I got mine today and the first thing I did was lapp 2 of the 3 heatsinks. The only one I didn't lapp was the tall northbridge sink, because it had a thin piece of foam surrounding the thermal pad which looked quite delicate and probably served to cushion the pressure of the heatsink on the fragile looking unprotected northbridge core.
I've heard that the northbridge on the IP35-E gets awfully hot, and since I can't lapp it, what do you all suggest? Should i remove the cushion layer and lapp it anyway? I did however remove the thermal pad with isopropyl and added a thin layer of AS5 in its place. Hopefully that will help.
Also, the plastic spring push thingies that snap into the motherboard don't seem that secure, they do hold the heatsinks onto their respective components, but could they be more effective with screws and washers?
I noticed that upon removal of
the PWM heatsink, the thermal pad wasn't making contact on half of the components... so I lapped it to get it flat and put it back with 2 small screws and washers... am I going overboard with the screws? Will the change it temps cause them to loosen/tighten? Should I just put the spring plastic things back? it looks pretty snug now and I think the PWMs make better contact with the sink, but I can't really see except for 1.
I'm going to get a retail Q6600 tomorrow, lapp the heatsink, and see hope I didn't damage anything in the process of removing all the heatsinks
LAPP DANCE PHOTOS :
southbridge goop is crap:
http://www.infinitydose.com/img/tech/chip.jpg
southbridge heatsink is not flat, as we can see:
http://www.infinitydose.com/img/tech/hs1.jpg
getting better:
http://www.infinitydose.com/img/tech/hs2.jpg
finally flat:
http://www.infinitydose.com/img/tech/hs3.jpg
@Poohbear: I can't find any in Canada either, so I got mine new on e-bay for $70 + $20 shipping. I saw someone selling used IP35-es for $30-$50, but the shipping alone was $30 and his listings looked sketchy, i.e. not tested, not guaranteed to work, no warranty etc.
I was actually going to get the popular P35 budget Gigabyte one, but opted for this hoping the 8-pin 12v connectors would be better for o/cing.
Finally,
does anyone have the Cooler Master Hyper TX X2 on their IP35-e? Since the Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro won't fit due to the heigh of the northbridge heatsink, I was hoping the equally good Hyper TX X2 would fit, but don't want to find out the hard way.