bob808

still on 220 grit for about an hour and the mega is looking much flatter now. done with 220 finally lol.

400 and 600 grit and another razor test.

Lapping the cpu cooler took me almost 5 hours. I went slow and was careful not to tip it. It turned out pretty nice as far as I can tell

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bob808

finished lapping the Mega.

Next you can see the red led side fan with red grill and the V10 through the window.

A shot of the EVGA classified before removal.

MB removed.

Retrieving Noctua fans for the new cooler.

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bob808

replaced stock red led fans into V10.

Might as well lap my Core i7 DO while I'm at it

I taped the sandpaper down to the granite countertop after I cleaned the surface.

Well that warranty is toast lol

A shot after a bit of 220 grit

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bob808

A shot after 400/600 grits.
Lapping the CPU is much easier than lapping the cpu cooler thank goodness

Finished picture after 1000/1500 grit- looks good to me

After cleaning with Arctic Clean surface purifier, I slapped the chip back onto the MB.

OOh! They see eachother and the urge to mate is strong! (one with camera flash and one without)

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bob808

After some thermal goo, the cooler is attached. It is touching the hulking northbridge cooler

Plenty of room for the ram slots but once fans are attached, airflow thru the NB cooler is severely reduced.

well time to put it back in the HAF.

All back together

Back is a little different.

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bob808

I wasn't real happy with how the right side door turned out so I thought I would try out mocha's suggestion and distress the paint with some of my used lapping sandpaper. I like it better now

I hooked everything back up and went to bios to check temps. Not as big as improvement as I was hoping for but cpu is about 8 degrees cooler than with an unlapped cpu and unlapped V10.

But northbridge temps are unacceptable at 70-75 degrees celcius

So I turned the cooler so it blows up. It was painless. I just had to remove the fans and unscrew the 2 spring screws from the top side of the MB and then move the support bars (four thumb nuts) and re-apply thermal goo and tighten it down. I did not have to remove motherboard to change the orientation of the cooler. Booted to bios again and northbridge temps are now 58-62. Cpu temps didnt change from turning the cooler.

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bob808

So I may mess around with distressing the paint a bit more today. Real temp is reading 41-43 degrees cpu core temps at idle with a 4.0 overclock. I need to work with the voltages in bios I think to fine tune the temp. The v10 on this board was getting around 50 at idle so it may not be that bad after all (with no lapping). NB temps are much better with the cooler pointing up. One corner of the fan clip is touching the NB heatsink. It was a bit tricky getting it on lol. I'll take some screens of my bios voltage settings and maybe some one can help me do some adjusting

Jattditutti

Is that the only way you can mount the PSU? I was trying to mount it with the fan facing up, but it wouldnt fit.

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bob808

I could mount the psu on the top of the case but i like it on the bottom with the fan pointing down. It pulls cold air from below the case and exhausts directly out the back of the psu. I think if you flipped it over the mounting holes would not line up. I'm not sure why you would want to tho unless you just want to see the fan.

Jattditutti

I was trying to mount the fan facing up at first cause I thought thats how it went, but I flipped it over and now the fan is the fan is facing down.

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