Check this out...werid

[GT98]

I got in my MSI 745 Ultra today and during installation I cleaned up my Swiftech MC462A Heat sink and saw that it looked like the writing on top of my CPU die had transfered or got burned into the HS. I used AC2 as the Thermal interface.

Anyone else ever see this?

[Ryu Connor]

Yeah. That tends to happen. I haven't seen any adverse impact from it. I'm not sure why it happens though.

Greebe?

[cjolley]

Looks like as the fan wobbles and the surfaces expand & contract etc., the ink or stamping on the die grinds into the HS.

Kind of like when you pull a rug up off of a wood floor after a few years.

chuck

[Technoid]

Happens on most highpressure HS on top of Athlons and Durons!
I have such markings on most my HS's

[Greebe]

Does the same on mine... copper (& silver) being as soft and malable as it is you can be assured of a proper fit if it does

[KvHagedorn]

Interesting.. I have the same processor and heatsink, but I lapped the core (scraped it with a razor blade) first, so maybe I wont see so much of this.. helps to have a very flat contact area. Haven't removed the HS yet, so I don't know if mine's been affected. The heat as well as the pressure probably has something to do with this..

[thop]

same here

[Wombat]

I can't see how taking a razor blade to it could make it any smoother. Now if you'd gone at it with a proper polisher....

[KvHagedorn]

It did take some of the tiny burrs out of the etchings after awhile.. I'd be a bit nervous going at it with a polisher, though if you used a dental polisher with the right tool attached, it would probably be okay.. guess the Dremel would be a possibility..

[mutz]

I find my Dremel very good for a lot of things, but to grind or polish something really flat and really control it in a way that it doesn't dig, even so slightly isn't eay, even if you've made some kind of jig. I wouldn't touch a chip or HS with it. Super fine paper, a block and patient flat strokes.

[Greebe]

I fail to understand why this is of concern. If anything the copper is pertruding into the gaps etched into the silicon leaving you with better contact. Removing it by any means would reduce contact. Even if this is a must do for you personally don't use an other means other than lapping with ultra fine grit sandpaper (>800 grit) and a lot of patience as mutz has mentioned.

[luni]

Happened to vast majority of heatsink I saw, especially the soft ones. Included is a pic of NoiseControl Silverado heatsink which was used on some different AMD cpus, base got worked up pretty bad :/

pic