Could a large copper heatsink sufficiently cool anything?

[darious00777]

From my limited understanding of it, are the copper heat pipes on higher end models of heat sink fans just thick pieces of copper leading up to the heatsink? If that's the case, would it be possible to create a long copper heatsink, connect it to the CPU, have it go out the case, and be cooled externally?

Crude drawing:

Just a thought I had. Ignore the obviously problem of being able to close the case while properly seating the heat sink fan and the potential for ESD though improper grounding.

 

[cozwin]

lol no basicly

the heat wouldnt be cooled efficently by the air outside because copper is a really good insulator thats why in heat sinks the copper pipes pass the heat to a less good insulator like aluminium, so then the heat slowly releases.

so basicly not a great plan

 

[darious00777]

Ah well, it was worth the thought. Would be a good alternative to fans/water cooling since there'd be nothing to really fail unless physics took a left turn to wackytown.

 

[rockyjohn]

Copper is an excellent conductor and very poor insulator - of heat and electricity. Copper is not used for fins in less expensive heat pipes because it is also very malleable and will bend easily. Aluminum is not as good a conductor but is much more rigid, which is why it is used in heat sinks.
I would guess the biggest problem with your idea is simple a physical one. Adding a device outside the case would make it much more prone to damage - the disadvantage being not only the cost of the damaged external heatsink but the loss of the integrity of the heatsink and potential damage to the entire system.
Water cooled systems share the same attribute, although the hoses are much more flexible than rigid metal. In addition, the real question is which is more efficient. Apparently water works better as it has a high capacity to easily aborb heat. In a refrigerator they don't use copper to conduct heat from inside, but gas - with copper or similar metallic vents on the outside.

 

[darious00777]

I suppose the only thing I could think of to correct this would be to add a line of steel to the center of the wiring to give it a little bit more strength.

Once outside the case, it was my idea that there would be supports to keep the thing from bending too much. And something at the ends of the pipes to keep from keeping static to flowing through it as easily.

 

[SEALBoy]

lol no basicly

the heat wouldnt be cooled efficently by the air outside because copper is a really good insulator thats why in heat sinks the copper pipes pass the heat to a less good insulator like aluminium, so then the heat slowly releases.

so basicly not a great plan

Someone needs to go back to high school. Copper is one the BEST conductors out there. Which means its one of the WORST insulators. Why do you think the best heatsinks are copper? It quickly conducts the heat away from the CPU and up the fins, from where it is blown away.

 

[3lfk1ng]

From my limited understanding of it, are the copper heat pipes on higher end models of heat sink fans just thick pieces of copper leading up to the heatsink?

Heatpipes are actually hollow....most of them contain a liquid, some of them contain a sintered wick.

See for yourself

 

[darious00777]

Ah, so that's how it all works. Pretty much wipes out the idea I have, since all the heat would just stagnate.

 

[HotFoot]

There are some coolers that extend the heatpipes outside of the case, but these are mostly for fanless graphics and power supply applications. I haven't seen anything other than water cooling that pipes the heat from the CPU to an out-of-the-case radiator.

If you wanted to build such a massive rigid cooler, you need to worry about more than the strength of the cooler itself. You'd need to build supports for the cooler other than the mobo mountings, or you could damage the mobo. Since this is the case, each cooler/mobo/case combination would have to be custom made, which is probably a good portion of the reason you don't see cpu coolers that extend outside of the case (except water cooling, which has flexible tubes). On the other hand, GPU and PSU positions relative to the case are very consistent, and it's relatively simple to design a cooler with universal application.

 

[darious00777]

I could almost see a GPU application. Might be kind of hard to deal with installation. A box fan outside the case should sufficiently cool the heat pipes. Though that kind of defeats the purpose of having silence.