fine grain wet & dry (where to get?)

vibe666

I'm sipping my toes into the murky world of tweaking and modding, and I've got myself a Thermalright XP-120 and a nice little fan to sit on it, but I was thinking it would be a good time to lap my CPU & HS before I put it all back together.

the only problem is, I can't find anything finer than 350gr wet & dry sandpaper, and I'm looking for 800-1200gr. anyone know where I can get some (specifically) in the city centre or round abouts?

also, I have a nice 120mm fan, but it's just got a molex passthrough power connector, and as I have 3x 3pin fan headers on my mobo I thought I'd take advantage of them. I got myself a couple of 3 pin adapters (they don't fit, so I've just cut, tipped & soldered the plug onto the existing fan wires and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that that will be enough to do the job.

I plan on doing the same with another two, and using them as my front and back case fans to create some nice (but quiet) airflow through the case and let my mobo take care of the speeds.

the mobo is an Abit IC7-MAX3 and the case is an antec sonata (old style), so that should do me.

I plan on pulling out the OTES and NB fan and counting on the XP-120 to cool the lot (hence the 2 big case fans for extra airflow). I know I'll have to nudge a couple of fins on the NB heatsink to get it all into place, but that's okay, and from what I can see, the XP120 will create enough airflow to cool the NB and OTES area too. at the moment those 2 little fans make more noise than my CPU, case fan and 2xPSU fans put together. noisy little feckers. just better to do away with them altogether and go with 3 of the big ass 120mm fans and do things properly.

anyone know if I can get a bigger HS for my northbridge?

unklerosco

I picked up a Zalman NB heatsink from hitide last night, €7.90 and works a treat... I also have one of kustompcs lapping kits, aint used it yet. Try a motor factors, they should be able to get u what u need. Southside motors on the kylmore road is good(mainly cause my mate works there)...

WizZard

Peats also have the Zalman NB47J passive NB cooler for €6.99 - a steal.


And welcome to the underworld vibe666

unklerosco

Only prob is, as i just found, is that the abit IC7 that i just got doesn't have holes around the NB to screw the Zalman into... Im sute the Max 3 is the same. Luckily i have a microcool NB heatsink that i can use with the abit spring mount...

vibe666

ooh, good call on the NB47J, it looks perfect. i wonder if it will clear my XP-120 though.

Might well be worth finding out in any case for €7!

Do you know if Peats or Craplins have that heat shrink stuff you use to re-insulate cables after soldering? Went and got me a nice little gas soldering iron at the weekend and forgot to get something to cover the soldered wires after the work!

do you think my little 3 pin adaption will work okay on 120mm fans? will the mobo power them okay?

WizZard

Maplins definitely have heatshrink. The 3 pin mobo connector should power the fans ok, and it will/should also allow you to moderate the speed of them within a windows utility (eg. Speedfan)

vibe666

that's my plan!

just for the sake of me seeing the difference in temps from my old HSF to the XP-120, what would you recommend to measure temps?

I've been using MBM5 so far, but I'm thinking there may be something out there that will do a better job.

will speedfan do the trick? I'd be looking for something that would display my case & cpu temps on screen like MBM5, but also allow me to control fan speeds too when needed, as the PC is in my bedroom, and while it's okay having some noise when I'm using it, I could do with some peace and quiet during sleepy times.

just going off to google speedfan now, thanks again!

edit: googled it, and speedfan looks like it'll do exactly what I want and a bit more besides!

thanks again.

BloodBath

I wouldn't bother with lapping tbh. For the amound of work involved it's not worth it. The max temp difference will be 2-3c.


BloodBath

sionnach

speedfan is fantastic if you have a good motherboard and set it up right

oh and yeah lapping isn't worth it unless you bought a thermaltake heatsink or something and were faced with something like this

BloodBath

Jesus that's horrible. I can't beleive they sent that out as a finished product. I hope you didn't pay any more than 20e for that.


BloodBath

po0k

Just a small concern about the fan on the 3-pin mobo connector....
How much power does it draw? ie what's the current rating at 12V?
Personally I wouldn't put such a large fan running off my motherboard for fear of something burning out. Generally things have a certain connector for a reason, and I see no problem with hooking the fan up to a molex. It'll be on a seperate stream of the 12V rail too, and will reduce the power going through the motherboard, which is always a good thing.

sionnach

heh no, not a chance of me buying a thermaltake product. It's a picture someone else took of a thermaltake heatsink they were reviewing.

po0k

OT: As regards lapping, if you just want a shine on the surface, get some emery paper, dunno if it's a good or bad idea to use a drop of water with it, but experiment anyways.
You only need to smooth out any significant ridges you can feel with your finger rubbing across the face of the heatsink.
Arctic Silver 5 will take care of the rest of the imperfections - which can't be removed by any amount of buffing anyways.

duridian

Thermaltake look like they get their heatsinks manufactured by mechanical engineering trainees during the first week of a FÁS course. Trust me I know, I once was a first week mech. engineering trainee at FÁS, its amazing why they put a reverse gear on those milling machines

vibe666

i know it's probably not worth it, but I want to have a go anyway.

it keeps me busy and under the illusion that I'm able to make a difference.

the NB heatsink is out of stock till monday btw.

will try again then.