779
Copper (media.piefed.social)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/historymemes@piefed.social
93 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 11 points 5 months ago (1 child)

Is that not because the copper holds more heat, so stays hot for longer at the same dissipation?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 5 points 5 months ago* (2 children)

    Maybe you're right, but I remember than in the 2000s I've had identical cpu heatsinks in both copper/aluminum versions, and the aluminum one had better performance. And then they started to make hybrid ones, stating that the copper part was to allow rapid heat transference and the aluminum parts to improve dissipation. But maybe it was all marketing.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 11 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 child)

    Aluminium is significantly cheaper, that's why they make coolers with a copper base and alu fins. It's a good compromise.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago*

    I just thought of another reason for using Al this way.
    Since the heat is being transferred to air, which would be much slower than the 2, using larger fins with lesser thermal conductivity might be more desirable than smaller fins with higher conductivity.
    This would also be accompanied with other design changes like greater fin-fin gap, which is better for use with lower pressure fans.
    So overall cheaper design and lesser noise.

    Of course one could still use Copper fins with the same design for marginal performance increase, at the cost of more weight.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent