The better heatsink...

[steven37]

What material is better for a cpu heatsink? copper or aluminium

 

[shellls45]

Copper

 

[nukemaster]

Copper is "better", but far too heavy for a full heatsink. Imagine the NH-D14 in all copper.

To be honest, similarly sized aluminum fin copper base/pipes heat sinks worked as well as the CNPS 9500 cooler(an all copper unit).

I think it is something to the effect that aluminum releases heat fast and copper absorbs it faster. The combination(copper to take the heat from the cpu and the aluminum fins to transfer it to the air) works VERY well.

 

[steven37]

So which one of these would you recommend?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118223

 

[shellls45]

212 all day

 

[nukemaster]

212 all day

same

And I have both

 

[steven37]

Ok thanks alot

 

[nukemaster]

Just ensure you have room for it, Most cases with room for a 120mm fan will fit the 212. Also ensure your do not have ram with huge heat sinks.

If those are issues, the 9500AT is shorter and clears memory better.

 

[steven37]

Yeah i was just watching youtube videos on cooler's with big heatsinks and people were having problems. i have a ThorV2 case, my board is the crosshair v formula, and i have g.skill ripjaws ram... do you think the Noctua will fit??? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018

 

[nukemaster]

It is like your heatsinks keep getting bigger.

This review says it WILL fit.
http://www.vortez.net/articles_pages/rosewill_thor_v2_review,8.html

I have the NH D14 and it clears my Gskill memory, but I have to put the first stick(closest to the cpu) in BEFORE the heatsink. Not a problem for me as I am only using 2 slots.

I have these sticks(Ripjaws X).

http://ncix.com/products/?sku=73133&vpn=F3-12800CL10D-16GBXL&manufacture=G.Skill

 

[steven37]

yeah i have these for my memory http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314 i was planning on putting 2 more sticks in my build to make it 16gb but ill just get the cooler first to see if i have room for sure im getting the NH D14 though

 

[nukemaster]

The heatsink has lots of room, you just may need to push the fan up a bit.

The Gskill website says they are both 40mm tall.

Here is what to expect

The 212 sits much lower then the NH D14

 

[steven37]

ok one last question how much of a improvement should i see? with my noisy stock cooler my temps are jumping from 25c to about 32c and when im gaming it goes to about right under 50c but never reaches 50...(cpu is not OC)

 

[nukemaster]

That depends on factors such as what cpu as well as your case air flow.

At the very least, The NH D14 is a very quiet cooler(if your board controls the fan speeds it is better).

To be honest, 50c does not sound that bad.

 

[dish_moose]

Thermal conductivity of copper(204-223) is Is way better at conducting heat compared with aluminum (118-144). Silver is even better - and more expensive. That is why only a small part of the heatsink is made of copper - $$.
-Bruce

 

[steven37]

yeah anything under 50c is great its just im tired of listening to the noisy little stock cooler, the big fans that came with my computer case are 3x's as big and i can barely here them.. my cpu is the amd 8150 im sure there's plenty of room in my Big case

 

[nukemaster]

AMD's stock coolers are just loud(thinking 4000+ rpm last time I used one.).

The large fans are better because they can spin slower while moving more air.

@dish_moose, Thanks for the numbers.

 

[phx08]

Copper by far is better at conducting heat and better at dissipating through convection. Why? It doesn’t matter what the material is made of, what matter is the temperature difference between ambient and delta. The bigger the difference the faster the heat transfer, ergo copper (since its better at conducting heat) will be better at dissipating it since its able to get itself “hotter”.

I hope that made sense…
Source: Smith, Johnathon, 2005
As a kind of counter situation which some may be trying to prod at though, the specific heat of copper is .0923 cal/gK and it has a density of 8.92g/mL. Aluminum has a specific heat of .215 cal/gK and a density of 2.702 g/mL (Chemfinder.com).
If you take those and figure out the heat capacity per volume, then you get 0.82 cal/mL*K copper and 0.58 cal/mL*K for aluminum. It seems like some unnamed computer sites may think that their equivalent copper heat sink takes longer to cool down than the aluminum one because per volume, the copper will store more thermal energy per temperature. That is very true, but it does not deal with how well the metals conduct heat or anything else that is often implied.