Building a plexiglass case, like any shop-style project versus voiding a warranty on a perfectly brand new chip. Kind of a tough/different comparison, I'd say.
The chip itself doesn't get touched just the case standing between the chip and a superior cool. Aside from voiding the warranty (which overclocking manually does anyway) it's safe for the chip. I was mostly joking about lapping now anyway but if you eventually get bit by the OC bug it's a solid tweak to keep in mind.
TurboTaco said:
Textured vs mirror/smooth finish is because textured increases the surface area of contact which should result in better heat transferance.
That's why rads are all crinkly and shit
but that logic only applies when the medium heat is being transferred to is a fluid since fluids (including air) can fill any kind of space. The point of thermal paste (a fluid) is to mould into any imperfections in the baseplate or CPU IHS to provide a solid, air-free link between the two for best heat transfer. However, no thermal paste on the market has a higher thermal conductivity than the copper the plates are made out of. This means you want more copper-to-copper action and as little copper-to-paste-to-copper action as necessary to make an airtight seal between the components. The whole reason lapping leads to lower operating temps is because it removes the aluminium coating on the IHS to expose the copper underneath for a better rate of heat transfer to the copper plate of the cooler.
TL;DR: the
smoother the base plate is the better the heat transfer because it doesn't have as many microscopic gaps which need to be filled by the thermal paste which will negatively affect heat transfer.
Also, there's enough current flowing through a CPU and NB to kill a person, which means it's way more than Leroy's 600 microamps. Amps = Voltage/Resistance. The lower the resistance of the silicon circuits, the higher the current per volt. Breaking it down to Ohm's law is a huge oversimplification because CPUs aren't simple circuits but since Ohm's law is absolute it still applies for the purposes of explaining it.
TL;DR: We're lucky computer shit is thoroughly grounded by design but even still never underestimate the power of anything that plugs into a wall outlet because it totally draws enough juice to make your heart go BLAMMO
)
