sliver plate on waterblock?

[Dissolved]

i was wondering if i got a thin sliver plate to put between my water block and the cpu if that might dissapate the heat and better the heat transfer process form the cpu to the water block? ive heard sliver is better then copper.. thanks..

[ol' man]

Originally posted by Dissolved
i was wondering if i got a thin sliver plate to put between my water block and the cpu if that might dissapate the heat and better the heat transfer process form the cpu to the water block? ive heard sliver is better then copper.. thanks..

Chances are if you put another layer of thermal paste in between the plate and your WB it will hinder or perform about the same. The only suggestion is to make a alloy with teh silver I think in a 28/72 ratio of copper to silver and then the thermal conductivity goes up around 550 W/m K. That would make a very nice WB or HS base. The alloy is called Cusil.

[Silversinksam]

Silver plating is completly useless with one exception/

Somtimes plating the pins on Hedgehogs help the pins maintain thier mounting in the hsf,
Ive heard a few people claim thier pins were coming loose and the plating held them firm and helped the thermal conductivity.

OL'Man is correct Cusil is the solution.

Thermal Properties of Materials
Thermal Conductivity, W/cm-K
Metals

Aluminum 2.165
Beryllium 1.772
Beryllium-copper 1.063
Brass 70% copper, 30% zinc 1.220
Copper 3.937
Gold 2.913
Iron .669
Lead .343
Magnesium 1.575
Molybdenum 1.299
Monel .197
Nickel .906
Platinum .734
Silver 4.173
Stainless Steel-321 .146
Stainless Steel-410 .240
Steel, low carbon .669
Tin .630
Titanium .157
Tungsten 1.969
Zinc 1.024

[Dissolved]

well but as u just said silver has a higher thermel rate then copper. so i dont see why a 1/8" plate between wouldnt help at all.. i think i might a lil but i was wondering if anyones tryed it..

[funnyperson1]

the reason cooling is not very efficient is because the cpu and the block are not 100% touching now everytime you add another joint (read a silver plate) you add more space where they are not touching...

[Dissolved]

i 1/8" plate or even 1/16" would be like a double lyer of ac2.. so im wondering if anyone could try this.. and see if it really wont work..

im thinking the silver plate could hold take thew heat from the cpu faster then the copper based water block i have then would take the heat from the silver plate..

[funnyperson1]

Originally posted by Dissolved
i 1/8" plate or even 1/16" would be like a double lyer of ac2.. so im wondering if anyone could try this.. and see if it really wont work..

im thinking the silver plate could hold take thew heat from the cpu faster then the copper based water block i have then would take the heat from the silver plate..

right but what you have to understand is that with a silver plater there are air gaps between the plate and the cpu, air is a HORRIBLE conductor, artic silver is used because it plugs these gaps....

[Dissolved]

Originally posted by funnyperson1


right but what you have to understand is that with a silver plater there are air gaps between the plate and the cpu, air is a HORRIBLE conductor, artic silver is used because it plugs these gaps....

why would there be air gaps?

[Crazy Jayhawk]

Originally posted by Dissolved


why would there be air gaps? Because neither the CPU die nor the plate are perfectly flat.

[funnyperson1]

Originally posted by Dissolved


why would there be air gaps?

because nothing is perfectly flat.....

[Dissolved]

isnt that what ac2 is for tho?

[ButcherUK]

Originally posted by Dissolved
isnt that what ac2 is for tho?
The AS2 negates the adantages (and they're small to start with - 3.937 vs 4.173 is not much) of the silver. It's not on that table but AS2 is about 0.08 W/cm-K, which is really bad.

[ptcg]

What would a 1/8" thick plate of silver cost anyway? Don't think I'd want to spend that much just to try it.

[Dissolved]

Originally posted by ptcg
What would a 1/8" thick plate of silver cost anyway? Don't think I'd want to spend that much just to try it.

wouldnt be that much..

[ol' man]

Originally posted by ptcg
What would a 1/8" thick plate of silver cost anyway? Don't think I'd want to spend that much just to try it.

I can buy 1oz bars of it for around $5. That would make a decent sheet if melted but if you go that far might as well buy like four more bars and make a whole base plate. Thing is though the maount of extra cooling you are going to see from silver ov er copper is going to be really small unless you make the Cusil alloy I spoke of above.

[Silversinksam]

Ol'mans way to procure silver is definitly the cheapest way to go, but its not that easy to smelt the silver in ones home. :) The melting point of Silver is 1760*f and if you want to try to make Cusil, copper melts at 1976*f

Cusil is 72% Silver 28% Copper

I use Sterling Silver in my heatsinks,as its easier to procure and sterling is 92.5% Silver, 7.5% copper

I buy it in sheets that are 12"x 4" x 1/8" (1/8"=3mm)




But as Ol'man mentioned Copper is very close to the thermal properties of Silver and thats why most people use Copper cold plates rather than Silver.


Copper 3.937
Aluminum 2.165
Gold 2.913
Platinum .734
Silver 4.173