heat dissipation in heat sink

[Chellam]

I have taken part in lots of technical debates , and in the recent the hot topic was about the heat sinks , and I was looking for true technical research on the subject, but via Google I did not get much source to reach an exact answer. A search on a few technical forum about the same discussion , but could not get what I was looking for , so I have typed in this forum to take this discussion further. The subject of discussion was about the conductivity of the heat sinks. I got a few replying that favors the copper one more than the aluminum. So I wanted to know you people review on this topic. Please share your ideas on this subject and let me know what do you say on the heat sink’s conductivity.

[Maxforu]

Well if you ask me I think Copper metal has more thermal conductivity than aluminum metal and so will behave its heatsink, and therefore the heat sinks manufactured with copper have more superiority than that of aluminum . Due to higher rate of conduction , copper heat sink will be able to dissipate much more heat an convert the heat into the free air. So it the copper heat sinks are much more effective than that of aluminum .

[Howitzer]

Yes I agree with the fact that copper has the a higher conductivity than that of the aluminum , but that does not mean that it will absorb much heat that the aluminum heat sink, because the dissipation in the heat sink cannot just be determined by the behavior of conduction but also the density of te metal being used , so despite of much more conductivity in the copper heat sink , I think aluminum has greater density, so I will go with the aluminum heat sink if you ask my opinion.

[Eru]

Really this was a great piece of subject being chosen for the discussion. I really appreciate your initiative step taken. Coming back to the main subject I do not think why we should not think in the way of machines, because more or less these computers are machines too . You can apply the same logic as you apply for the different metal. Because after a long experimentation the these two metal s have been destined to be the base metal of a heat sink. If done practically , take two pieces of metal of eaual length and heat them for an equal amount of time and then see which metal cools faster. Later on you will conclude that the copper metal takes much more time than that of aluminum because of the higher mass and the aluminum, will get cooled quicker than that of copper metal. So I too will go with the aluminum heated sink .

[Erubiel]

Well I think it is spelled as aluminium in the United kingdom and is spelled as aluminum in the United states, but do not know about Australia , it was just for your information, well I do not think that that heat sink require that much of restraints as much of a radiator, since it is much more a computer part than a regular machine , so I do not think you can apply that much machinery logic with the heat sinks , I am, telling this because I will go with the copper heat sink than the copper one.