Cooper or gold heatsink?

I have one of those fancy reserators - water cooler. The supplied heatsink block for the processor is gold plated (copper underneath I think). I bought another for the 2nd cpu, and they would only supply the plain copper one. Now I thought the gold was better - that's the way they advertise it. Yet the gold one achieves 60C and the copper one 50C! Can this be right?

--
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Mary had a little lamb, It walked into a pylon. 10,000 volts went up it's arse, And turned it's wool to nylon.

Copper is a better conductor of heat than gold so theoretically the
non-plated block will be better. In reality the plating is so thin as to
make no appreciable difference. I think the gold plating is more a marketing
rouse to justify charging more for the block.

I would suspect that the difference in your temps are caused by one of two
things:

1. If you have the blocks piped up in series (i.e. water flows from one to
the other) the second block is getting supplied with pre-warmed water from
the first block and so does not cool as well.
2. If you have the blocks in parallel one block is getting much more flow
than the other. To fix this make sure that the piping is symmetrical as far
as possible and you could also put a worm-drive clip around the 'cool' block
outlet and use it to balance the flow.

Given the temps you are achieving I've got to ask why are you using water
cooling?...you would get better temps with half decent air coolers without
all the hassle and expense.

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"Peter Hucker" wrote in message
newspsaa6tredaiowgp@blue...
I have one of those fancy reserators - water cooler. The supplied
heatsink block for the processor is gold plated (copper underneath I think).
I bought another for the 2nd cpu, and they would only supply the plain
copper one. Now I thought the gold was better - that's the way they
advertise it. Yet the gold one achieves 60C and the copper one 50C! Can
this be right?

--
13 parrots and rising http://www.petersparrots.com
93 silly video clips http://www.insanevideoclips.com
1259 digital photos http://www.petersphotos.com
Served from a watercooled dual 3.2GHz silent Athlon with 512GB of
watercooled Raid.

Mary had a little lamb, It walked into a pylon. 10,000 volts went up it's
arse, And turned it's wool to nylon.

On Mon, 28 Jun 2004 18:58:49 +0100, BigBadger wrote:

Copper is a better conductor of heat than gold so theoretically the
non-plated block will be better. In reality the plating is so thin as to
make no appreciable difference. I think the gold plating is more a marketing
rouse to justify charging more for the block.

I would suspect that the difference in your temps are caused by one of two
things:

1. If you have the blocks piped up in series (i.e. water flows from one to
the other) the second block is getting supplied with pre-warmed water from
the first block and so does not cool as well.

First thing I suspected, but on replacing the block (in the same position in the pipe) with an all copper model, the temp dropped by 10C!

2. If you have the blocks in parallel one block is getting much more flow
than the other. To fix this make sure that the piping is symmetrical as far
as possible and you could also put a worm-drive clip around the 'cool' block
outlet and use it to balance the flow.

Given the temps you are achieving I've got to ask why are you using water
cooling?...you would get better temps with half decent air coolers without
all the hassle and expense.

One word. Noise. There is NO noise form the water cooler. I have to put my ear against the radiator to hear it.

To be fair to the cooler - it is designed to cool better than air for ONE cpu, overclockers swear by it. I however have 2 CPUs and two hard disks running off it.

What I am suspecting is the heatsink gunk. They supplied that silicone grease. I've never liked that stuff, it's nowhere near as effieient (probably as half of it oozes out under the pressure when you clamp the heatsink on) as the thermnal tape stuff that comes on boxed athlons. I might have to see if I can buy some of that tape stuff. It's like a sort of bluetack consistency.



--
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On Mon, 28 Jun 2004 21:47:12 +0100, "Peter Hucker"
wrote:

To be fair to the cooler - it is designed to cool better
than air for ONE cpu, overclockers swear by it.

Overclockers don't swear by the reserator, they mock it's overpriced
inadequacy.
--
sls

On Mon, 28 Jun 2004 22:19:20 GMT, Satan's Little Sister wrote:

On Mon, 28 Jun 2004 21:47:12 +0100, "Peter Hucker"
wrote:

To be fair to the cooler - it is designed to cool better
than air for ONE cpu, overclockers swear by it.

Overclockers don't swear by the reserator, they mock it's overpriced
inadequacy.

Musta been reading the paid reviews then :-)

Well I certainly like it. It's SILENT and it looks cool! But yes the price is somewhat rediculous. Although isn't it a LOT of aluminium?

--
13 parrots and rising http://www.petersparrots.com
93 silly video clips http://www.insanevideoclips.com
1259 digital photos http://www.petersphotos.com
Served from a watercooled dual 3.2GHz silent Athlon with 512GB of watercooled Raid.

For centuries, the English have had a love affair with all types of hunting. Early one morning, a fellow was blasting away at a clump of brush on a grouse hunt.
Suddenly an outraged gentleman appeared and said "See here old man, you almost shot my wife with that volley."
The hunter, properly shamed replied, "So sorry old chap. Here, have a go at mine, over there."

"Overclockers don't swear by the reserator, they mock it's overpriced
inadequacy. "

But it does what it was designed to do bloody well ie. provide SILENT
cooling on stock processors. :-)

Peter Hucker wrote:

snip

From sig:
"Served from a watercooled dual 3.2GHz silent Athlon ...."

3.2Ghz Athlons? Surely you jest.
--
~misfit~

On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 14:17:36 +1200, ~misfit~ wrote:

Peter Hucker wrote:

snip

From sig:
"Served from a watercooled dual 3.2GHz silent Athlon ...."

3.2Ghz Athlons? Surely you jest.

Overclocking.

--
13 parrots and rising http://www.petersparrots.com
93 silly video clips http://www.insanevideoclips.com
1259 digital photos http://www.petersphotos.com
Served from a watercooled dual 3.2GHz silent Athlon with 512GB of watercooled Raid.

Always finish what you have starte

Peter Hucker wrote:
On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 14:17:36 +1200, ~misfit~
wrote:

Peter Hucker wrote:

snip

From sig:
"Served from a watercooled dual 3.2GHz silent Athlon ...."

3.2Ghz Athlons? Surely you jest.

Overclocking.

3.2GHz or XP3200 rating? 3.2GHz would be incredible on just water cooling,
but XP3200 rating (which would be ~2.4-2.5GHz on a 133MHz bus) would be
understandable

--
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www.emboss.co.nz : OOS/RSI software and more
Add michael@ to emboss.co.nz - My inbox is always open

On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 17:46:35 +1200, Michael Brown wrote:

Peter Hucker wrote:
On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 14:17:36 +1200, ~misfit~
wrote:

Peter Hucker wrote:

snip

From sig:
"Served from a watercooled dual 3.2GHz silent Athlon ...."

3.2Ghz Athlons? Surely you jest.

Overclocking.

3.2GHz or XP3200 rating? 3.2GHz would be incredible on just water cooling,
but XP3200 rating (which would be ~2.4-2.5GHz on a 133MHz bus) would be
understandable

Rating :-)

Gotta be comparable with the fools using Intels.


--
13 parrots and rising http://www.petersparrots.com
93 silly video clips http://www.insanevideoclips.com
1259 digital photos http://www.petersphotos.com
Served from a watercooled dual 3.2GHz silent Athlon with 512GB of watercooled Raid.

When all else fails... !@#$%^&* then read the instructions!