TPR0 wroteSo basically, this helps heatsink job....?
Sorry, for a bit OFT question...
Usually, this could give you anywhere between 2C and 5C. Why?
Ideally, if you have two metal surfaces, and they can make perfect contact at every point, then heat transfer would be optimal. However, the metal surfaces are machined imperfectly, and they may be concave, convex (Thermalright does this on purpose for better contact to the CPU cores), not flat, or have microscopic gaps. What thermal paste does is fill those microscopic gaps or level out the difference in flatness between the two surfaces.
Thermal paste is not intended to be used in an ideal heat transfer scenario, because it is less conductive than the metals themselves (even if it were more, you'd add more thermal resistivity). Meaning the less material the better. Thus the role of the paste is just to fill the gaps and level out the surfaces.
When you lap the surfaces, you get better contact between the metal surfaces themselves, reducing the amount of thermal paste needed, and increasing points of contact between the two surfaces where there is not much paste. This helps lower temperatures.
Premium coolers usually have flat, mirrored surfaces (but definitely not perfect). The CPU IHS is usually the one that needs the most lapping. But you can benefit from lapping both.
dp0001: Fantastic job! But did you lap the CPU cooler as well? And do you have data on how much temps decreased after lapping the CPU? And what thermal paste did you use?
