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Metal used in waterblocks

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R

risingsun

Member
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Joined
May 13, 2006
Why is it that the core of all waterblocks is Copper. Why dont they use Aluminum? Aluminum has a way better Specific heat. Ive been looking at all the main companies, and they all use a copper block core.

**Edit**

Sorry, just noticed a similar post farther down......
 
specific heat of copper is 0.38 which means that it's temp will rise the fastest when given a certain amount of heat but it'll also lose it the fastest.

this helps conductivity and when water wicks away the heat from the inside of a waterblock, you want as much of that heat to go away as possible.\

higher specific heat isn't better in the case of heatsinks.
 
Are there any more expensive metals (I.e. way too expensive for mass production) we can use that surpasses copper's ability for heatsinking ?

...umm, like a golden waterblock :D Pimpin' ehh !
 
One of the best heatsink materials is aluminium, since it dissipates heat very well. That's why you see heatspreaders made out of copper and the the fins on the hsf made out of aluminium. Copper absorbs heat better then aluminium, but aluminium dissipates heat better then copper.

For something like a water block, or the heatspreader on a hsf, silver would work very well, but it's expensive, and it tarnishes, but it is anti-bacterial, so a water block with a thin layer of silver on the inside might be a good idea. Gold probably wouldnt work for ****, but it would look nice. Until the thing melts. :p
 
apt403 said:
Copper absorbs heat better then aluminium, but aluminium dissipates heat better then copper.
Click to expand...
That's not true. Copper has better capacitance, specific heat, and conductivity. Any given design of waterblock or heatsink will be more efficient if made from copper rather than aluminum.
Aluminum is used for the fins of tower designs primarily to reduce cost and weight.

Silver is marginally better than copper, but not enough to warrant the extra cost.
And Gold has marginally weaker properties when compared to copper.
 
Last edited:
Agreed. Unless you're actually using the metal to store heat, it's thermal conductivity not specific heat that matters.

For a given cross section, pure copper will always outperform aluminum, but for a given mass, aluminum outperforms copper. Hence copper is always better if weight is not a consideration, but aluminum is useful to get enough surface area for cooling without going over weight. This is why some of the best CPU heat sinks and automobile radiators are made of aluminum. For our purposes, though, copper is superior.

Silver offers slightly less thermal resistance than copper, though its relative weakness and high cost are serious drawbacks. Diamond is a bit pricey as well, though that will probably change in our lifetimes as no amount of De Beers thuggery will get the synthetic diamond genie back in the bottle. The manufacturers of a diamond-copper composite called Heathru claim it is cost-competitive with existing materials, but they don't say which materials.
 
Why would you get silver skin man to coat your water block with a thin layer of silver????

Wouldnt you want the whole water block to be made of silver?
 
Silver can be pretty hard, but not as much as steel.
It's also not as "sticky" as copper is to work with.
 
I wonder... where's a good place to buy pure silver?

I want to try milling a my own waterblock some day, and I would prefer to work work with silver rather then copper... of course... I'd do trials with Al to save money. :beer:
 
Shell said:
I wonder... where's a good place to buy pure silver?

I want to try milling a my own waterblock some day, and I would prefer to work work with silver rather then copper... of course... I'd do trials with Al to save money. :beer:
Click to expand...
Due to it's material properties and cost I would advise that you not try to make your first waterblock out of anything except copper.
And you WILL need CAD/CAM equipment if you plan to use milling bits smaller than 1/8-inch diameter.
 
Diggrr said:
Silver can be pretty hard, but not as much as steel.
It's also not as "sticky" as copper is to work with.
Click to expand...

I disagree, pure silver is very soft by any standard of measurement.

Casting shot is or sheet is available thru jewelry supply outlets like Alpha Supply or Rio Grande.

One could easily build a device out of sheet stock and silver solder, or out of wax and then cast it using the lost wax method.
 
Pure copper is one of the most difficult of the common metals to cast or machine. I think the main drawback to silver is that it's relatively soft. IIRC, Cathar had some trouble with the Storm G5 bending if the top was screwed down too tightly.
 
to be honest, graphite followed by steel are the two hardest materials to work with when milling. copper and aluminum seem like cake when compared to the latter. the biggest thing to worry about is the feed speed and the spindle speed. these two factors play a big role when choosing the end-mill. depending on the size of the job, coolant also helps a lot in terms of cooling, but also in removing excess debris.
 
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