Mosfet/Chipset Aluminum Heatsinks - How much do they help?

I'm looking at some passive chipset heatsinks, (for inside a fan cooled case (fans blowing in)). Like 13x13x6mm aluminum grid-cut heatsinks. How much will these help cooling? How much will they reduce cfm requirements, to maintain the same temps?


The adhesive tape can have a W/m*K of .6 to 1... whereas the permanent adhesive or epoxy from a 2 syringes can be as much as 7.5 W/m*K
How much of a difference is that in real life results?


((looking at a few - all aluminum, adhesive tape, all grid cut, some have the fins splayed. some around 13x13x6mm, and some around 20x20x10mm or larger))

We need a LOT more information.
What is the build? What is the ambient? Where exactly are you thinking about putting the heatsinks?

Just in general.. not for any specific build. I recall some review saying that 6x6x3mm aluminum heatsinks brought mosfets from 120*C to 85*C. (248*F to 185*F) To cool a surface by 60*F, simply by covering the surface with 3mm high heatsink fins... is impressive... if true.

edit - found the reviews at amzn (but unsure about posting links) They're 6.4 x 6.4 x 3.4mm aluminum grid-cut heatsinks.. with heat-conductive tape
the reviews say...
-Mosfets - 120C dropped to 85C (60F)
-VRM - 76C went to 55C (24C ambient) (20F)
-temps went down 7 degrees
- Powercolor HD 7850 - idle, went from high 30's to low 30's. games at full graphics went from near 50º to the mid 40's. (fit four of them per RAM chip. The copper pipe of the GPU heat sink cover half of one of the RAM chips. I was able to stick the aluminum sink where the pipe was not covering


The other Q is, how much of a difference is there between using thermal tape, vs Arctic Silver thermal epoxy?



My design is to be *silent* at 5-6 feet, or less. And fairly cool too.

ps I saw your Water Cube build and it looks like Noctua fans on the CPU heatsink. That's what I was considering.. NF-P12 or NF-F12. I already have the P12 and it's definitely silent before 5 feet. Good static pressure and runs horizontally fine.

The NF-P12 has about the highest acceptable sound level (and a good sound quality), and for moving 56cfm of air. I haven't found any other 120mm that is better or comparable. At the same dba, the NF-F12 has higher pressure, but less cfm.
The only other fan I found was the Arctic F12 (version 2) at 74cfm and sone .3 (22.x dba), which can also go horizontally, and is said to have "decent pressure", however can make noise when run at middle rpm's. At $8 it might be a worthwhile grab to see what it actually does.

Of course it'll help to some degree, but whether it's worth it or not we need to know what it'd be going on.

It had an NH-D14 before I went to water cooling, yes. Their fans are the best choice for you, IMO.