Is this lapped well enough?

Methious · Post by **Methious** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 12:29 pm

I got a GFXChilla for the XFX8800gt didn't like the look of the heat sink where it contacts the GPU Core so I got out the sandpaper kit, dish soap, and all the lapping stuff I have and went after it. Think it's good enough?

The inset to the right of the Quarters reflection is what it looked like before.

Post by **DMB2000uk** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 12:58 pm

You could go for shinier with finer grit, but the main thing that is important is that it is flat and smooth.

So i think it is fine

Dan

Bio-Hazard · Post by **Bio-Hazard** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 1:12 pm

Flat and smoothis what counts, doesn't matter one way or the other how shinny it is...............

ibleet · Post by **ibleet** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 1:23 pm

Looks great to me! As long as its flat and smooth you're golden.

Hitting it with a finer grit would be ideal, but the difference in temps would be negligible.

martini161 · Post by **martini161** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 2:10 pm

Bio-Hazard wrote:Flat and smoothis what counts, doesn't matter one way or the other how shinny it is...............

unless its an apogee gtx. those perform better bowed

Post by **DMB2000uk** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 2:38 pm

martini161 wrote:
Bio-Hazard wrote:Flat and smoothis what counts, doesn't matter one way or the other how shinny it is...............
unless its an apogee gtx. those perform better bowed

Care to show me some proof? Not calling you a liar or anything, just curious.

Dan

Post by **Apoptosis** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 2:45 pm

oh gawd... don't start the flat or bowed arguement!

Flat is better with a flat IHS on the CPU (lapped also) and bowed is said to be better with an unlapped CPU... We are talking 1C differences and there isn't anyone out there that has a controlled environment to do a good test of this that I have ever seen.

Since this is going on a GPU without an IHS like the 8800 Ultra, then I think it's going to perform great. Go above 2000grit if you want it really smooth, but the thermalpaste should fill in those gaps.

Bio-Hazard · Post by **Bio-Hazard** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 5:15 pm

DMB2000uk wrote:
martini161 wrote:
Bio-Hazard wrote:Flat and smoothis what counts, doesn't matter one way or the other how shinny it is...............
unless its an apogee gtx. those perform better bowed
Care to show me some proof? Not calling you a liar or anything, just curious.

Dan

Take a read over at XS forums, lots and lots of debate over there on the subject.

Effective 7-16-07 the Apogee GTX is shipped with a socket 775 motherboard back-plate to allow for a simplified "hard-mount" for this socket. The product is also now pre-assembled with the extra large o-ring, resulting in a bowed base plate configuration.

http://www.swiftech.com/products/apogee-gtx-updates.asp

Tweaking guide
During the course of our live CPU testing with the Apogee™ GT, we evidenced that overall performance of the water-block can greatly benefit (by up to 0.03°C/W) by artificially inducing a bow -or a convex shape, in the water-block base plate. Further explanations and test results are provided HERE and independent testing is beginning to validate our findings. The Apogee™ GTX is thus shipped with a spare oversized body o-ring for users who wish to optimize their own setup (see product news and updates)

Methious · Post by **Methious** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 5:19 pm

Best I had on hand was 1000 grit, going to call it good with that. The original finish you could run a finger nail across and it was like a nail file, then I ran a razor blade across it and it wasn't flat. Now with the razor blade test it's flat.

To get the shine I use Jewelers Rouge, I inherited from a neighbor who used to be a jeweler.

ibleet · Post by **ibleet** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 11:36 pm

Razor blade test for flatness is about as good as it gets. As Apop said, the remaining micro-sized imperfections will be filled in by the thermal compound.

I spread it on with a coffee filter and rub it in a circular motion each way. You can see a slight haze where the compound fills in the small cracks.

Methious · Post by **Methious** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 11:07 am

I use a Baggie on the finger, with my luck some fiber from the filter would get caught in there. If I'm handling stuff a lot I use surgical gloves. $5 bucks a box of a hundred from a cooperative Hospital I so a little work for.

10 for a buck at the Dollar Store.

bmaverick · Post by **bmaverick** » Sat Apr 12, 2008 8:59 am

ibleet wrote:Razor blade test for flatness is about as good as it gets. As Apop said, the remaining micro-sized imperfections will be filled in by the thermal compound.

I spread it on with a coffee filter and rub it in a circular motion each way. You can see a slight haze where the compound fills in the small cracks.

That sounds just about right. Keeping it smooth and flat. There has been some debate that a mirror like finish actually hinders a grade of performance since the thermal paste isn't mingled in the micron pores of the copper. That being said, your polished effort is great where it stands for performance. Don't go any further.

Methious · Post by **Methious** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 9:16 am

I got the GFXChilla lapped and strapped on. Ran tests with it for about 5 hours last night.

Lapped it does as well as the stock cooler while the stock cooler is running the fan at 100%. Highest I got temp wise on the 8800gt running a half hour stress test 3 times was 55c.

That's with stock fans on the GFX chilla, and I have the XFX8800gt with the upgraded fan and shroud, the best cooling they put on an XFX8800gt.

I tested with the stock cooler running the fan at 100% and I'm sure a lot of you know how noisy that is. The GFXChilla matched it's performance but was whisper quiet. It idled the same as the Stock cooler around 42C.

I still have one test to run with the stock fans, then I'll put the upgraded 80mm dual fans on it and rerun the tests. If you don't mind making a little effort lapping, or have a non-adjustable fan for $30 it's pretty decent. Most of them though you can't install the ram sinks on the top two memory chips. I OCed the card with the ram sinks off the top two and the air flow from the fans keep them cool. I got no artifacts in three stress runs at 680/955. Max on this card has been 710/980 in more than one test, after that I got artifacts. Later I'll see if that has changed and get back.

I suspect it might have changed some because the stock coolers heat tape didn't cover a couple of the chips completely, and one piece of heat tape wasn't even touching a ram chip. The mosfets weren't covered at all, now their sinked so I'm hoping for a little better OC.

stopthekilling77 · Post by **stopthekilling77** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 1:05 pm

nice temps

got pics?

Methious · Post by **Methious** » Fri Apr 18, 2008 6:25 pm

Yup got a whole mess of pics, got more temps from the upgraded fans too.

Unfortunately I'm right in the middle of rebuilding QuadZilla from an Asus P5K-E to an Asus P5KC. Now why would a guy do that? Some DDR3 12800 I gonna have to clock the poop out of to reach it's potential.

6 hours into the rebuild and windows is finishing loading.

martini161 · Post by **martini161** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 9:28 am

ddr3 is getting cheaper now.

im tempted to upgrade more and more. let us know if you think theres a tangible performance boost in stuff like games and every day stuff, cause if its just benchys that get an improvement then im gonna have to wait until theyve got sub $100 2 gb kits. saw a coarsair 2gb one for 110 on the egg in the last newsletter

Methious · Post by **Methious** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 9:41 am

To early to tell yet on the DDR3, of course I had to back off the OC but at 2.4 GHZ XP is loading faster, going point to point faster. I only had a couple of hours with it. Benches are ok, but I don't use them for my evaluations. With me it's more of how it feels running with benches to see if I'm moving in the right direction tweaking.

Alathald · Post by **Alathald** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 3:35 pm

Just out of curiousity, since we're on RAM, what's the best frequency of DDR3, price vs performance wise? Like how DDR2 800 is the usual suspect for DDR2...

Methious · Post by **Methious** » Sat Apr 19, 2008 4:56 pm

I haven't really done much checking on DDR3 prices out side this range, DDR3 12800 and I've seen $588 down to $250 for a 2 gig kit.

I haven't checked on the price of this kit.

I have got it running at 1600 stable on the Q6600 running at 3.2 FSB 400 multiplier 8. Had to drop the multiplier and raise the FSB on this board to get it to that. Running above 7400 MB/s bandwidth in Sisoft Sandra at 7-7-6-18 1.9v.

Ran the Mushkin at every speed between 800 and1600. Up until 1600 it ran fine at 1.5v then at the rated speed it wanted volts. I got the screenies saved but I still gt a little work to do before I can upload stuff.

I can tell you that windows is loadingmuch quicker, and point to point say desktop to Control panel there's barely half a blink of time.

martini161 · Post by **martini161** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 3:58 pm

hmm looks like my next mobo will be a ddr3 one. i might not notice it much though, considering i just upgraded from a p4 2.4 ghz with 1gb of ddr ram and a 4200rpm drive im still havent gotten the stars outa my eyes from this new system

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