how thin is too thin?

[Liss]

for my new waterblock..
i'm gonna have 3 pieces (cause that would be easiest for me)..


top piece: barbs attached
middle piece: channels will be cut out with a jigsaw
third piece: the base

the three pieces will be soldered on...



wondering...
how thin is to thin for the base?

i want to use copper sheet metal..

 

[wildfrogman]

well, from what i have gathered and seen with some cfd software i was able to try out awhile ago around 1/8th inch is pretty good. Very stiff~ lets you clamp down really hard with no bending, allows the heat to spread out over a decent area also. Unless you have a waterbock setup like Cather's where there are alot of micro fins and such you need the heat to spread out a bit to get good temps.

 

[Liss]

my wb is going to be like this..
except my design for a cpu block


http://www.zerofanzone.co.uk/content.asp?request=liquidbarracudaiv&Page=2

thats the size sheet metal i'm gonna use.. that is okie for cpu right?

 

[SemiCycle]

It is tough to give you the perfect base thickness. Some many other things have to be considered. I've heard many people use a base thickness of about 3mm though.

 

[JFettig]

gemini blocks have a thickness of .05inches, thats less than 1/16inch, some blocks have over .25inches like the swifty.... just make sure it doesnt bend..

 

[Liss]

wuts bad bout using a really thin base?

 

[JFettig]

it all depends on the wtaerblock design... sometimes a thin base wont perform good(i guess) i dont know why it woulnt honestly...

 

[Albigger]

you have to have good cooling ability (surface area) right over the die because the thinner base doesn't give the heat a chance to spread out laterally as much. And then there's the bending issue.

But really that's about it....

 

[Cathar]

The optimal base thickness is totally design dependent. Hard to make a rough and fast rule on it though. You really need to simulate it, or iterate through multiple base thicknesses though.

One quick dirty rule though: Don't make the base any thinner than the width of your channels unless you are really sure of what you're doing. Anything below 2mm can be generally regarded as too thin unless the design is specifically doing something to work well with ultra-thin bases.