Gold Plated Cooler

DWorrall · 9 Apr 2011 at 22:47

Hey guys, i have this cooler:

Arctic%20Cooling_Freezer_7_Pro_Rev_2.jpg

I know somebody that does electro-plating and i was wondering... Would it conduct heat better if the whole thing was gold plated?

Any thoughts?

Thanks

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Kouba · 9 Apr 2011 at 22:56

Probably not tbh, its pretty known that copper is the best conductor of heat out of all the metals.

DWorrall · 9 Apr 2011 at 22:58

Hmm what i might do is:

Save for Noctua NH-D14 then get this old cooler plated and see if there's a difference

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Kouba · 9 Apr 2011 at 23:04

Oh there would definitely be a difference, but not for the better..

Jfan · 10 Apr 2011 at 00:35

Go for silver. It conducts heat better than copper. Gold is quite a bit worse a conductor than copper

Squakingcow · 10 Apr 2011 at 00:41

It doesn't matter what you plate it with, the performance will always be worse as the heat will have to be transferred through more material until it can be dissipated into the air.

Operation · 10 Apr 2011 at 00:53

Do it anyway, it would look freakin awesome.

Monkeynut · 10 Apr 2011 at 01:37

It would conduct electricity better, but that's not really what you are after.

trisp · 10 Apr 2011 at 01:52

why not make a cooler out of syntetic/real diamonds that would be the best

Tealc · 10 Apr 2011 at 10:00

Not worth modifying a low end cooler like this to improve it. It'll look awesome though. Copper plating wouldn't work too well either as the heat would still have to travel through the aluminium.

DWorrall · 10 Apr 2011 at 12:11

Im buying a Noctua NH-D14 (best air cooler you can get) soon. So i'll get this cooler gold plated and post pics

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JonJ678 · 10 Apr 2011 at 16:31

Who needs thermodynamics when you have guesswork to rely on.

Heatsinks (and cpu heat spreaders) are nickel plated, as the thermal resistance of the nickel-nickel interface is lower than that of nickel-copper, and of copper-copper. The new trend for copper based ones is a consequence of the community shouting loudly that it wants shiny copper bases.

As gold is particularly malleable it should work well as an interface. I'd stick with nickel if it's an option though, with the ideal being to lap then electroplate then lap to produce a flat nickel surface.

It probably isn't worth the hassle.

MikeHunt79 · 10 Apr 2011 at 16:50

Dirty-Blade said:
Probably not tbh, its pretty known that copper is the best conductor of heat out of all the metals.

Silver is better than copper...

Darkman · 10 Apr 2011 at 16:55

Diamond > Silver > Copper > Gold > Aluminium iirc.

Thermal conductivity in W/(m·K)
Aluminium 237 (pure) 120—180 (alloys)
Gold 318
Copper 401
Silver 429
Diamond 900 - 2320

Either way gold plating is going to be a waste of time if you want better cooling as it will just add an additional thermal layer and most heat is exchanged (with the air) through convection anyway with very little through radiation. If you want bling factor however and you can afford it...

I thought the cost of gold has been rising recently?

james.miller · 10 Apr 2011 at 16:55

i thought gold was a rubbish thermal conductor hence it's use in heat-shielding ?

DWorrall · 10 Apr 2011 at 17:44

Darkman said:
Diamond > Silver > Copper > Gold > Aluminium iirc.

Thermal conductivity in W/(m·K)
Aluminium 237 (pure) 120—180 (alloys)
Gold 318
Copper 401
Silver 429
Diamond 900 - 2320

Either way gold plating is going to be a waste of time if you want better cooling as it will just add an additional thermal layer and most heat is exchanged (with the air) through convection anyway with very little through radiation. If you want bling factor however and you can afford it...

I thought the cost of gold has been rising recently?

Most likely be free; the guy is a family friend who does a lot of work on our house for us... alarms etc. Might get the actual fins done in gold but keep the copper base.

Tikkabhuna · 10 Apr 2011 at 18:53

james.miller said:
i thought gold was a rubbish thermal conductor hence it's use in heat-shielding ?

Bright, shiny things reflect heat radiation better than dark, matte things. So I'm guessing they use it to reflect the heat away when the source radiates heat. Heatsinks use convection and conduction to get rid of heat which metal is good at doing. To insulate things from conduction you want lots of thin layers that have air inbetween. Aerogel is an awesome thing for that.

^ That's based on the little I remember from a level physics and wiki.

neo-omega · 10 Apr 2011 at 23:30

Maybe he just wants to make it that little more PIMP, as below.

silversurfer · 10 Apr 2011 at 23:32

Probably not tbh, its pretty known that copper is the best conductor of heat out of all the metals.

solid silver will do better by a bit but silver just doubled in price

I cant see any benefit to coating beyond the bling. Gold is super malleable though and can be made tracing paper thin I think, you'd have more luck coating the cpu lid, it may fill any air pockets with conductive metal (probably no difference)