About TIM viscosity: to me it's obvious that a "better" finish (=higher grade) and polishing induces using a more 'viscous' TIM. Polishing mating surfaces to a (flat) mirror and yet using the relatively thick Arctic Silver is a nonsense, not to mention the size of silver particles in that paste, that may be bigger than ridges & grooves of a well finished surface.
I'm now using a quite liquid 'white stuff' under my lapped & polished waterblock. I tend to think its results are better (off by 1-1.5°C in regular situation) than those of AS, in that situation (TBird core). I'm using a razor blade to apply it, but still i think it leaves too much paste... After dozens of mountings / remountings i've experimented quite a few solutions but yet only the 'white liquid goop' does the job properly. AS always 'stack up' somewhere between the core and the WB, though 'white goop' nearly disappears...
And everytime i remove my WB (after a few weeks of use, at minimum) i see the imprint of the TBird core in the copper, the full square *and* the markings ("AMD Athlon" etc., mirrored of course) !
If the core was unbalanced or 'not flat' i wouldn't see such a clear picture, and my TIM would stack up where pressure is lower. I apply quite a heavy pressure, to the point where the mobo flexes slightly.
So where i'm going is, with cores like those of AMD CPUs i do not think that one can get any improvement out of their surface. IHS is another debate altogether...
Anyway HS / Waterblock bottom flatness (for the area that mates the core, at least) is what is really important. Elasticity (and even plasticity) of both surfaces will do the rest.
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