I got couple of new parts (pump/res combo and cpu block) to upgrade my Coolit Freezone cpu cooling unit. I had looked over my Danger Den MCP 775 cooling block and had noticed that it was not quite flat. It had a really high spot in the middle, length wise. hmmm. The block was smooth but not flat... and I believe that being flat ranks higher than smooth even though smooth is very important too.
SO..... I decided to try out a lapping job on the block. I went out and got some grit 220, 320, 400, 800, 1000, 1500, and 2000 wet/dry sandpaper. (all at Walmart with the exception of 1500 grit that I had to get from an auto parts store).
Well................ after 4hrs of lapping, while watching KING KONG (2003) and House of Flying Daggers......
(click on the magnifying glass to see the larger view)
whatcha think?
kinda thinking that I could've done a better job... the block is very flat now, the whole width and length of the block versus the big hump in the middle before lapping. I did wet sanding at the beginning and worked towards dry at the very end... there is a couple of very very faint grooves in the block that I cant seem to rid off.... but 2000 grit was the highest I could find... or maybe I should've stuck with wet sanding all the way through... by that time, it was 3AM and I was really tired..
Hopefully this will improve the performance of the block...... even though I wont have any idea how it would have performed before for the lapping... lol.... well... cross my fingers for the best.
" Float like a Cadillac..... Sting like a Beamer "
It looks like a whole new block, very polished. I'm curious though, how did you went on finding the lump on the center? I thought that when errors like that were made they were hardly visible.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Major Dieter Hellstrom: "That was the sound of my Walther pointed right at your testicles."
Great job, its nice to see that copper shine. Here is the post i made of lapping my ep-45-ud3r mobo heat sinks.Since you have the same mobo, i figured i would post this. I wet sanded the whole thing, but being aluminum it doesnt take as long.
It looks like a whole new block, very polished. I'm curious though, how did you went on finding the lump on the center? I thought that when errors like that were made they were hardly visible.
use a razor.Just sit it across the block.If you see a gap between the block and the razors blade its not flat
Thanks guys.... I just got in 20 mins ago from being outside working on my house. Painting... been on the ladder for six hrs painting the overhang/softfet. The joys of house ownership.
Now I am covered full of paint from the hair on my head down to my shoes.. LOL..
TamTheBam said:
I can't see my face! lol
It's a mirrored finish so that's good. How true flat is it tho G.G?
It is very flat. Tested it out usind the edge of my all metal ruler I have.
BoT said:
i think it's a pretty good job. i did much worse on my first lapping experiment.
what tool did you use for lapping?
I used a rectangle baking cookie sheet (used to contain the water that was being used for lapping), a marble cutting board (surfaced used to place my wet/dry sand paper), a squirt bottle of water, and lots of elbow grease. I held the cooling block with my fingers and slide the block across the sand paper from me to away from me only motion with light pressure. And rotating it 90 degree every 15 or so strokes until I got around 8 full revolution.
I have a 4" square electric random palm sander.... I was thinking if this would be good to use.... but I decided to just do it by hand.
Meats_Of_Evil said:
It looks like a whole new block, very polished. I'm curious though, how did you went on finding the lump on the center? I thought that when errors like that were made they were hardly visible.
The way you check for "flatness" on the contact surface of a heatsink is to place a straight edge on the surface and then on the opposite side from the side you are looking at, you place a bright light source to the back side of that edge to see if you see light coming through between the edge and the surface. If you do... then it is not flat. On my Danger Den cooling block.... I found a hump in the middle of the heaksink that ran the longwise length of the block. What you saw was light on either side of the center point. In the middle is no light and the on either side of that point there was light and increasing light as you went away from that center point using your straight edge as the horizontal reference. And then you would place your straight edge in different position on the block to see if there are other "levelness" issue.
Errors like this comes in many different forms too... ie concave, convex, multiple lumps, one side higher than the other.... etc.... you may not tell right away from just looking at it... you need to use a some sort of tool to check for flatness.
An example of a cpu cooler that has "flatness" deficiencies.... is the Ultra Extreme 120. There are many stories that this cooler is not flat and if you lap it.... it will perform much better by a few more degrees... even though this cooler is great as it is... That is why some vendors have an option that you can purchase one that they have lapped for you.... for a price...
micro said:
Great job, its nice to see that copper shine. Here is the post i made of lapping my ep-45-ud3r mobo heat sinks.Since you have the same mobo, i figured i would post this. I wet sanded the whole thing, but being aluminum it doesnt take as long.
wow.... sorry i missed your post... yeah... lapping the chipset cooler can help too. but... I wouldnt think that I would need to since my chipset on my system is barely warm to the touch.. hmmm... yeah... your right that aluminum would not have taken as long as copper... but I kept looking at the cooler to make sure I didnt sand it to a point where I would start developing holes (entering into the inside of the cooler) on the lapped surface due to over sanding. It would have sucked if that happened..
" Float like a Cadillac..... Sting like a Beamer "
Thanks Reason. The block actually shines like a mirror. I have another pic that I focused the camera on the reflection and it is much clearer, but the object started to become out of focus... its that depth of field and focus point thing going on.....
" Float like a Cadillac..... Sting like a Beamer "
tonight... my system is going down for the next couple of days for mods and testing.
I got a good data backup and a good image backup... and I've decided tonight that my system is going down so as I can get rid of the original pump on my Coolit Freezone and replace it with this pump/res combo unit -
I was putting it off for so long because I didnt want to mess with it.... especially when it is NOT Leaking... lol... just the pump noise was getting erritating.. The noise would come and go. Also, I dread having to pull everything out, including the mb, to change the parts. Since I have to pull the mb, due to the different cpu retention parts, I am gonna cut an opening on the bottom of my desktop case for future access to the rear/bottom of the mb. I will make a cover for it as well. This is so I wont have to be bothered to remove the mb if I want to change out the cooling system to something else down the road.
I had to make a special bracket to hold the pump/res combo in place as it is totally different than the original pump only setup. Plus, since I am putting in a pump/combo unit, I am gonna reroute the direction of the water flow to (TEC Tank --> TEC Tank --> cpu block --> pump/res combo --> back to TEC Tank.....etc) Original flow was (TEC Tank --> TEC Tank --> PUMP --> cpu block --> TEC Tank ... etc)....
Hopefully all will go well and hopefully the result will be a more quite and better cooling for this effort.
" Float like a Cadillac..... Sting like a Beamer "
not sure how much it is going to change my temps.... My goal is for a quiet operation... But if my temps goes down further.... then that will be a bonus... for now... my plan is to leave the settings on the control module alone as it is.... want to see if the cooling will be affected by the different cooling block, added fluid capacity because of the res, and the flow direction.... hmmmm..... guess we will see...
" Float like a Cadillac..... Sting like a Beamer "
Has anyone ever looked into seeing if any of the equipment amateur telescope lens makers use might partially help when applied to this?
Lens-making kits might make some aspects a bit easier. I don't know if they vary from primitive to some semi-automated capabilities. I think the customers often buy their glass separately so the kits might be reasonable.
1. tore down the system and pulled everything out.
2. moded the case
3. reinstalled the mb and all the i/o cards back in.
4. replumb'd my water cooling system to included the new upgraded parts (cooling block and pump/res combo unit)
5. filled the unit with water/prestone.
6. tested cooling unit outside the case for 10hrs straight for leaks..... So far no leaks... yahoooooooo
At this point I am reinstalling the cooling unit but have to make adjustments along the way for all this to fit since the new pump/res combo unit does take more room than before.
Hopefully, i will be able to fire up the box tonight and see how it goes.... crossing my fingers that everything will be ok... starting to get the jitters in the belly....
OH by the way... my new pump/res combo unit.... It is QUIET !!!! practically silent... wow... unbelievable. Now the noisiest part of my system will be the psu fan...
So my main goal of being quiet will be met...... i'll find out how the cooling performance will be any different than the original setup..... crossing my fingers...
" Float like a Cadillac..... Sting like a Beamer "
well.... finally put power to it... (without my hdds installed) .. hooked up a spare monitor to it and a keyboard... right now i am in bios only... so far... no sparks... and no leaks.... I'm gonna let this run like this for a bit....
At the moment... in the pc health status of the bios.... my cpu temp is hovering around 15~16C...
Before the upgrade... within bios, it hovered around 18~19C with the same temp settings on the control module. So I think the new cooling block is giving a 2~3C better cooling difference. Now my readings once I get up to desktop using Real Temp, Core Temp, HW monitor or whatever will be all different... but at least I know about what temps they were before the upgrade.
I tell'ya.... it sure is a tight squeezzzz inside my case.... but I managed to stuff it all in..
" Float like a Cadillac..... Sting like a Beamer "
>>Re: Lapping my cpu block & Modding my Coolit Freezone
Well this afternoon, I fire'd up my system all the way to desktop... everything is working just fine. Still no leaks...
But since it has been down for 3days.... AVG and MS Defender has initiated their scans. With both of them going at the same time.... my cpu temp is running around 30-32C using Real Temp 2.70 AND around 35~37C if viewing Core Temp 0.999.5 utilities... I'll have to wait till it finishes and settle down to see what sorta idle temp i get and compare that to the temps before these upgrades.
One thing for sure... my system is in quiet bliss.... the new pump/res combo unit is totally silent.
At least at this point. I have achieved one of my two goals. As for performance, the other goal, i will need to do more testing.
" Float like a Cadillac..... Sting like a Beamer "
>>Re: Lapping my cpu block & Modding my Coolit Freezone
just finished fragging away with HALO and BF2 for about 3hrs now to see what my cpu temps would do.....
as mentioned before, at idle ..... my cpu temp is running around 29-31C using Real Temp 2.70 AND around 35~36C if viewing Core Temp 0.999.5 utilities...
While gaming it is running 33C (Real Temp) and 38C (Core Temp) respectively with those very same temp utilities.
I must say... the upgrade did pretty well. I dropped 2~3C at both idle and 5~6C load end compared to the temps I had originally. And on top of it... it is pratically silent. yahhhhooooo..
now all i need to do is to post some before and after pictures...
" Float like a Cadillac..... Sting like a Beamer "
>>Re: Lapping my cpu block & Modding my Coolit Freezone
Dang..... no one else has replied to my thread, other than myself....... in 4 days...... dang...
bunch of buggers....
OK.... I finally got some pictures to share with you guys... take a look and let me know whatcha think....
The main goal was to replace the original pump to one that is a pump and res as a combo unit and also to replace the original cooling block to hopefully a better performing unit.
I walk away from this project very pleased... I have met both of my goals. Quiet and performance.
1. Quiet (primary goal) - After 9 months of operation it begins to rattle to a point that you can hear it over any noise going on... and that includes anything else within the room itself. it was irritating. Now with the new pump/res combo..... i am in quiet bliss. it is silent. Also, a big plus is that now when I need to top the fluids... I do not have to take the cooling system out (the fill port on the original pump is located on the side of the pump) but instead just have to uncrew a cap in the res unit and top her off. Oh how convenient.
2. Performance - This is a bonus... My idle temps has dropped overall wise by about 2~3C from the original setup. Now my Idle Temp is 29~30C. But the surprising result is my Load Temps.... My Load Temps is now 33~34C while HALO/BF2 gaming. This is around 5~6C drop from the original setup. These temps are from Real Temp utility. So it looks like the new DD cooling block is more efficient in getting that heat away from the cpu and transfer it into the liquid.
" Float like a Cadillac..... Sting like a Beamer "
>>Re: Lapping my cpu block & Modding my Coolit Freezone
thanks Tommie
It took awhile... with the tear down, fabrications, adjusting, cutting with dremel, test fitting, leak testing, so on and so on...... but hey.... this is what modding is all about, right? heheheh yup it is...
" Float like a Cadillac..... Sting like a Beamer "
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