I'm wondering if expensive heatsinks like the Tuniq Tower, Noctua, Ultra Extreme, etc are completely over the top due their heatpipes limiting the amount of heat that can be transferred to the aluminium fins. These heatsinks are huge and yet such a mass of aluminium fins might actually be pointless because maybe only a fraction of them ever receive the heat passed on by the heatpipes.
The Ultra Extreme is generally considered the best (but only by a few degrees!) and I wonder is it a coincidence that it has the most heatpipes?
Alternatively maybe the mass of aluminium fins isn't pointless as they could be making it possible for slow and quiet fans to very easily dissipate the heat generated by the CPU.
Looking at it another way maybe the IHS is causing heat to be trapped inside resulting in higher core temps meaning there will always be a big delta between ambient temp and core temps regardless of a heatsink's heat transfer efficiency.
From what I've read about C2D temps there is only a 10c delta between the highest considered safe core temp (65c) and the running too hot core temp (75c). Recently ambient temps can vary a lot especially with the hot weather we've been having so do we actually need for example a 20c safety margin to ensure core temps are well under control meaning at "normal" ambient (22c) we need the CPU core temps to be a maximum of 55c?
Discuss?
The Ultra Extreme is generally considered the best (but only by a few degrees!) and I wonder is it a coincidence that it has the most heatpipes?
Alternatively maybe the mass of aluminium fins isn't pointless as they could be making it possible for slow and quiet fans to very easily dissipate the heat generated by the CPU.
Looking at it another way maybe the IHS is causing heat to be trapped inside resulting in higher core temps meaning there will always be a big delta between ambient temp and core temps regardless of a heatsink's heat transfer efficiency.
From what I've read about C2D temps there is only a 10c delta between the highest considered safe core temp (65c) and the running too hot core temp (75c). Recently ambient temps can vary a lot especially with the hot weather we've been having so do we actually need for example a 20c safety margin to ensure core temps are well under control meaning at "normal" ambient (22c) we need the CPU core temps to be a maximum of 55c?
Discuss?
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