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Purpose of copper cold plate?

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Octoman

Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2001
Location
Houston, TX
Whay is the purpose of a copper cold plate? It goes between the water bloack and the CPU core correct? What purpose does it server?
Thanks.
 
You only want to use a cold plate if you're using TECs....

It does a couple of things. First, it spreads the heat from the cpu over the entire surface of the TEC as the TEC isn't terribly good at spreading the heat.

Second, it allows you to put the necessary 300 some odd pounds of pressure on the TEC without crushing your chip. :)
 
I've been wondering that too. Does the plate go between the CPU and pelt, or what? And do you really need 300lbs, I've been using 50 tops.
 
150~300 lbs depending on manf specs. It really does make a difference to the performance. Cold plate goes between cold side of peltier and the cpu. It also helps prevent thermal shock as it acts as a buffer and prevents wildly fluctuating cpu temps.
 
Theres supposed to be 150 to 300lb's pressure when you tighten the tec down. Not on the core though. Unles you want to make a keychain:). Thats whats nice about the DD Maze 2-2's (I think thats right). You can torque down the tec and then put the assembly on the cpu seperately to get the correct torque on the tec without crushing the core.
 
wow thats alot of pressure I never thought it would be that much.... Btw does anyone else find that if they been awayf for this fourm for an hour or so they have to log back in?
 
LimeyGreg said:
150~300 lbs depending on manf specs. It really does make a difference to the performance. Cold plate goes between cold side of peltier and the cpu. It also helps prevent thermal shock as it acts as a buffer and prevents wildly fluctuating cpu temps.

The upper limit will still be for the weakest component -the CPU core. Since the whole assembly is in a stack, the force is the same for all components -waterblock, pelt, cold plate, CPU. The max. then would be 24 lbf. Any more and you're walking on thin ice... *crack* BTW, pressure is defined as force per area -unit: psi (Pound-forces per Square Inch).
 
so should we all go out and buy torq renches or are you guys just guestimating this 300lb

After I set up my cookies and everything in user cp I havent had to log back in once.
 
Many of the newer waterblocks feature bolt on cold plates so you can get the 150 PSI a pelt requires without crushing your CPU. You can look up the specs for a bolt in a Machinists Handbook. The bolts on a Danger Den cold plate require only 2 ft lbs of torque allthough with dual pelts. I have found more torque helps.

Another function of the cold plate is to keep the hot side of the pelt further from the object being cooled.
 
FerrariF50 said:
Btw does anyone else find that if they been awayf for this fourm for an hour or so they have to log back in?

Do you have "cookies" set to off? It seems a cookie is the way they log you on automatically so you don't have to relog.

The forum dumped me entirely. Changed my user name and password, then would not let me register again because my email address was in use. I had them send my name and password to the email address, which they will do, to find out the new password they gave me. I found out they also gave me a new name! Maybe it was the new software after the crash or maybe they didn't like something I said (sorry!), I don't know.
 
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Yeah they were set off but I fixed it now thanks!

CalCoolage said:


Do you have "cookies" set to off? It seems a cookie is the way they log you on automatically so you don't have to relog.

The forum dumped me entirely. Changed my user name and password, then would not let me register again because my email address was in use. I had them send my name and password to the email address, which they will do, to find out the new password they gave me. I found out they also gave me a new name! Maybe it was the new software after the crash or maybe they didn't like something I said (sorry!), I don't know.
 
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