Tarnish?

[Odai]

Hello,

I recently tore down my loop, and found an insane amount of what appears to be tarnish on the base of my NB block:

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x255/Odaik/b36e2a45.jpg

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x255/Odaik/cf8e7c5d.jpg

Or am I mistaken?

If not, is it normal for it to occur to this extent? Would it affect conduction performance at all?

I just paid about 100 euros to get a copper VGA block from EK (as opposed to a new nickel one). I rapidly started to regret it when I compared the base of the used nickel CPU block I have to the copper base of the NB block. :D

[lowfat]

Just scrub it w/ some ketchup and an old tooth brush. Should look good as new afterward. Copper oxidizes, simple as that.

[Wolf132]

Just use some ketchup and a tooth brush and it will most likely come right off. It shouldn't affect performance any. Tarnish actually forms over the copper to protect it from any further degradation.

[defect9]

yep, copper does that. nope, it won't affect conduction. +1 ketchup. different grades of copper and what they're exposed to (both chemical and temperature) will affect how quickly it tarnishies

[orclev]

I just pulled my CPU block off and it was in a similar state, although the inside was actually much worse (I haven't cleaned it out properly in like 2 years, just a flush about a year ago). The base was in fairly good condition with just a bit of tarnish near the edges. The inside of the block however was almost completely black. Didn't really effect performance at all. I'm debating on whether I'm even going to scrub it up or not as I'm replacing that waterblock anyway. If you clean your loop more often the tarnish will typically be fairly minor and easily removed (even when it's worse it's still relatively easy to remove), but tarnish isn't what you really need to worry about. What you should watch out for is anything growing in your loop, or severe oxidation to the point where the surfaces are actually damaged. If it's just some discoloration it's not much to worry about.