Possible Heatsink Painting Problems?

[ClarkKent]

Would there be any harm in paint my heatsink or my ram sinks? Not the side making contact of coarse just the visable side.

 

[bchur83]

Usually the paint will act like an insulator. I would highly advise against it.

 

[Mark620]

I agree with bchur83, The paint will make your heasink much less efficient due to the insulating properties paint. Its not much but it will make a difference.

 

[w00p]

So aluminium heatsinks that aren't pure silver are inefficiant?
Every older black alu HS came out of the factory with an insulating layer on?

Would white spirit harm aluminium, cause I'm gonna dip one in it.

 

[LiGhTBoY]

Aluminium heatsinks are usually anodized (sp?) to prevent them from rusting, so a black/blue layer is formed on them. It does not act as an insulator though (it only has a small effect). I heard a member here dipped his anodized aluminium hs in vinegar, but it took about 8 months to get the anodization off.

 

[ClarkKent]

so is there a special paint i can use?

 

[Zerileous]

if you get an anodizing kit...
Annodizing is different from painting. You cannot annodize copper, about all you can do to change its color/prefent corrosion is nickle plate it which still decreases performance b/c nickle isnt that great of a conductor. So, for aluminum HSFs, you can annodize them or leave them just Al. For copper, about all you can do is get nickle plaiting wich isnt advisable so just leave it.

 

[LiGhTBoY]

Why do you want to paint them anw? Putting a cold cathode tube will make them light up under its colour (eg I have 2 green in my rig (not UV) and when I switch them on my whole case lights up green (also not UV).

 

[ClarkKent]

yeah alright I'll give up on painting them.

 

[nova7]

how about instant gold 24k gold plating, do they have something like that in silver?

 

[ClarkKent]

OK, so I've given up on painting a heat sink and some ram sinks. But if I go and and buy some ram sinks is it possible to get Red or Blue Copper ones? Or will copper sinks be all uncolored?

 

[dowmace]

if you get copper ones they're going to be copper colored, they won't be any other color

 

[ClarkKent]

OK so here is a silly question, maybe. Are my ram sticks going to get hot enough to warrant Copper or will Blue Aluminum be alright?

I have 2x512 sticks of Kingmax PC3500 running dual channel. Currently the ram is at stock (433MHz) but only because the heat in my CPU is too hot to overclock it any more, which I will be resolving shortly.

So will I need to worry about heat too much? I really just want them cause I think they will look cool. But if I'm going to need copper to actualy cool them then thats the way I'll go.

 

[k3nshin]

couldn't you just paint the outside of the hs? not inside the fins?

 

[ClarkKent]

Possible that would work for me. But would I see a loss cooling?

 

[dowmace]

go ahead and use aluminum on your ram, did it have 'sinks stock?

 

[ClarkKent]

No it didn't have any. Until I get a better airflow throughout my case I'm running the ram at stock, so at first the sinks would just be for show but eventually I will push the ram a little if I can.

 

[LiGhTBoY]

Ram sinks will only be necessary when you are upping the voltage to your ram. Aluminium sinks should be fine. I have a crucial stick (pc 2100) that can do 180MHz on 3.1 volts without heatsinks (stock voltage is 2.6 I think).

 

[ClarkKent]

Oh wow I'm just going to go with Aluminum. Don't think I'll ever get a good enough over clock out of my chip to warrart a ram voltage change anywhere that close.