Does lapping work?

[HimeNoHogosha]

I've got a coolermaster HHC-001 on top of my XP1900, and as everybody who's purchased a HHC-001 has said, the bottom surface is very rough. Check out this picture from reviewmakers. If I lapped the bottom of the HS, would it improve performance?

 

[Noid]

I lap every new HS or chipset sink I get. I havent gone as far to lap any chips though, but sometimes I think about it, cuz you can see the bumps on top of some chipsets. And even my AMD CPUs leave the 'Athon' printed on the chip imbedded into my lapped heatsinks. Which means the printed logo keeps from getting a flat mount.

The heatsink will work fine as is... but, if you have the time and patience,,, lapping can drop your temp a couple Celeius.

 

[jarsoffart]

I heard that you shouldn't lap the CPU core because it's laser cut and should be flatter than you'll ever be able to get. Lapping the heatsink should be fine.

 

[Fallen Kell]

*nods in agreement about CPU's not being lapped*

They are laser cut, but if they have been printed on, they will not be absolutly flat, because the printing will raise the surface even a few molecules higher then the rest of the chip (has to be a least one molecule thick, but I don't know of ANY cost effective printing/painting techniques that are only one molecule).

That being said, you might be able to clean the printing off the chip using other means other then lapping.