Lapping My OCZ Gladiator

[Badbry]

i have a OCZ Copper Gladiator,And I Am Afraid I Am Gonna Take Too Much Off.can Someone With Experience Please help Me Out?

Thanks,
Bryan

 

[PlatinumGold]

have you tried it yet? try it first w/o lapping? that's what asII is supposed to do. I really don't think you need to lap this hs unless there is a very large dent or it isn't flat. i know w/ my gladiator it was flat and didn't have any large grooves.

If you do choose to lap it, don't lap it too smoothly. if you get it too smooth than it becomes like bare threaded tires on wet road, there is no contact between the hs and the core and you end up w/ results worse than before you lapped it.

lapping in my opinion is waaaayy over rated.

 

[bacillus]

look here for some lapping advice!

 

[HardwareAddicted]

I don't mean to stir things up, but the smoother you get that HS, the better.

You can only help your system stability and cooling by ensuring that you will have good contact with the CPU.

You will use less Arctic Silver and will have more metal to metal....this is a good thing!!

Be aware that if you are going to use a HS that has the embedded copper, start with a high grit.

You don't want to take too much of the copper off...I'd say start with 1000 wet and go to 1500 or 2000.

Some cheaper HS need to get lapped at a lower grit as they are very uneven and step up to 1000, 1500, 2000.

But if you have the copper or just a pretty flat HS, start a little higher...it's less work too.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[SDOG34]

if you want to make sure that you dont take off too much, cover the surface with black magic marker. then lap away until you have removed it all. this will also easily show you how concave or convex your surface is. hope this helps!

 

[PlatinumGold]

hardware addict


lapping is only good if you choose not to use ASII and if your core is perfectly lapped also.

think for a second, if you lapp then put asII between the two surfaces what happens? even if you just put the thinnest layer of ASII on their it will all pool up in the area that is farthest from each other (makes least contact between core and hs), if this happens then the asII will actually act as an insulater not what you want.

by lapping i guess what i'm referring to is polishing, so that you have a mirror shine.

i think your better off lapping so that it leaves a slightly gritty surface that way the asII finds its way into the cracks and acts to allow better contact between the HS and the core.

check this link.

Particularly this quote

"Basically with a polished sink, you'll never put a thin enough coat of H/S compound on it for it all to be expelled, given the relatively limited pressure you can apply. So what is key to achieving optimum thermal conductivity is a high aluminium to CPU contact - micropeaks and perfect flatness will ensure that you achieve that. Try using only up to 600 paper on your heatsinks, no finer."

 

[LASHER555ZX]

CUSL2
P!!!800@1GHZ CCO 1.7v
OCZ GLADIATOR/DELTA/ASII/60mm Y.S.TECH FAN PVC DUCT ON PLEXIGLASS SIDEPANEL AND 92mm FAN FOR PROPHET GFMX @200/200.

ROOM @28c

IDLE @32c
LOAD @38c
MOBO @30c

I didn't lap my "GLADIATOR". I put a razor blade to the HS base and it was flat. The reason i didn't lap is because u need some small "RIDGES & VALLEYS" on ur HS so that "ASII" can fill the gaps and make good contact with cpu. Too flat and sometimes it just like "pancakes" on the HS probaly sealing rather than letting cool off effectively. I used a razor blade when i applied the ASII. A really thin amount is all u need. Just my 2 cents

 

[HardwareAddicted]

PlatinumGold

You have a good point here, and this was a good read. I find this interesting.

But I must say that 600 grit looks to be way too course for me...

I believe that if you were to get a "polished" HS, you would get the condition described...poor cooling.

But I have tried, and and have had good results with going up to 2000 wet on my HSF combos....

So much if fact that many now come to me for this reason...

But I am not getting a mirror finish here as you might expect...just a flat, burnished look.
( It does appear to be more mirror like if you look at it at an angle though. )

So thank you for the thought provoking info.

I for one will be trying a few tests soon on this very thing....

I mean, I guy could go from 600, give results, go to 800, give results... all the way to 2000.
In this way, I guy could find the "sweet spot" for lapping.

My only reservation would be that 600 is this "sweet spot"....

I think it would be alot higher.

Thx again, H-A out

 

[PlatinumGold]

H-A

no problem.

Bottom line is, i'm not sure that lapping would make a significant difference w/ my Gladiator. I know that I have a pretty good finish on it. it's flat therefore i'm not convinced that lapping it would be worth the effort and that's all i was really trying to say to badbry.

your probably right about finding a sweet spot. I'm just too lazy to go thru the effort.

 

[WildeBeast]

My gladiator has a lot of ridges, and easily viewable. I am going to lap from 220 to 320 to 420, all wet. I am concerned that it may be either concave or convex, so gotta find out. Can't do any serious damage though. What do you think of my plan? BTW, I am using AS2 and a YSTech 27CFM instead of the delta, too damn noisy. Unfortunately I don't have a thermistor on the CPU, can I add one?

 

[WildeBeast]

Also, copper and silver are nearly identical in their thermal conductivity, so I don't think it matters whether it is AS2 or the copper itself touching the die, as long as somehting is touching every part of the die (thus we have thermal paste).

 

[PlatinumGold]

wildebeast, silver yes, goop no.

the asII goop can act as thermal insulater. check various posts on this.

 

[WildeBeast]

I am trying to find a way to find my procesors heat on my motherboard, it doesn't appear to support that feature. I have a thermistor thing, but it came with another motherboard. I am currently using an AZ11 with pretty much no features . Is there some way to use the thermistor and via HM? I don't want to install the gladiator until I can see heat specs.

 

[LASHER555ZX]

Digital Doc 5 maybe? it has two flat thermistors. So ur mobo has no way of sensing heat output on any part of ur mobo? I use a CUSL2 and it has heat monitoring onboard with internal cpu diode so i know my temp all the time. I don't know why AMD mobo co's omit this especailly the "HEAT" AMD chips produce. I've only seen MSI with one in the middle of the socket on mobo but, this is a new mobo coming out soon.(mp mobo w/nforce i believe)

 

[WildeBeast]

Yeah I figure I am going to buy the EP-8K7A without raid for 130 no shipping costs. That has temp monitoring and overclockability.

 

[LASHER555ZX]

I lapped my GLADIATOR with 600 grit only and it smoothed it out some more but, to no avail temps are the same. I expected that though and not upset about it cause this HS still "KICKS ASS" when controlling higher temp loads. My temps come down quickly as well. I was curious.

P!!!800@1GHZ
OCZ GLADIATOR/DELTA/ASII/PVC DUCT

 

[WildeBeast]

I refuse to use the delta, so I bought a YStech 27CFM. What do you think ofusing that alone, or even better, somehow attaching two thinner fans along the side. Also, when I set it to suck away air, it doesn't seem to move and air into the bottom of the heatsink (I haven't installed it yet. Even the delta didn't seem to suck much. What config would work best?

 

[PlatinumGold]

wildebeast

i strongly recommend you use another hs if your going to use the lower capacity fan.

I haven't seen any real reviews done on it, but i'm pretty sure that you'll find that lower capacity fans do way better on aluminum hs than on copper hs.

copper just holds the heat more than aluminum does, so in order to get good cooling you really need the higher capacity fan.

in particular this is true of the Gladiator because of the thin fin design.

one thing that i'm playin w/ right now is using 2 80 mm 26 cfm fans at about a 60 degree angle to each other blowing down on a WBK hs. I got the idea from one of someone on these boards (sorry I can't remember who it was). the idea is that if you use 2 fans u can eliminate that mid dead zone.

PM me if this sounds interesting to you.

also 2 80 mm fans are extremely quiet.

 

[WildeBeast]

Yeah, I am sure that there is a perfectly good solution to this problem that doesn't require another $40 pruchase and won't include a delta fan. Because the gladiator is so small, I can fit extra fans on the sides (although I don't know how). You are correct that the 80mm's would be quiet (probably 30CFM at near silent) so I want to do that. Do you think that would provide better cooling (with a YSTech on top as well) than the delta alone? We are talking 3 fans, over double the airflow, so we goota be able to do something rigvht? I already sspent an hour lapping (not too fine though) the sink, and spent 30 bucks on it, and it is a fine sink too, so I want to max it's utility. How should I put those fans on (15mm max i think, on most mobos...)

 

[PlatinumGold]

wildebeast

the gladiator is unique because of the way that it clips on the cpu.

if you look at the fins, the openings or the airflow will go out the top and bottom of the HS when you stand you case up.

so here are my thoughts on this hs. if you can funnel a fan to push air up the bottom and another fan to pull the air out the top. (by bottom and top i'm referring to where the clip sticks out the top and bottom of the HS) than you would be very good airflow going over the most important parts of the HS. or a variation on this would be to have the fan that your going to put on the fan push air down over the fins and two fans pulling air out the top and bottom.

 

[WildeBeast]

Wow that sounds like a really good idea, although I still would want to have the YSTech on the top, but maybe it should suck instead (i would be comfortable with the blowing away if and only if the other fans were blowing across. Now the only final problem before we perfect air cooling is this: What is the best way to attach these fans? I think that we have about 15mm clearance on the average mobo, so are there 80mm by 15mm fans? Maybe AS thermal epoxy would work, that stuff is good, I guess any high temp glue would suffice. Then we would have to make sure that the air flow was consitent and without turbulence. Watcha think?

 

[PlatinumGold]

wildebeast,

how bout those Video card cooler fans?? they seem narrow enough??

 

[WildeBeast]

I will measure when I get my new board, KG7 or some SiS one, but I would just use standard 80mm case fans, the narrow ones though, max 15mm probably