copper or aluminium

elmarcorulz · 06-28-2005, 02:53 PM

which is a better material for heatsink and why?

Yeti · 06-28-2005, 03:18 PM

Copper has almost twice the thermal conductivity as aluminum allowing for faster heat dissipation. Aluminum has over twice the thermal capacitance as copper. However, that really only effects the transient state, not the relative steady state conditions that computers normally run. Aluminum is much easier to machine and is normally just extruded. Copper, being a soft metal, is a bit harder to machine. This is probably the reason for the price difference and relative abundance of aluminum heat sinks.

06-28-2005, 02:53 PM	#1 (permalink)
elmarcorulz VIP Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: UK Age: 21 Posts: 6,033	copper or aluminium which is a better material for heatsink and why? __________________ C2D E6300 @ 2.6Ghz Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 2GB DDR2 667 1TB (1x500GB 2x250GB HDD) BFG 8800GTS 320MB PFC Til I Die

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06-28-2005, 03:18 PM	#2 (permalink)
Yeti VIP Member Join Date: Aug 2004 Posts: 1,300	Copper has almost twice the thermal conductivity as aluminum allowing for faster heat dissipation. Aluminum has over twice the thermal capacitance as copper. However, that really only effects the transient state, not the relative steady state conditions that computers normally run. Aluminum is much easier to machine and is normally just extruded. Copper, being a soft metal, is a bit harder to machine. This is probably the reason for the price difference and relative abundance of aluminum heat sinks.