Most heatsinks that are a hybrid copper/aluminum don't really gain anything from this. Part of my job entails testing different heatsinks and designs to see how the work. However the additional thermal junction created by inlaying copper into aluminum negates any gains from using the copper in most instances. Now in a design like Swiftech uses of a copper base with aluminum pins this works very well and gives the best of both worlds. So just because it has copper in the CPU die area; doesn't mean it will perform better. Anyway these are just some thoughts I thought you may benefit from. Keep up the good work.
Joined: 07 Apr 2003 Posts: 20349 Location: New Jersey
Posted: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 15:17:45 Post Subject:
Thanks George, and welcome.
Although I do know what you mean... I won't fully agree with you. I have received heatsinks from Speeze that helped confirm that the copper core must do something! I reviewed two coolers, identical except for the fans and that one was all aluminum and the other was the same aluminum body with a copper core. If you used the same fan on both coolers, the AlCu one beat the all Al one by 3-4C with all other factors held constant. I mentioned my plans for testing with the same fan in the review, but didn't document them at that time.
Some heatsinks have the copper bolt to the aluminum or otherwise have a poor interface, but these (and others) have the copper press fit in and the heat transfer has to be pretty good. Otherwise, why would so many manufacturers offer heatsinks like this?
I'd be interested in hearing more about what you do to... This place could use some real science!
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