Lapping an OCZ Vendetta or Xigmatek (HDT)

[JBS]

Has anyone tried to lap an OCZ Vendetta, Xigmatek, or another cooler that uses Heatpipe Direct Touch. The base of my Vendetta is not very flat and doesn't make great contact with the CPU, and I was thinking of trying to lap it. However I am worried about possibly damaging the cooler or cracking the wall of a heatpipe.

Has anyone had luck lapping one of these coolers, or is there too high a risk the cooler could be damaged.

http://www.ocztechnology.com/p...cz_vendetta_cpu_cooler

 

[DaQuteness]

This is the exact reason why i didn't like these type of coolers from the beginning. The heat from the cooler can and will eventually make the base non-flat. Copper has a different heat expansion coeficient than aluminum, the surface will eventually be off.

I suppose you could lap it since the bottom heatpipes are flattened, thus the reason of cracking walls is somehow reduced.

I'm going to ask you something as a personal favour, can you please post a picture of the base to show it's curvature? Use a ruler or a razorblade.

Thanks.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I'll be interested in further posts on this matter. The pipes on the Vendetta seem flattened, but no guarantee that they level precisely to the bottom surface of the base, and are most likely to provide direct contact to the IHS than all parts of the base surrounding them.

But I see no problem in lapping the pipe surfaces -- as long as it doesn't remove much of the pipes' thickness.

This gets back to another thread on the Vendetta 2 and a post I made there. If any discrepancies between the surface of the base and the pipes, how might liberal application of diamond paste improve cooling? The Innovative Cooling IC-Diamond product eventually dries to a firm, rubbery consistency.

 

[laezyre]

Another concern I have is the sheer size and weight of the vendetta. With the case in an upright position, there has to be a serious amount of force pulling down on the vendetta- gravity. Over time, I wonder if that will pull it away from the surface of the cpu, which is lying 90 degrees from those gravitational forces.

 

[chuckm]

Originally posted by: laezyre
Another concern I have is the sheer size and weight of the vendetta. With the case in an upright position, there has to be a serious amount of force pulling down on the vendetta- gravity. Over time, I wonder if that will pull it away from the surface of the cpu, which is lying 90 degrees from those gravitational forces.

I don't about the Vendetta, but the Xigmatek HDT 1283 only weighs 600 grams w/fan which makes it one of the lighter HSF's.

 

[bfdd]

I'd be afraid to lap this thing unless you have a lot of experience doing so. Hell I do this kind of stuff at work all the time, but I still doubt I'd touch the hsf.

 

[Zapper48]

I used the TR 775 bolt-thru kit so no worries about falling off lol.Plus I hate those push pins.

 

[DaQuteness]

Pushpins suck hard! I have the backplate from my Tuniq, I know it fits the Xigmatek but i need to know if i need to get other screws. The base of the Tuniq is 4mm higher than the 1283 thus the screws might be taller than needed.

I've seen on a local (romanian) forum someone who claimed to have lapped a Xigmatek 1283... not sure why he did that, i don't remember Xigmatek's never had any issue concerning flatness.

Anyway, to the fun part... he said that if you try to give the base a mirror finish, only the copper heatpipes will get mirror finish, the aluminum will stay dull.

Nice thing if you want to see how you'd look behind some prison bars :laugh:

 

[BonzaiDuck]

The only thing lapping would get you with the vendetta: contact with all surfaces -- base and pipes. Use a metal straight-edge to see how close they are. If there are differences of a fraction of a mm, I doubt lapping could hurt. You just need to get an idea of how thick those pipes are, and whether you can trim off an insignificant fraction of that thickness.

But see -- here's the thing. What's better than direct contact with the pipes, even if you extend surface contact with the IHS? It's the pipes that are soldered to the fins. So I'd think better contact with the base would only reduce both idle and load temperatures by the same amount, but probably wouldn't improve the spread between idle and load.