no, the screwdriver is not colder than anything else in the room...nothing can be colder than ambient temperature unless said object is in direct contact with a colder object. this is not my opinion, this is Physics. heat only flows from hotter objects to colder objects...do some research on this, heat cannot be removed from a colder object to a hotter one, the laws of physics on this planet do not allow it. heat only flows one way.Originally Posted by rob[GL]
the screwdriver (or anything else metal for that matter) only feels 'colder' than paper or CDs because metal transfers heat better than paper or CDs and therefore draws heat from your skin faster than paper or CDs.
remember heat only flows from hotter objects to colder objects. us, being human and all, maintain a body temp of about 98F where room temperature tends to be closer to 70~75F thus making us warmer than ambient and all objects in the room. because we are warmer than ambient, heat flows from us to everything we touch in the room. this is why metal items feel colder when we touch them. when you touch an item, you lose heat to that object and there is less heat in your fingertip at contact making it feel 'colder' because we lose that heat to the object. metal transfers heat quite rapidly as opposed to paper which doesn't. therefore the metal object 'feels' colder only because it is removing heat from our fingertips faster.
yes, a screwdriver that was just brought into a room from another room (or fridge or the like) where the ambient air is colder will have a lower temperature initially but after a short period of time (depending of course on the temperature difference of the two rooms) the screwdriver will gain heat from the ambient air and become the same temperature. the screwdriver cannot hold the lower temperature from the other room without help. the screwdriver gains heat from the ambient temperature until they become equal and then doesn't get any hotter because it is the same temperature as ambient and heat only flows from hotter objects to colder objects.
this is why everything in the room is the same temperature as ambient...eventually.
if you put an ice cube in a room, it will gain heat from the ambient temperature causing it to melt into water. that water continues to gain heat from the ambient temperature until it becomes the same temperature as the ambient air. from that point on, the water will never lose heat nor gain heat and drop below ambient temperature or raise above ambient temperature because heat only flows from hotter objects to colder objects. you can't set an ice cube on a table in a room with an ambient temperature of 70F and not have the ice cube melt, can you?
just like the screwdriver can't be colder than ambient and neither can your processor, unless it is in direct contact with an object of a colder temperature that will remove heat from your processor. your heatsink can never be colder than ambient because the only thing it is in contact with is the ambient air and therefore cannot become a lower temperature than the ambient air because heat only flows from hotter objects to colder objects. does this make sense?
if your ambient temperature is 25C...the 'coldest' your processor can get is 25C regardless of what a thermal temp gun or TAT or CoreTemp say. Physics says 25C...period. with the heat a processor is generating even at idle at 1.00v with the frequency lower from a dropped multi, it takes a lot of heat removal ability to maintain it at ambient...just ask the water cooling guys in here.
as far as i know, there is no air cooler on the market that has the ability to remove and dissipate heat fast enough to keep a running C2D at ambient temps regardless of voltage or frequency. because of the relatively weak abilities of air coolers to remove heat when compared to a high-end water setup, chances are you are at least idling a few degrees above ambient temp if not 5C~10C regardless of what your processor and voltage drop down to.
i didn't mean for this post to be so bloody long or sound condescending in anyway, but it was clear that some readers in this thread didn't understand how temperature and heat transfer worked. i only posted this to help educate those readers better on this subject...please don't throw a fit and argue this further...just read and learn from it. ask questions if you have to and myself or others will be happy to answer but i think my explanation and examples should be more than enough.
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