What is a Heatsink as Fast As Possible
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2014-05-07
·
986 words · ~4 min read
0:00
Modern electronics pack an incredible amount of complexity into a very small
0:04
space which creates a lot of heat. Heat that if left unchecked could reduce the
0:09
lifespan or even destroy outright the
0:13
processor that created it. That's why when you first open up a PC or other
0:16
electronic device, one of the first things you'll see is one or more large
0:21
metal objects called heat sinks. Inside a PC, heat sinks will be found on the
0:25
CPU, graphics card, motherboard, inside the power supply, and even in other
0:30
places as needed. As you can see, they can look very different from each other,
0:35
but they all serve the same basic purpose, to remove heat from delicate
0:39
components and extend their lifetimes. Let's walk through some of the different
0:43
kinds of heat sinks you might encounter. First up is the heat spreader. This is
0:47
the most basic heat sink, and it consists of a simple flat piece of
0:51
metal. It only moderately improves heat dissipation. Because while metal will
0:55
transfer heat to the surrounding air faster than plastic, it would be much
0:59
more effective if it also increased the size of the area of the surface that's
1:04
being used to transfer that heat. That leads us to our next common type,
1:08
passive pinned or finned heat sinks. These are basically heat spreaders with
1:13
structures on top of them that dramatically increase the surface area
1:17
that can be used to dissipate heat to the surrounding air. They are much more
1:21
effective than heat spreaders, but they are also more expensive to make and they
1:25
take up more space. Speaking of taking up space, adding a fan to blow air
1:29
directly at a thinned or pinned heat sink is relatively inexpensive and very
1:34
space efficient as a means of dramatically improving heatsink
1:38
performance. For this reason, actively cooled thinned heat sinks are one of the
1:43
most common types of heat sinks found in PC systems where size and cost are major
1:49
design factors. Speaking of cost, the most effective and the most expensive
1:54
common type of heat sink in a PC is a heat pipe or vapor chamber heatsink. For
1:59
very hot components like CPUs or graphics cards, the limiting factor of a
2:05
standard thinned heat sink's performance is no longer the speed at which the fins
2:10
can be used to dissipate heat to the air, but rather the speed at which the
2:14
heat can be moved away from the very small processor core to the fins in the
2:19
first place. Heat pipes and vapor chambers usually consist of an outer
2:23
copper wall and a material inside that is constantly changing phases between
2:28
liquid and gas. They can be used to carry heat away from a small heat source
2:33
extremely quickly to a large array of heatsink fins where it can be dissipated
2:37
to the air. So far, I've talked mostly about surface area and how that helps,
2:41
but there are other factors that affect heatsink performance. For example,
2:46
copper performs better than aluminum as a heatsink material. And among aluminum
2:51
alloys, some of them are better than others. But the material selection, like
2:56
many of these other factors, cannot be controlled by anyone other than the
3:00
manufacturer. So might not be that useful to you. But what can you do to
3:04
improve your heatsink's performance? Number one is to lower the ambient
3:08
temperature. If cracking open a window lowers the room temperature by 5°, it
3:13
will lower your heat sink temperature by about 5°. Number two is more air flow.
3:18
The faster the air moves over the heatsink, the better it will perform.
3:22
Number three is better thermal interface material. No two pieces of metal will
3:27
ever meet up perfectly, and thermal interface materials fill in these micro
3:31
gaps for better heat conduction or better heat transfer between them.
3:35
Replacing the subpar solutions that come pre-installed on your components with
3:39
high performance aftermarket thermal compound can easily lower temperatures
3:43
by several degrees or more. Number four is mounting. A good solid mount improves
3:48
the contact between a chip and a heatsink and ensures effective thermal
3:53
transfer. Often a heatsink that isn't performing as expected is being held
3:57
back by an air bubble trapped in between or a small component nearby that is
4:03
interfering with the heatsink's mounting pressure. Speaking of mounting pressure,
4:07
in spite of all the hubbub about the NSA, your digital privacy is still under
4:11
attack. And there's not much you can do about it. But that doesn't mean you have
4:16
to be completely undefended. Hotspot Shield is a proud sponsor of Fast as
4:20
Possible, and their VPN service does a number of pretty cool things. One of
4:24
them happens to be that it makes it more difficult for someone to track your
4:27
activities online and identify you. With one elite account, you can protect
4:31
yourself across multiple PCs and even your phone or other mobile devices. It
4:35
also has the handydandy effect of allowing you to fake your location to
4:39
the websites you're visiting. Hello, USA Netflix. Even for non-Americans, am I
4:44
right? You can get 20% off Hotspot Shield Elite by using offer code Linus.
4:48
So check it out today. And if you're not 100% sure, then you can always get a
4:52
free trial of Elite. I believe it's for one week. Thanks guys for watching this
4:55
fast as possible on heat sinks. Like the video if you liked it, dislike it if you
4:59
disliked it. Leave a comment and let me know if you learned something. And maybe
5:02
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
5:07
comments are below, the like better my search rankings are. So go to town. And
5:11
as always, don't forget to subscribe.