The Silver Heatsink: Ultimate in air cooling

[Aaron Burton]

Ok... so my dad is an orthopaedic surgeon, and his practice's x-ray machines produce this excess silver that the x-ray techs give to my dad whenever they tune up the machines, because of this, I have several bars of pure silver at home, and I'm thinking....

Could I use the lost-wax technique to make a wax casting of my slk-800 and then cast it in SILVER?!

That would be such sweet overkill...

What do you think??

[n17ikh]

That would be incredibly awesome. However, I think in lost-wax, you use beeswax to make the shape of what you want, cast it in plaster of paris, them melt the beeswax out. It would be pretty hard to melt out that slk-800. However, you could make a beeswax form from scratch by looking at your heatsink. I'm pretty sure that there's a method to do what you want with, but I think it involves making an airtight mold that can be split in half and resealed.

[Aaron Burton]

Yeah, I know how to do lost wax, I just don't know if I can deal with such small crevices and such. Plus, if the performance boost is minimal, I wonder if it's even worth the effort.

[w00t]

but its s i l v e r !!!!1

[countermods]

try it with another hsk i would love to have a pure silver hsk or gold but platinum would be the best i could say i have $1000 keeping my cpu cold

[Obsidian]

You are aware that a silver heatsink of that size would be VERY heavy right

[Bensa]

A silver HS would be sweet:D
I've used wax casting to make metal objects.
Get the wax and make a block thats is 1cm larger in all directions than your intended final shape. Cool the wax and work in a cold room. Use an EXTREMELY sharp knife, because wax can crack easily if you place too much pressure on it. You could probably use a surgical knife:p Work slowly, then keep the wax cool, then place clay around it (plaster doesnt work for metals as well). When the clay is tightly around the shape, heat it up slowly so the wax is soft when the clay starts to shrink. Because of this, remember to make the wax shape a little bit larger than intended.
You can also try to make a clay base in a container, place the wax hs inside, then pour in extremely soft clay. I doubt this will work aswell, but its easier for a person with no previous experience in wax/clay casting.

For plaster you dont have to worry about shrinkage, but I dont know how silver will work with it, I've only used plaster for aluminium which only reguires 600 centigrade.

E.D.I.T:
If you want to make a replica of your current heatsink, cover it in wax, then remove it. Coat the inside of the mould with oil (you can use anything to make them not stick together, then pour in wax or any other soft substance. If you use another substance they probably wont stick together as easily. Then just make the mould.

[MLMIB]

if u have any extra of that stuff lemme know, I would def. wanna try to make a nice waterblock out of that stuff ^_^

*imagines WW silver waterblock*

:D

[bsspewer]

Originally posted by MLMIB
if u have any extra of that stuff lemme know, I would def. wanna try to make a nice waterblock out of that stuff ^_^

*imagines WW silver waterblock*

:D

ditto..Second dibbs on extra silver bars! I'll see about making a waterblock out of it..hehe..

[Aaron Burton]

Haha, no- it's not that I don't know how to do wax casting, it's just that the fins on the slk 800 are so small and close together that I'm worried about airbubbles in the wax and mold and such. Do you think it'll work?

[Aaron Burton]

Oh- btw, gold doesn't conduct heat as well as silver. I'm not sure about platinum, but this article at Wired is fairly interesting... Looks like we WILL have diamond heat solutions in the near future....

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/diamond.html

[-=Ambush=-]

Acutall, gold disapates heat much better than silver does.

Thats is why they lined the engine bin of the McLaren F1 in gold, so the engine would get as much cooling as possible (I've heard that even still it overheats when your not pushing 120+).

[thorilan]

ok as someone that knows something about silver i have to tell you.
if you want better results then copper you will need 97.5% pure or higher silver and as sterling silver is only 92% and orthepedic silver is less you may not see any real gain from it.

and whoever said gold disipates heat better than silver is incorrect

[Aaron Burton]

Um.. what do you mean orthopedic silver is less? This is 99.9% pure silver. I don't know what you mean.

[Aaron Burton]

wait- do you mean orthoDONTIC silver?

[thorilan]

DOH yes you know what i meant lol

[Lord_Zoltan]

lol i make the same mistakes when typing orthodentic or orthopedic..odd..i thought i was alone in this world...

and comeon guys yous hsould be able to guess...shame on you :P

[tyshy]

if i recall i read something about the heat transfer of several metals....the higehr the number the better it transfered heat...im not sure about dissipating....but i kno that copper and silver were very close. Aluminum was around 275, copper was around 385, and silver was just about 420, so as you can see there is not a lot to gain...oo and diamond was around 2000....for comparative sake....im not sure the numbers on that unit and im too tired right now to go find that pdf.

[Aaron Burton]

I read the same thing. The units are W/m*k, and the difference is even less comparitively than previously stated. aluminum is somewhere abouts 247, copper is closer to 398, and silver is closer to 428.

Oh, I found it on frostytech.
http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=233


Oh, Diamond is upwards of 2500 ;)

[thorilan]

hehe and then there is carbon nanotubes ect ect ect =)

[Bensa]

The wax used in the method is high density cratsman wax. Its very runny in liquid state, so no air bubbles, but is hard and sticks together when hardened. I get mine from my school, I don't know whats available since I mix my own.
Remember to have an opening in the clay cast, so make a small pipe of wax on the bottom of the wax HS.

[madsam]

he specified that the silver comes from the x-ray machines, after they are cleaned and tuned up. i used to work with an x-ray supplier, and i must say, i seriously doubt this is pure silver. it usually comes as a smelly granular looking stuff, which is collected chemically, and sometimes electrically in a seperate container. it is full of chemical, and other x-ray waste. this collector is typically mounted before the pipe that drains into the sewer, or where-ever. it is silver extracted from the waste water of the x-ray processor. we used to turn ours in , to a recycler, and i'm not sure how they process it, and how pure the after-product is.

how did you get that into bars? i certainly hope you didn't melt it into bars without some decent air to breathe. i would hate to think of the results of burning x-ray developer, x-ray fixer, and silver.

;)

[Lord_Zoltan]

Originally posted by madsam
he specified that the silver comes from the x-ray machines, after they are cleaned and tuned up. i used to work with an x-ray supplier, and i must say, i seriously doubt this is pure silver. it usually comes as a smelly granular looking stuff, which is collected chemically, and sometimes electrically in a seperate container. it is full of chemical, and other x-ray waste. this collector is typically mounted before the pipe that drains into the sewer, or where-ever. it is silver extracted from the waste water of the x-ray processor. we used to turn ours in , to a recycler, and i'm not sure how they process it, and how pure the after-product is.

how did you get that into bars? i certainly hope you didn't melt it into bars without some decent air to breathe. i would hate to think of the results of burning x-ray developer, x-ray fixer, and silver.

;)

Ya, how exactly did you get it into bars?

[Aaron Burton]

They gave it back to us in bars. It says right on it that it's 999+ silver.

[madsam]

Originally posted by Aaron Burton
They gave it back to us in bars. It says right on it that it's 999+ silver.

how do the x-ray tech's get it into bars? the x-ray processors don't create silver bars marked 999+, and a typical x-ray tech just has the x-ray company recycle it.

can you please elaborate as to how they got it into bars?

thanks, i find this to be very interesting.....

but, either way, if it's 999+ pure silver, i would think it's worth a good price, but as for using it for a heatsink, i think that would be too cool.

please give us more info on how this scrap silver became bars.....do you maybe have a pic we can see? thanks....;)

[Aaron Burton]

I have no idea how it became bars. the company just gives my dad bars whenever they recalibrate the machines. I'll see what I can do in the way of pictures.

[Beast Of Blight]

Wow, I wish I had people just give me bars of very expensive precious metals. :rolleyes:

[k3nshin]

All that i have to say is your heat sink would be *BLING-BLING* (sorry...)

[emericanchaos]

i agree with the weight issue brought up. maybe you should make a mold of one of those speeze/spire aluminum coolers. they're smaller and since you're using a much better HTM you won't need as much volume anyway. plus those coolers are like $8-12. not a bad price for starting on a silversink.

btw where's silversinksam on this one?

[Aaron Burton]

if it's bolt-on, does weight matter that much?

[emericanchaos]

i would think so. you wouldn't want to have the sink pull your zif out.

[ziptieboy]

It shouldn't be an issue, if you bolt all of the way through your motherboard AND motherboard tray. Otherwise, it probably will be an issue.

Scott

[SniperXX]

Originally posted by k3nshin
All that i have to say is your heat sink would be *BLING-BLING* (sorry...)


Lol you took the words from my mouth.

If this is pure silver, why dont you sell it and buy a phase change system??? It will cool much better than any heatsink or water. :cool:

[Aaron Burton]

It won't cost as much as a phase change system. The slk-800 weighs 505 grams and the weight ratio of copper to silver is 18:21 so that means the Silver SLK will weigh aroung 19 Troy ounces. That's roughly 130 dollars US. I don't think that you can get a phase change kit that cheaply.

[Oni]

That, and an all silver HS would be so much cooler than a phase change cooler. Man, talk about blingy-bling :D

If you were looking for a retension mechanism, you might be better off going w/ something like that Alpha PAL 8045 or Swiftech MCX462 use. The offsets on the motherboard. That will elimate any possible breakage of the socket itself, and there won't be any retension clips to worry about.

[Axle]

Check this out, guys:

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?p=34013&highlight=#34013

A Thermalright guy there, too.

[RadiationMan]

I have been an x-ray tech for about 11 years. The film we use (just like regular b&w photographic film) is coated with silver. Some of it is washed away in the developing process, and instead of washing it down the drain, we have a machine that collects it so we can recover the cost of the silver. A company then comes and cleans out the gritty, granulated silver along with many impurities, out of the machine and takes it away to be refined. Some hospitals just want the money for the silver that is recovered. Our hospital wants the silver coins for investment puposes. They can also make into bars. The company makes its money by taking a percentage of the silver. I believe the silver is considered pure (99.99%). When I go to work this evening, I will try to check. I hope this helps everyone understand where he is getting the silver from.

I also had thought of making a waterblock out of the silver coins.

[madsam]

Originally posted by RadiationMan
I have been an x-ray tech for about 11 years. The film we use (just like regular b&w photographic film) is coated with silver. Some of it is washed away in the developing process, and instead of washing it down the drain, we have a machine that collects it so we can recover the cost of the silver. A company then comes and cleans out the gritty, granulated silver along with many impurities, out of the machine and takes it away to be refined. Some hospitals just want the money for the silver that is recovered. Our hospital wants the silver coins for investment puposes. They can also make into bars. The company makes its money by taking a percentage of the silver. I believe the silver is considered pure (99.99%). When I go to work this evening, I will try to check. I hope this helps everyone understand where he is getting the silver from.

I also had thought of making a waterblock out of the silver coins.

very helpful. thanks. we used to just take in the silver, in a plastic bag, tucked in a small bucket, after removing it all from the silver reclaimer unit., but we would turn it in for the money.

i think the waterblock would be a more efficient use of the silver, and easier to make than a heatsink too.

[Chris_F]

Yeah, mill a silver WW. Just think about it... A pure silver WW... :D

[Captain Slug]

Instead of going through the difficult process of molding a sink you could take it to a custom Jeweler to have them cut and braze a heatsink with fins. You could pay him with whatever excess is removed in the process and they could probably work from whatever design you have dreampt up.

Just a thought.

[SniperXX]

Man whenever you make your silver waterblock or heatsink dont forget to post pics. I really want to see them.

[Aaron Burton]

I don't see why I couldn't just do lost wax...

[unreal]

well im impressed if you can make it out of pure silver, looks nice, but wieght would be an issue..

[Xymurgy]

I'd make tons of little heat sinks for vid card RAM and the like. Maybe even market them!

[R.Rabbit]

well if you really want to do this pm silversinksam, but i think it would be cooler/easier to make a water block out of silver

[Diggrr]

Probably not considering the weight of some big honkin' waterblocks I've seen, and it's water-filled tubing....

If you're casting your own, why not try making your own design? I'm sure that hsf you like is sure to be able to be improved upon, either functionally of asthetically. Radial fins would be nice so that the air is allowed to exit in all directions instead of just two.

[k3nshin]

or mayeb you could do a sink like the swiftech ones

[kestrel]

Cathar already made a couple pure-silver WWs.

[emericanchaos]

would silver allow you to passively cool a cpu putting out 100w of heat?

[Nick Burns]

Not only would it work better, but I bet that it would be easier to make several custom waterblocks than one heatsink. You could get cheap, top of the line waterblocks on northbridge, graphics card, and CPU. THen get a few radiators in your case, now you are kickin ass with water. Or you could use a peltier with a silver coldplate in addition to that.

[emericanchaos]

also wouldn't the waterblocks be able to be smaller. maybe like the size of the wafer inself.

[Cereal Killa]

Surely make small silver mosfet heatsinks :D

[kestrel]

Originally posted by emericanchaos
would silver allow you to passively cool a cpu putting out 100w of heat?

No