Is the i7 flat enough?

T

Trollgaard

New member
So, have you all got your coolers fitted thightly?

I got myself a brand new high-end rig the other day. I built it in a few hours and let go. All seemed nice and smooth. Except for a missing boot...

Ok. What to do? I always start with the memory. Remove all the dimms except 1. After a bunch of tests I figured out that the DIMM_B1 didn't work. The BIOS also notified that OC failed when no BIOS changes was done. Not even XMP set. Tested all available BIOS updates without any difference also. So, I have returned the MB to get a new one.

However. When I dismantled the CPU cooler, I noticed that the thermal paste was not covering the whole cpu. There's always one thing you can be sure of when mounting your cooler; You will never know if you've used enough thermal paste until you take the cooler off again. For my part, I hate having to dismantle a cooler. When I first have it all in my case, I want to start gaming or overclocking or whatever right away. I had my i7 920 at a stable 35-40 C with my 4 gigs of ram, but I'll be damned if I'd have to look at my last 2GB lying on the desk. When I get my new MB I hope I'm gonna get the temp at the same level or lower. But here's the questions:

Did I use too little paste?

Is there a bump in the middle of my i7 that made the paste gather there instead of spreading out to cover it fully?

Has anyone tried lapping the i7?

Does anyone have any good explanation? I have to admit that I have never experienced that the paste haven't been pushed all the way to the edges. But then again, I haven't really thought about it at all except on my last 3 cpus which I assembled myself. I have always been sparse on the thermal paste, but didn't think I was too far off when assembling this one.

How do you guys do it? One dot in the middle or spread it out on the whole cpu?

cpui7.JPG
 
name='Trollgaard' said:
So, have you all got your coolers fitted thightly?

I got myself a brand new high-end rig the other day. I built it in a few hours and let go. All seemed nice and smooth. Except for a missing boot...

Ok. What to do? I always start with the memory. Remove all the dimms except 1. After a bunch of tests I figured out that the DIMM_B1 didn't work. The BIOS also notified that OC failed when no BIOS changes was done. Not even XMP set. Tested all available BIOS updates without any difference also. So, I have returned the MB to get a new one.

However. When I dismantled the CPU cooler, I noticed that the thermal paste was not covering the whole cpu. There's always one thing you can be sure of when mounting your cooler; You will never know if you've used enough thermal paste until you take the cooler off again. For my part, I hate having to dismantle a cooler. When I first have it all in my case, I want to start gaming or overclocking or whatever right away. I had my i7 920 at a stable 35-40 C with my 4 gigs of ram, but I'll be damned if I'd have to look at my last 2GB lying on the desk. When I get my new MB I hope I'm gonna get the temp at the same level or lower. But here's the questions:

Did I use too little paste?

Is there a bump in the middle of my i7 that made the paste gather there instead of spreading out to cover it fully?

Has anyone tried lapping the i7?

Does anyone have any good explanation? I have to admit that I have never experienced that the paste haven't been pushed all the way to the edges. But then again, I haven't really thought about it at all except on my last 3 cpus which I assembled myself. I have always been sparse on the thermal paste, but didn't think I was too far off when assembling this one.

How do you guys do it? One dot in the middle or spread it out on the whole cpu?

(Picture coming soon)
Click to expand...

Did I use too little paste?

normaly just a small drop do the job, but since the processor of i7 is a litte bigger than the duos/quads, maybe just a little more will help.

Has anyone tried lapping the i7?

i cant help in that iten, since i still have a Q6600.

also if i remember right some quad chips didnt had a flat surface, maybe the new ones (i7) dont have them aswell.

also remember that i7 is a built'in heater (it gets super hot really). but lapping it will probably give some less C, but that voids warrantry. this guide from Bourne may be of help http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?t=4735&highlight=lapping

anways, congrats on your new rig mate, looking foward to see it on galery

Soap.
 
I feel your pain on this one, but after many many times or re-mounting my coolers the best way to do it is to get a credit card and spread a thin layer over the top enouh so that it covers any silver, then carefuly mount the cooler.

I highly recommend the noctua thermal paste it spreads relly nice and even and gives better temps the as5 etc

for some odd reason the blob or line method I have been useing on all other quad cores e.g qx/core2quad cup's doesn't work well with my i7.

Though about lapping but think that it will make re-sale much harder and completely mess up my warranty so didn't bother.

am now runnign wc @4ghz with 40c idle 70c load :D
 
If the IHS is made in the same way as the Core2's then I'd say it probably isn't flat enough. What annoys me is that if they (Intel) can't make the IHS flat enough on their products, why don't they instead etch all that info onto the PCB somewhere so we can lap the CPU without voiding the warranty. Would be nice if they did but I don't see it happening anytime soon.
 
Thanks for the replies so far. I will try the creditcard when I get my new MB. I'll post a picture of it after I get the opportunity to link images :)
 
name='moogle' said:
If the IHS is made in the same way as the Core2's then I'd say it probably isn't flat enough. What annoys me is that if they (Intel) can't make the IHS flat enough on their products, why don't they instead etch all that info onto the PCB somewhere so we can lap the CPU without voiding the warranty. Would be nice if they did but I don't see it happening anytime soon.
Click to expand...

or just lap it the print the info on the heat spreader
 
Lapping is no longer required as far as I remember. All chips are now near to perfectly flat and lapping will not improve temps, possibly by a degree or two at the most. Lapping was popular with the older LGA775 and S478 chips but since the C2D E**** series and the C2Q it is no longer needed and is not a neccessity.
 
name='SwaleSmith' said:
I feel your pain on this one, but after many many times or re-mounting my coolers the best way to do it is to get a credit card and spread a thin layer over the top enouh so that it covers any silver, then carefuly mount the cooler.

I highly recommend the noctua thermal paste it spreads relly nice and even and gives better temps the as5 etc

for some odd reason the blob or line method I have been useing on all other quad cores e.g qx/core2quad cup's doesn't work well with my i7.

Though about lapping but think that it will make re-sale much harder and completely mess up my warranty so didn't bother.

am now runnign wc @4ghz with 40c idle 70c load :D
Click to expand...

I followed swales advice when putting my OCZ vendetta 2 on my E8500, the result is 26 degrees idle, 38 under full load!

Swale = useful
 
Wow!! That is some nice temps! My old rig had a Q6600 with the Golden Orb cooler from Thermaltake. The temperatures was around 50 degrees idle which was the same as the stock cooler. After alot of testing I managed to get the temperatures down to 35-40 by removing the whole load plate and just use the cooler to hold the cpu in place. Not a thing I would recommend, but it did the trick on my P5K-C MB.
 
That's definitely not spread enough :p But like Swale said, use a creditcard and you'll be all right. I did the first time and she's still rolling just below 70*C load at 3.7gHz
 
I see your useing a noctua another little tip you can lap it although your temps are very good but I just lapped it to smooth the base and expose the copper helps even out temps and reduce them slightly.
 
nowhere near enough paste on the cpu! Its should cover the lot, thinly but fully covered!

Do the swale method and you will be fine.
 
Dunno about you guys but for 775cpu's I use about a rice grain amount right in the middle. When putting on the heatsink you have to be careful to get it in the middle too. Found this to work the best for me cpu temp at 25C idle (Q6600 stock speed/voltage).

Paste is only there to fill in the microscopic gaps, it's actually a terrible heat conductor compared to copper etc which the heatsink is made out off. If you get a mirror shine you can even run without paste.

If these new ones are larger then perhaps inbetween a rice grain and a pea size amount.
 
name='Technex' said:
Dunno about you guys but for 775cpu's I use about a rice grain amount right in the middle. When putting on the heatsink you have to be careful to get it in the middle too. Found this to work the best for me cpu temp at 25C idle (Q6600 stock speed/voltage).

Paste is only there to fill in the microscopic gaps, it's actually a terrible heat conductor compared to copper etc which the heatsink is made out off. If you get a mirror shine you can even run without paste.

If these new ones are larger then perhaps inbetween a rice grain and a pea size amount.
Click to expand...

That was what I did. I used a little more than on the Q6600 I had before. I have never experienced that it didn't spread more than this. It seems the cooler had more contact in the middle than on the sides. I'll try to meassure abit when I get home today.
 
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