Thermalright Unveils True Copper Ultra-120 Extreme Coolers

[ryboto]

First off, yeah a copper heatsink will be removing more heat but at the cost of ambient temperature rising IF YOU DON'T HAVE GOOD AIR FLOW.

Those scientific laws apply to the real world. Case air flow has NOTHING to do with the fact that a copper heat sink will perform better than an aluminum heat sink. Here's the skinny. An aluminum heatsink transfers heat slowly, so, compared to a copper version, it's bulk temperature is lower. To compensate, and increase heat transfer from the aluminum version, you can only increase the airflow, to increase the convective heat transfer. Because copper is warmer(due to greater heat capacity and conductivity), the temperature gradient for convective heat transfer is higher, so heat transfer to the air is greater.

Given the same airflow, the copper heatsink will outperform the aluminum. If you put the two versions in the same system, the copper will provide better cooling. This might be marginal though, considering the heatpipes on most coolers are nickel plated copper, so the only new copper here is the fins.


Either way you look at it, you're going to have to deal with the same amount of heat if your system isn't changing. You use an Aluminum heatsink, the rate of heat transfer is lower, so the rate that you heat the ambient case air is lower, but your CPU is hotter. Use a copper heatsink, rate of heat transfer to the air is higher, ambient might rise, but CPU temperature decreases.