WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:07.440 Modern electronics pack an incredible amount of complexity into a very small 00:00:04.480 --> 00:00:13.040 space which creates a lot of heat. Heat that if left unchecked could reduce the 00:00:09.920 --> 00:00:14.719 lifespan or even destroy outright the 00:00:13.040 --> 00:00:18.480 processor that created it. That's why when you first open up a PC or other 00:00:16.720 --> 00:00:23.760 electronic device, one of the first things you'll see is one or more large 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:28.480 metal objects called heat sinks. Inside a PC, heat sinks will be found on the 00:00:25.760 --> 00:00:33.360 CPU, graphics card, motherboard, inside the power supply, and even in other 00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:37.200 places as needed. As you can see, they can look very different from each other, 00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:41.840 but they all serve the same basic purpose, to remove heat from delicate 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:45.360 components and extend their lifetimes. Let's walk through some of the different 00:00:43.360 --> 00:00:49.280 kinds of heat sinks you might encounter. First up is the heat spreader. This is 00:00:47.280 --> 00:00:53.760 the most basic heat sink, and it consists of a simple flat piece of 00:00:51.440 --> 00:00:57.199 metal. It only moderately improves heat dissipation. Because while metal will 00:00:55.440 --> 00:01:02.079 transfer heat to the surrounding air faster than plastic, it would be much 00:00:59.440 --> 00:01:06.400 more effective if it also increased the size of the area of the surface that's 00:01:04.320 --> 00:01:11.280 being used to transfer that heat. That leads us to our next common type, 00:01:08.479 --> 00:01:15.119 passive pinned or finned heat sinks. These are basically heat spreaders with 00:01:13.520 --> 00:01:19.360 structures on top of them that dramatically increase the surface area 00:01:17.360 --> 00:01:23.119 that can be used to dissipate heat to the surrounding air. They are much more 00:01:21.200 --> 00:01:27.360 effective than heat spreaders, but they are also more expensive to make and they 00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:31.759 take up more space. Speaking of taking up space, adding a fan to blow air 00:01:29.520 --> 00:01:36.799 directly at a thinned or pinned heat sink is relatively inexpensive and very 00:01:34.960 --> 00:01:41.520 space efficient as a means of dramatically improving heatsink 00:01:38.960 --> 00:01:45.759 performance. For this reason, actively cooled thinned heat sinks are one of the 00:01:43.680 --> 00:01:52.000 most common types of heat sinks found in PC systems where size and cost are major 00:01:49.439 --> 00:01:56.479 design factors. Speaking of cost, the most effective and the most expensive 00:01:54.159 --> 00:02:02.159 common type of heat sink in a PC is a heat pipe or vapor chamber heatsink. For 00:01:59.439 --> 00:02:07.680 very hot components like CPUs or graphics cards, the limiting factor of a 00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:12.480 standard thinned heat sink's performance is no longer the speed at which the fins 00:02:10.560 --> 00:02:16.800 can be used to dissipate heat to the air, but rather the speed at which the 00:02:14.640 --> 00:02:21.680 heat can be moved away from the very small processor core to the fins in the 00:02:19.760 --> 00:02:25.840 first place. Heat pipes and vapor chambers usually consist of an outer 00:02:23.760 --> 00:02:30.239 copper wall and a material inside that is constantly changing phases between 00:02:28.239 --> 00:02:35.360 liquid and gas. They can be used to carry heat away from a small heat source 00:02:33.040 --> 00:02:39.760 extremely quickly to a large array of heatsink fins where it can be dissipated 00:02:37.440 --> 00:02:44.319 to the air. So far, I've talked mostly about surface area and how that helps, 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:49.040 but there are other factors that affect heatsink performance. For example, 00:02:46.480 --> 00:02:53.680 copper performs better than aluminum as a heatsink material. And among aluminum 00:02:51.599 --> 00:02:58.800 alloys, some of them are better than others. But the material selection, like 00:02:56.640 --> 00:03:02.080 many of these other factors, cannot be controlled by anyone other than the 00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:06.159 manufacturer. So might not be that useful to you. But what can you do to 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:10.560 improve your heatsink's performance? Number one is to lower the ambient 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:15.200 temperature. If cracking open a window lowers the room temperature by 5°, it 00:03:13.280 --> 00:03:19.920 will lower your heat sink temperature by about 5°. Number two is more air flow. 00:03:18.319 --> 00:03:24.640 The faster the air moves over the heatsink, the better it will perform. 00:03:22.239 --> 00:03:29.440 Number three is better thermal interface material. No two pieces of metal will 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:33.840 ever meet up perfectly, and thermal interface materials fill in these micro 00:03:31.920 --> 00:03:37.680 gaps for better heat conduction or better heat transfer between them. 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:41.519 Replacing the subpar solutions that come pre-installed on your components with 00:03:39.519 --> 00:03:45.840 high performance aftermarket thermal compound can easily lower temperatures 00:03:43.440 --> 00:03:50.720 by several degrees or more. Number four is mounting. A good solid mount improves 00:03:48.799 --> 00:03:55.599 the contact between a chip and a heatsink and ensures effective thermal 00:03:53.200 --> 00:04:00.560 transfer. Often a heatsink that isn't performing as expected is being held 00:03:57.760 --> 00:04:05.280 back by an air bubble trapped in between or a small component nearby that is 00:04:03.120 --> 00:04:09.439 interfering with the heatsink's mounting pressure. Speaking of mounting pressure, 00:04:07.920 --> 00:04:14.239 in spite of all the hubbub about the NSA, your digital privacy is still under 00:04:11.680 --> 00:04:18.160 attack. And there's not much you can do about it. But that doesn't mean you have 00:04:16.160 --> 00:04:22.479 to be completely undefended. Hotspot Shield is a proud sponsor of Fast as 00:04:20.239 --> 00:04:25.919 Possible, and their VPN service does a number of pretty cool things. One of 00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:29.840 them happens to be that it makes it more difficult for someone to track your 00:04:27.440 --> 00:04:33.600 activities online and identify you. With one elite account, you can protect 00:04:31.280 --> 00:04:37.680 yourself across multiple PCs and even your phone or other mobile devices. It 00:04:35.840 --> 00:04:42.639 also has the handydandy effect of allowing you to fake your location to 00:04:39.680 --> 00:04:46.800 the websites you're visiting. Hello, USA Netflix. Even for non-Americans, am I 00:04:44.639 --> 00:04:50.320 right? You can get 20% off Hotspot Shield Elite by using offer code Linus. 00:04:48.800 --> 00:04:53.759 So check it out today. And if you're not 100% sure, then you can always get a 00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:58.320 free trial of Elite. I believe it's for one week. Thanks guys for watching this 00:04:55.840 --> 00:05:01.440 fast as possible on heat sinks. Like the video if you liked it, dislike it if you 00:04:59.759 --> 00:05:04.639 disliked it. Leave a comment and let me know if you learned something. And maybe 00:05:02.960 --> 00:05:08.720 tell me what it was. Or if you didn't learn something, maybe tell me what you didn't learn. I don't know. The more 00:05:07.039 --> 00:05:14.880 comments are below, the like better my search rankings are. So go to town. And 00:05:11.199 --> 00:05:14.880 as always, don't forget to subscribe.