Quote Originally Posted by cegras View Post
Probably through the PCB, surrounded materials the chip is in contact with, etc, etc, etc.

If the Al won't wick away the heat fast enough from the CPU, it'll disperse with whatever else it is in contact with.

That makes total sense. Baron's point does make sense, though it's a bit .. confusing in presentation.
No, what happens with Al as opposed to Cu is that the rate of heat transfer is lower, so instead the CPU is hotter as a result. Sure, you'll have some heat transfer to the socket, and to other places, but the surface area for heat transfer in those directions are much much smaller, so their resistance to heat transfer is much much greater that they don't really do much in the grand scheme.