the hole. It won't hurt the chip or cause it to short circuit.
I have read that. My worry is that getting metal shavings in the holes while lapping will cause it to short out.
don't do whatever you are planning to do. You DONT want to end up on the Darwin of the year award.
There is no reason to do this, just put on TIM and call it a day. there will be NO difference in temps.
TIM is designed to fill the micro grooves that are on all heat spreaders from the manufacturing process, so lapping really won't do anything.
I did put a flat edge on the top of the heat spreader and i could see light under it. surface definitely isn't flat.
Have you tried to use it anyways?
Are the temps horrible or is it overheating?
You're making a deal out of possibly nothing. Don't worry about it unless it's causing a problem.
The HS on a CPU is not supposed to be flat it's convex if I remember correctly by design.
GPU dies don't have a HS and hence have the flat polished finish.
Lapping cpus is something overclockers did to chase lower temps and in all honesty is an exercise in futility but if you must do it i think flushing the holes out with some alcohol would do the trick
I haven't tried them yet. I'm waiting on my ECC RAM to come in for the Asus Z10PE-D16 WS motherboard I'm going to be running these on. I just always check new CPU's when i get them for flatness. This is the first time i came across a CPU that (A) was concave and (B) had holes.
I decided on that board because it will let me run at the turbo clock all the time. (3.0 ghz)