Anandtech: Aluminum dissipates heat faster than Copper

[Killy]

http://www.anandtech.com/casecooling...spx?i=3402&p=4

I stopped reading after that sentence.

Hopefully I don't make a fool of myself, but since copper is on the whole a far better conductor than aluminum, he's just subscribing to 12th grade science nonsense / hearsay, right?

[burebista]

AFAIK copper transfers heat faster and aluminium dissipate heat faster, that's why we have heatsinks with copper base and aluminium fins.
Beside that for a copper heatsink you need a bigger CFM to dissipate heat than a aluminium heatsink.
At leas that's I know, maybe I'm wrong.

[jonnyGURU]

Originally Posted by Killy

http://www.anandtech.com/casecooling...spx?i=3402&p=4

I stopped reading after that sentence.

Hopefully I don't make a fool of myself, but since copper is on the whole a far better conductor than aluminum, he's just subscribing to 12th grade science nonsense / hearsay, right?

No, you're right. Copper conducts and dissipates heat better than aluminum.

[jonnyGURU]

Originally Posted by burebista

AFAIK copper transfers heat faster and aluminium dissipate heat faster, that's why we have heatsinks with copper base and aluminium fins.
Beside that for a copper heatsink you need a bigger CFM to dissipate heat than a aluminium heatsink.
At leas that's I know, maybe I'm wrong.

That's incorrect. The absorption and dissipation of heat are the same thing, just in two different directions. That's just physics. Releasing heat depends on a temperature gradient. Copper conducts heat AWAY from the CPU faster than aluminium, and so sets up a steeper temperature gradient between itself and the air so giving better dissipation. The reason copper heatsinks get hotter than aluminium is because copper is doing it's job better.

[HOOfan_1]

Aluminum is cheaper, lighter and easier to machine than Copper, thus it used as PSU heatsinks

[jonnyGURU]

Exactly. Copper prices just keep going up, and the tooling costs double to machine it. For the very slight performance increase you get with copper, it's just not worth it. At least not in a PSU.

[spursindonesia]

Nice info guys, i also shared the same misconception as said by Burebista earlier, now i see the rightful answer to that.

[Super Nade]

Thermal conductivity of Cu is almost one and a half times that of Al (401 v/s 250).