one thing i noticed with a lot of heat sinks is the interesting design. so sure, i understand if you space out plates of metal like a grill it disperses the heat better, but then i thought: wouldnt the most practical heat sink just be a big **** off block of steel? i mean for as something as small as a CPU a solid chunk of metal against it would be plenty right?
a stupid but curious question
- Thread starter Evatron
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Caporegime
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No. You need surface area to move heat to the air.
A block of steel would soak up a lot of heat but you'd not be able to move heat to the air much so it'd just get silly hot over time.
fair point. it would be interesting to experiment with shapes to disperse the heat while still keeping it as 1 solid material.
Caporegime
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They would all be rubbish if solid because you need airflow near the hottest part to be effective. This is why heatpipes are so ubiquitous - they allow heat to be spread quicker than through solid metal which allowed bigger heatsinks to be effective.
