Just wondering what everyone thinks is the best material for use as a heatsink.

RIAA: "Where do you want to hack today?"

platinum

<b>Remember, being two-faced is like having two lives with just one set of taxes.</b>

From my experience... Copper bottom, aluminum fins.

Copper absorbs heat, but doesn't radiate it all that well.
Aluminum seems to release heat more willingly.

This provides a nice combination... the copper draws the heat off the CPU and the aluminum takes the heat from the copper and dissipates it into the air.

Also the aluminum/copper combination is lighter, which puts less strain on the mounting brackets and ZIF socket.

Example: <A HREF="http://www.spirecooler.com/asp/fcc.asp?ProdID=95" target="_new">http://www.spirecooler.com/asp/fcc.asp?ProdID=95</A>



<b>(</b>It ain't better if it don't work.<b> )</b>

My smarty-smart periodic table commands you to use Silver (Ag) as you heatsink material.

Here is a list of all the (natural) elements and their Thermal conductivity [W cm1 K1 (3)]- starting with the best.

Silver - 4.29
Copper - 4.01
Gold - 3.17
Aluminum - 2.37
Beryllium - 2.00
Calcium - 2.00
Tungsten - 1.74
Magnesium - 1.56
Rhodium - 1.50
Silicon - 1.48
Iridium - 1.47
Sodium - 1.41
Molybdenum - 1.38
Carbon - 1.29
Ruthenium - 1.17
Zinc - 1.16
Potassium - 1.024
Cobalt - 1.00
Cadmium - 0.968
Chromium - 0.937
Nickel - 0.907
Osmium - 0.876
Lithium - 0.847
Indium - 0.816
Iron - 0.802
Palladium - 0.718
Platinum - 0.716
Tin - 0.666 (Tin is the most evil of all elements)
Germanium - 0.599
Rubidium - 0.582
Tantalum - 0.575
Thorium - 0.540
Niobium - 0.537
Technetium - 0.506
Arsenic - 0.500
Rhenium - 0.479
Protactinium - 0.47
Thallium - 0.461
Gallium - 0.406
Cesium - 0.359
Strontium - 0.353
Lead - 0.353
Vanadium - 0.307
Uranium - 0.276
Boron - 0.270
Antimony - 0.243
Hafnium - 0.230
Zirconium - 0.227
Titanium - 0.219
Polonium - 0.20
Radium - 0.186
Barium - 0.184
Promethium - 0.179
Yttrium - 0.172
Thulium - 0.168
Neodymium - 0.165
Lutetium - 0.164
Holmium - 0.162
Scandium - 0.158
Francium - 0.15
Erbium - 0.143
Europium - 0.139
Lanthanum - 0.135
Ytterbium - 0.349
Samarium - 0.133
Praseodymium - 0.125
Actinium - 0.12
Cerium - 0.114
Terbium - 0.111
Dysprosium - 0.107
Gadolinium - 0.106
Mercury - 0.0834
Bismuth - 0.0787
Manganese - 0.0782
Plutonium - 0.0674
Neptunium - 0.063
Selenium - 0.0304
Tellurium - 0.0235
Astatine - 0.017
Oxygen - 0.0092674
Iodine - 0.00449
Sulfur - 0.00269
Phosphorus - 0.00235
Hydrogen - 0.001815
Helium - 0.00152
Bromine - 0.00122
Neon - 0.000493
Fluorine - 0.000279
Nitrogen 0.0002598
Argon - 0.0001772
Krypton - 0.0000949
Chlorine - 0.000089
Xenon - 0.0000569
Radon - 0.0000364

So if you bought a Metallic-Radon heatsink... WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?

Silver is the best!
Get a solid silver heatsink!
Might be a tad expensive though.

Here are the pros and cons:

SILVER PROS:
Best of all with thermal conductivity!

SILVER CONS:
Expensive!
Tarnishes quickly
Soft, will dint and hard to make thin fins.
Heavy!

COPPER PROS:
Allmost as good as silver with thermal conductivity.
cheap.
doesnt tarnish terribly much
harder

COPPER CONS:
Still very heavy compared to aluminium.
can dint
thin fins can be bent easily
has high thermal conductivity but lower thermal dissapation.

ALUMINIUM PROS:
Light
Hard
Oxide layer stops tarnishing/corrosion
Easy to forge
high thermal dissapation

ALUMINIUM CONS:
bit more expensive than copper
lower thermal conductivity

So the ideal heatsink has a mix of copper/aluminium or silver/aluminium... as you see on many heatsinks.
A copper core or base for quick thermal transfer away from the cpu core with aluminium topside + fins/pins for lighter weight, and greater heat dissapation.


<i>"Revenues were less than robust"</i> - QWEST
<i>"The company applied its accounting policies incorrectly"</i> - WORLDCOM
<i>"Certian financial adjustments may be required"</i> - AOL+TW.

awww, my platinum shot in the dark sunk faster than the titanic... crap, and i thought that something so expensive would be so good, hehahahhaha lol

<b>Remember, being two-faced is like having two lives with just one set of taxes.</b>

So you are saying that the lead heatsink will defiantly be better than my current uranium heatsink?

"Apple is more like the French army. They have great style and class, they often get praised for their valor, and they do everything except win."-<A HREF="http://www.overclockers.com" target="_new">Ed Stroligo</A>

Well... yeah, seeing how a Uranium(235) heatsink would probably create its own heat and give off some amounts of Radon as it decayed. Plus I'm sure it would void the warranty on several different componates.

But an aluminum case emitting Cerenkov radiation would be very cool!

With a heatsink like that, who needs cold cathode lights?


or skin for that matter....lol

"Apple is more like the French army. They have great style and class, they often get praised for their valor, and they do everything except win."-<A HREF="http://www.overclockers.com" target="_new">Ed Stroligo</A>

While we're on the subject of "what elements would-" The best possible Heatsink would be a silver cup full of boiling Helium. Helium boils at 4 degrees above absolute zero! O_O

Wouldnt that lead to a problem of the silicon superconducting?

"Apple is more like the French army. They have great style and class, they often get praised for their valor, and they do everything except win."-<A HREF="http://www.overclockers.com" target="_new">Ed Stroligo</A>

u really wouldnt want a uranium 235 one! much easier to get U238. MUCH MUCH more pleantiful, heavier, more stable and less prone to poisoning your with radiation.

how about a hollow heatsink filled with water?

<i>"Revenues were less than robust"</i> - QWEST
<i>"The company applied its accounting policies incorrectly"</i> - WORLDCOM
<i>"Certian financial adjustments may be required"</i> - AOL+TW.

A hollow metal block with water inside it?

That's impossible.

no its not... make it from 2 pieces. though it is proly inneficient and heavy... nothing in there to really circulate the water

<i>"Revenues were less than robust"</i> - QWEST
<i>"The company applied its accounting policies incorrectly"</i> - WORLDCOM
<i>"Certian financial adjustments may be required"</i> - AOL+TW.

I understand.

How about a 1kg Uranium-235 HSF? BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!


In case you don't know the critical mass (amount of mass needed to create nuclear reaction without sending in slow neutrons in the case of Uranium) of Uranium-235 is 1kg.

My dual-PSU PC is so powerfull that the neighbourhood dims when I turn it on