Thanks max, would the diamond not affect the top of the die?

Paul I heard this question before but don't understand the concern.

 

 

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?p=34053262&highlight=diamond#post34053262

Use the Antec Formula 7 Diamond blend to avoid this staining issue. Cheers jja

Hey jj, thanks, i will have a look at that stuff shortly

 

Hey Rob, thanks for the link, i am not sure whether the staining would be an issue for me -- i would like to think not, i suppose as long as there were no degradation to either die, cpu or ihs etc etc then thats fine,

 

 

 

 

It would be counter productive. You could use something like IC diamond though as a good compromise. Otherwise you can use the abrasive pad that came withe the LMU to clean up the heatsink when you're done.

.

 

How long roughly does it take for LMU to "harden/cure/set"? i am assuming and hope that it would be a one off event for doing the DIE>IHS.

I dont think i would mind reseating the HSF(if it lasted that long, every 3-4 months as i thoroughly clean my coolers around that timescale.

If the abrasive pad works fine then i dont mind having to replace that every 6 months - 1 yr by buying a new kit.

I guess now there is nothing actually stopping me getting LMU!

 

Cheers guys.

Curing time happens fairly quickly, within the first 1-3 days of operation I believe.

I'd be interested to know also how much cleaning is required when reseating the heatsink. I'm doing a lot of that these days as I struggle through motherboard issues (detailed in another thread). When I broke down the heatsink over the weekend, I found that the Liquid Metal Ultra was pretty thoroughly bonded to the lid of the CPU and (to a lesser extent) the heatsink facing. I had only limited success with the abrasive pad and was also concerned that the abrasion would undermine the performance of my lapped surfaces. I wound up re-lapping both the lid and the heatsink. Now I have to go through the same process again and am wondering - was the re-lapping overkill? Is it safe to just touch up the Liquid Metal Ultra and re-seat everything? I don't want to do more work than I have to - though of course I'm happy to do it if it makes a difference in performance. What's the best move?

Curing time happens fairly quickly, within the first 1-3 days of operation I believe.

 

Is that for the IC or for the LMU max?

Is that for the IC or for the LMU max?

 

Liquid Metal (Ultra or Pro, I've used both). I don't recall if there was any real cure time on the IC Diamond.

That's another beautiful thing about diamond TM compounds - no cure time. Cheers jja

Seems all my posts have vanished, but there you go.

 

Still waiting for my TIM to arrive, so in the mean time...

 

Do you chaps recommend Ultra/Pro on the die, AND applied to the underneath the heat spreader.

 

Have seen reports that die and underneath of IHS produces best results.

 

EDIT: Please ignore question above, I see this was answered in the guide.

Glad to know you've got it sorted. See if you can get the Maximus V Gene instead, that's what I ended up going with after I started with an Asrock Z77 Extreme 4 board (good board, but not as good with OC'd RAM as the Asus boards).

 

Max, if i were to lie the board flat with the usb ports etc facing me, what is the plate(maybe soundcard) on the far left? (just left of the black (usb2 ports)).

 

Regards

 

Edited.

 

Max, if i were to lie the board flat with the usb ports etc facing me, what is the plate(maybe soundcard) on the far left? (just left of the black (usb2 ports)).

 

Regards

 

Edited.

 

That's a shield for the audio chip which lies underneath.

ok, thanks max.

 

Paul

Well well after a lot of initial hype for me, around this I seem to have damaged the cpu with during my "delidding" process. For a week it ran beautifully and then I seem to get problems like it seemed my RAM was bad as if the memory processor just is not doing its work where I got FPS from 2 to over a 100. starting to stutter like mad where it was fantastically smooth initially with set FPS of 30 and it never deviated from that (only fly backcountry). So I replaced 2 RAM sticks, still no cure, also tested it one by one, always same result. So I replaced motherboard , still no cure.

 

then i removed cpu and after cleaning I thoroughly inspected the cpu throroughly I found some scratch marks on the CPU core as if someone used some sandpaper (not that bad but for illustration of point) on the CPU core (this was like a mirrror after first delidding and cleanup. So it seems when I reset the casing and after removing the black epoxy the casing was being set so low that it actaully started to press direct on the CPU core and the casing scratched the core and resulted in the CPU memory controler to go for a loop..

 

new CPU, without delidding, running about 10 degrees hotter then after the initial delidding, all my troubles went away and I rather run it now at 4.4GHz instead of the 4.6GHz and well I cannot see a difference of this little downgrade in the overclocking to facilitate lower temperatures, unless I run some benchmark. for my eye however, no difference.

 

So yeah it was great while it lasted but in the end it was a little expensive experiment for me.

set so low that it actaully started to press direct on the CPU core and the casing scratched the core and resulted in the CPU memory controler to go for a loop..

 

Not sure that makes sense. If the core was scratched, it should have been an issue immediately, not one week later. In addition, as there's no movement between die and IHS after the cooler is mounted, the scratches couldn't have occurred post deliding.

 

Pressing can't scratch, only lateral movement can scratch.

 

You didn't reapply the Liquid Pro did you? Did you remove the IHS, scrub it with the pad provided by Coollaboratories, then refit, prior to the failure? That could have scratched the die.

The outer surface of the core is not functional in any way, it is merely there for protective purposes. If you scratched this somehow, it wouldn't have any impact on the functionality of the chip. If your system was unstable when overclocked, you probably just didn't have enough voltage. I suggest you follow the BSOD troubleshooting guide link in my signature to get to the bottom of it so you don't have to waste your money on another chip only to run it slower.