What the hell is with these "heatpipe" heatsinks?

**JimBowy** · Moderator Joined: 02 Aug 2003 Posts: 1627

OK I see how they look cool but how can these copper heatpipe heatsinks really work that well? OK so if you have 3 pipes on each side you do a decent job of increasing the surface area but... why is there deadspace directly about the CPU?

Why don't we have a massive copper base touching the first 2" of the processor die? At least this would give the heat a better path to travel than a few stinken pipes.

What do you guys think? Or is there a solid copper heatsink I can already get for my i5?

**~*77*~** · Posted: Thu, 10 Nov 2011 22:17:35 Post Subject:

Whoa - where have you been for the last decade of heatsink development?!? Laughing

They do work well - better than a big slab of metal could!

**JimBowy** · Moderator Joined: 02 Aug 2003 Posts: 1627

i miss the old huge hunks of copper! =(

skarydrunkguy · Posted: Thu, 10 Nov 2011 23:47:49 Post Subject:

I would imagine that google might be capable of finding you some (supposedly) nonbiased reviews of heatpipe vs. aluminum fin designs vs. water cooling vs. spaghetti monsters...

**JimBowy** · Moderator Joined: 02 Aug 2003 Posts: 1627

did a little more research into heatpipes... didnt realize they had fluid inside all of them. nor did i realize they took advantage of a phase-change process....

thanks guys

Nookie420 · Posted: Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:26:48 Post Subject:

yeah heatpipes are pretty efficient. the problem with a big hunk of copper over the die, is that while ti does well to absorb heat, that massive of a piece of metal is also a lot harder to cool.