Travesty

[Haider]

A travesty to the onward and upward march of technology: -
http://www.enermax.co.uk/ets-t40.html

Replacing: -
http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=87

The all copper heat-sink. Looking around at the market and pretty much all heat-sinks are copper heatpipes with aluminium heat-sinks. Copper is better than aluminium for heat-sinks. I feel as sick as parrot.

 

[Bobnova]

And yet, all the best heatsinks in the world use aluminum fins.
The copper TRUE was barely better than the alumimum TRUE, though it cost a LOT more and was far heavier.

Heatpipes allow us to use staggering array of fins on a heatsink without meaningful conduction losses.
Given a much smaller heatsink, copper vs aluminum would mean more.

 

[RGE]

The aluminum true weighed just under 2 pounds, and imo heavy enough for mobo in a vertical position to avoid mechanical stress on mobo. The all copper true weighed just over 4 pounds, too heavy for my taste for an air heatsink for use a vertical mobo, when carrying computer case around.

And like Bobnova said, temps are barely any better, the all copper true typically tested 1C better than the aluminum.

Though I like the thought of all copper even for the 1 degree, the downside of weight would keep me from ever using one, and with best coolers today being even bigger all copper versions would be even heavier than copper true.

 

[ehume]

Although copper is better for carrying heat, I read somewhere that aluminum is better for dispersing it.

OTOH, that 120x96x82mm heatsink with its 80mm fan should be cute. Be sure to report to us the temps you are getting with your Enermax, and compare them with the temps you get from your Hyper 6.

 

[RGE]

Aluminum dispersing heat better than copper is an old internet myth. Some had suggested it based on spec heat of alum (0.9 J/gk) being higher than copper (.386 J/gK), but correcting for density where copper is over 3x more dense than alum, copper block of given size spec heat is higher than aluminum, not to mention thermal conductivity is king in air cooling.

Even though coppers thermal conductivity is nearly 2x that of aluminum, thermal conductivity effect is reduced if another limiting factor is impeding things.

The heatsink base and copper pipes have relatively low surface area, so copper with 2x transfer rate of heat of alum will show a significant difference there. So you have an 8 line highway (heatink base/copper pipes) with speedlimit of copper, 400 w/mk. Then that 8 lane (copper base/heat pipe) highway becomes a 100,000 back roads (alum fins) with speed limit of 200 w/mk of aluminum, that goes into infinite driveways of air with speed limit of .024w/mk.

Question is then, where is the traffic jam/limiting factor? Does the limiting 8 line highway (smaller surface area of heatsink/pipes) bring enough traffic (heat) to the 100,000 back roads (fins) that the offload to back roads become congested? Especially when a second traffic jam, transfering off back roads (fins) to the infinite driveways (air) is so slow at .024w/mk. Is it going to get any better, driving 400 w/mk down backroads (fins) instead of 200 w/mK, when traffic is slower at both ends, the 8 line highway because of low surface area and air driveways because of low speed .024w/mk, or is it going to be nearly irrelevant.

My guess if very accurate measurements were done, there would be less than 1C difference between all copper and copper heatsink/alum fins....unless you could increase rate of transfer to the fins or used a better cooling medium than air. Or put it this way, you could easily design enough surface area with alum fins, given a set copper base/heatpipe design, and given air/fan design/speed.....to make the difference between copper and alum fins, much less than 1C.

 

[azanimefan]

it all comes down to price. Aluminum is cheap and rigid. so they can make thin and light fins, it's good enough really.

Copper is expensive, soft, and dense. similar width fins will be as soft as tinfoil, easily bend and warp, and it will still be too heavy to use without some sort of weight support.

As a result, they use an inferior cooling solution (aluminum) for the fins to keep prices down, durability up, and weight down. I don't see the problem really. Aluminum has its uses.

 

[bmwbaxter]

Aluminum has its uses.

Beer cans!