Painting a heatsink?

AtreuS

AtreuS

AtreuS

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Has anyone painted a heatsink and been sucessful in getting the desired colour without rendering it useless temp wise?

I have a Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-002-NC

and my new system would look 100% better if i could colour this black. I suppose just painting the top would suffice as the rest will be mainly covered by the fans. Does painting effect the thermal properties to such a degree as to make it pointless?

I suppose another option would be to buy a Thermalright True Black and use the noctua elsewhere, but if painting doesnt effect temps much then seems a waste of money.
 
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The thing is, even when its hotter weather the heatsink barely even feels warm to the touch when under load. And thats running an E8500 at 3.8ghz... so i cant see a light coating of paint effecting it so much as to drasticly effect temperatures.

Then again the paint would act as an insulator... only way is to see :eek:
 
I think it would work but if its just a basic spray paint then i think the paint might start to crack after a while if the heatsink gets to hot.
 
It would really harm your heat transfer rate IMO. You practically insulate the heatsink with the paint. If you want a black heatsink, just buy the TRUE black.

You can always try it. Make a note of your temps now, paint it, and prove me wrong. :D
 
cje said:
It would really harm your heat transfer rate IMO. You practically insulate the heatsink with the paint. If you want a black heatsink, just buy the TRUE black.

You can always try it. Make a note of your temps now, paint it, and prove me wrong. :D
Click to expand...

Im thinking the same. However i do have a spare intel heatsink somewhere so a bit of experimentation might be due some time in the next few weeks :p
 
Ben M said:
Black Sharpie to the top tbh :p

I take it that you have a different fan on it/painted the fan housing black already?
Click to expand...

Not done anything yet im getting my plans together for when ive finnished sanding and painting my new case ( well got on the MM ) a thermaltake Mozart tx.

Im planning on an all black interior as much as possible. Im still in the planning and part aquring stage atm... as well as lots of sanding and glue removal ( the previous owner and stuck akasa mats everwhere ).

The sharpie plan could work actually, seeing as its mainly the top thats going to be visible.
 
AtreuS said:
Has anyone painted a heatsink and been sucessful in getting the desired colour without rendering it useless temp wise?

I have a Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-002-NC

and my new system would look 100% better if i could colour this black. I suppose just painting the top would suffice as the rest will be mainly covered by the fans. Does painting effect the thermal properties to such a degree as to make it pointless?

I suppose another option would be to buy a Thermalright True Black and use the noctua elsewhere, but if painting doesnt effect temps much then seems a waste of money.
Click to expand...

Paint's fine - though it has a lower thermal conductivity it has a higher emissivity (better at radiating heat) than copper or aluminium. The colour makes little difference as well. Just don't paint it too thick.
 
The noctura is aluminium right so you would really want to anodise it to give a high quality finnish which will not affec performance.

Many garages have faciliies for this kind of thing or you could have a go your self:

- insert disclaimer -

In a glass container make an anodising bath with sulphuric acid 25-35% cocentration. hang your aluminum heatink after thoroughly cleaning (maybe in dishwasher?). connect this to +ive of battery charger. hang another aluminum plate in solution and connect to -ive terminal of charger. let No other metal other than aluminum in acid.current flow for about ten minutes.make sure the solution is not hot.

take out wash and put in colour solution in water to absorb the colour 30 minutes .take out and put in boiling water to seal the colour by changing the crystal structure of aluminum oxide.

end of blue peter lesson.
 
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