Testing

Now that the lapping is finished let's see if it helps temperature wise. With this in mind we measured the temperatures prior to the lapping using a Chaintech 7NJS Ultra ZENITH motherboard and an 1800+ for a test bed. We tested both stock and a serious overclock of 3200+ or 2.2GHz by way of a 1.6 Vcore and 11 x 200Mhz multiplier/FSB.

Here are the results:

Stock Athlon 1800+XP speeds

Heat Sink	Idle	Load
Volcano 9 before lapping	45c	49c
Volcano 9 AFTER LAPPING	44c	48c

Athlon 1800+XP Overclocked to 200x11 = 2.2Ghz

Heat Sink	Idle	Load
Volcano 9 OC'd before lapping	55c	60c
Volcano 9 OC'd AFTER LAPPING	53c	58c

As you can see we get a 1 degree difference in stock speed but a 2 degree change in overclocking. We feel that in the quest for overclocking and better cooling 2 degrees is pretty significant and are pleased with the end results here. When you consider that moving from cheap thermal paste to Arctic Silver or Ceramique can result in a few degree difference and add that with lapping of a rough surfaced cooler, the end result is pretty impressive.

Now to recap here are a before and after shot of the heat sink

Before

After

One final tip, to help with heat transfer before installing the heat sink it's a good idea to rub some thermal paste on the bottom to fill any microscopic cracks or scratches.