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What are heat sinks made of???

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newbienerd

Member
Joined
May 26, 2004
Location
Lethbridge, AB
What kind of metal are heatsinks usually made of? Can they be made from magnetizable material? Will it cause interference?

The thing is, I have some sheet metal (steel) that I want to turn into small homemade heatsinks. they will be glued onto my pci chips and any chips that get too warm for my taste... I already know what to do, but the question in my head is the material?

What's a good, yet not so expensive metal to use to construct heatsinks from? Best conductivity? last long? workable yet strong?

thanks...
 
Usually aluminum or copper, or a mixture of both. (copper base aluminum fins)

Copper is a great material for conducting heat, so it can pull the heat off of things faster than aluminum.

But aluminum is a better material for dissipating heat.

The best is silver, but the price outways the results.
 
Well, since copper and aluminum are two of the most common materials in heatsinks you could start there. You can buy copper at any hardware store and bend it into shape, or you could save yourself the time, effort, and possibly warped contact point which would require lapping and buy a heatsink which isn't that expensive because they can buy the aluminum/copper in bulk while you have to pay the full price. Just depends on if your low on money or low on time. As to the magnitizable metals, I have no idea, but making an iron heatsink might be a little heavy depending on where you're putting it. :)
 
FLG said:
But aluminum is a better material for dissipating heat.

not true, aluminum is more widly used because of its weight and costs as well as ease to machine.
Dissipation is restricted by the air, although copper is a better conductor, both aluminum/copper will have the same dissipation rate.
 
Last edited:
Just buy an el cheapo stock hs and cut it into smaller pieces that you can use.
 
Never, ever, ever, ever, never neva nevah nevah evah, use STEEL for anything related to the transfer of heat away from anything. It is iron+tin, neither of which have heat conductivity that is worth a flip. Plus it is assininely difficult to manufacture and manipulate. Buy sheets of alluminum if you want to fugg around.

-Frank
 
Make friends with the guys at your local computer repair shop. Tell them you want old heat sinks, especially those with dead fans. Do this right after you buy something small that you really need, and they will probably be glad to give you all you want out of their scrap or trash bin. You can often salvage small heat sinks and sizeable chunks of aluminum out of old power supplies... dead AT power supplies are worthless but contain lots of good usable parts.

If you really want to experiment with building your own, you can also set up an account with an industrial supplier like McMaster-Carr if you are in the USA. They sell copper and aluminum in a variety of small shapes and sizes. But, I suspect that salvaging will be the cheapest way to go.

You can use a good thermal epoxy such as Arctic Silver Adhesive to attach them and still maintain good thermal conductivity through the adhesive joint. It will be a permanent attachment, though.

Dave
[email protected]
 
Yamiyanazz said:
I think there was somplace that I visited that showed that Diamond was a hella great heatsink material, but costed too much...maybe chips should get really small so we can use diamond heatsink...Ahhh the power!



Edit: Here is a link I just found of materials and their heat conduction. http://hypertextbook.com/physics/thermal/conduction/

There have been a couple long threads right here on the subject of diamond heatsinks. Really its a waste to even discuss because it will never happen.
 
man_utd said:
That and if it overheated too much you would have a coal powered heatsink..

Without Googling... I seem to remember that diamond lattice structures break down at about 800C. For which of course, your CPU would be long dead anyway.

But looking at the chart referred to above, carbon nanotubes may show promise if they can get the delivery right.

Dave
[email protected]
 
insulglass said:
Without Googling... I seem to remember that diamond lattice structures break down at about 800C. For which of course, your CPU would be long dead anyway.

But looking at the chart referred to above, carbon nanotubes may show promise if they can get the delivery right.

Dave
[email protected]

those have been under research for years now.. any ideas when they'll start using it?
 
Dubbin1 said:
There have been a couple long threads right here on the subject of diamond heatsinks. Really its a waste to even discuss because it will never happen.

Not true. Diamonds found in nature are quite common, but DeBeer's drives the prices up, so natural diamonds won't make it to the heatsink market. However, Industrial diamonds are quite easy to make in large quantities, and since they aren't pretty looking, no one wants them for jewelry. I could believe industrial diamonds might make it to the heatsink market, especially if cpu temps continue to rise tempreture wise.
 
Lejend said:
Not true. Diamonds found in nature are quite common, but DeBeer's drives the prices up, so natural diamonds won't make it to the heatsink market. However, Industrial diamonds are quite easy to make in large quantities, and since they aren't pretty looking, no one wants them for jewelry. I could believe industrial diamonds might make it to the heatsink market, especially if cpu temps continue to rise tempreture wise.

Don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen ;)


Anyway here's a good chart for newbienerd:

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
 
I read on another forum, old posts though, that aluminum was !better! than copper. It was a old thread but I hope they saw the light by now.

From what I have read and in my experience, aluminum may get rid of it faster but copper absorbs it faster. That is just my opinion though. No science to bak that up for sure.

Diamonds may make it one day, but as was said, don't hold your breath. It would be cool though. SOmebody could take a really cool blue LED or something and make that diamond shine. :D

Just something to think about.

:D :D :D :D
 
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