firestormcomputers

Like many have said, water blocks are better with an indented surface (air pocket is good with water). But, on air it is best to have a flat surface.

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c5pilot

I don't buy into all the small temp change claims by people lapping to a mirror finish. The same small temp differences can be attributed to better or worse TIM applications every time you reseat your block. You can do a nice lap job and then get a bad TIM application and lose more than you gained as described in this thread. I lapped my CPU because let's face it, Intel knows how to build chips, but they aren't anywhere near flat.

My advice,... If you like your temps, leave well enough alone. If you just can't sleep at night knowing your block isn't shiny underneath, please seek professional help... you'll need it later for more important things that arise in the real world.

Tell tale sign something's wrong: If you're girlfriend/wife walks into the room and says, you spend more time lapping that block than lapping... Well, you've got issues.

typoknig

How did you know my GF said that to me?! I actually do want lower temps, and lapping can get you a degree or two here or there, but I am not prepared to void the warranty on any of my products. IMO my GF should be able to look into the bottom of my HK 3.0 to put her make-up on. A high quality item like the HK 3.0 should look better, but maybe it *looks* rough on the bottom because of the machine process needed to make it convex.

And I figure I'll just add this in here to save someone a post, the HK 3.0 I have IS convex. I have put two straight edges on it (not razor blades, real straight edges) and the middle sticks out further towards the processor than the edges. I didn't break out a feeler gauge to see by how much, but I could see light around the edges for sure.

Juggalo23451

I have the heatkiller performs great. It is all about how flat it is. Not how shiny it is....

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typoknig

Flatness is what I am concerned about, but shiny = flat. If you lay a piece of 50 grit sand paper and a piece of 2000 grit sand paper out onto a completely flat surface, both of those pieces of sand paper will be close to flat, but the grit represents surface deviations, which there is less of on a piece of 2000 grit sand paper. Same reason you use a high grit sand paper when reaching the end of polishing or lapping something, and it just happens that when you get done with that 2000+ grit sand paper that the metal item you were sanding on is shiny... and flat

Brutuz

Stuff can be shiny but not flat...

Flat = Flat, Shiny = Shiny, Flat =/= Shiny.

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Juggalo23451

As I said it does not matter about it being shiny if you lap a cpu or heatsink you only need to go up to 800 anything higher than is just a bonus to make it shiny and no performance gain really at all

The hk is number one for a reason..
http://www.overclock.net/water-cooli...blocks-i7.html

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Cosmos S w/Classified water cooled(1st) w/ heatkiller and feser 360 rad
NZXT Tempest mod log(360 installed) (Fiance Build)
Heatkiller Club
NZXT Tempest User Community
Xbox 360 mods thread
http://www.overclock.net/xbox/435678...dders-out.html

cooper_inc1

I still can't quite understand why it matters for the *bottom* of a block to be shiny. That "shine" is going to be ruined with some burnt on TIM anyways, so what is the big deal? Shine has nothing to do with flatness which leads to it having nothing to do with temperature performance.

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typoknig

Ok, I think there is confusion. Let me use another analogy. We have all see circus mirrors. A circus mirror is made of glass and it is smooth on the outside, but it has a big wave in it which makes it not flat. The same is true with a processor, heat sink, or anything else you polish or lap. If the shiner something is the smoother it is. And even though smoothness does not equal complete flatness of the item in question, smoothness does mean that an item is flat in a very, very isolated area. Althought the performance increase due to shine/smoothness is negligable (if even noticeable at all) there is still a difference.

cooper_inc1

And my point is, if that difference is negligible as you stated for a part of the block that you DON'T see, then why does it matter?

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