# Cooling 101



## gamerman4 (Oct 23, 2005)

no more guide

Yeti has convinced me that this guide is not worth it...

Go here if you want a cooling guide.
www.heatsink-guide.com/


----------



## gamerman4 (Oct 25, 2005)

^^^^


----------



## SFR (Oct 25, 2005)

gamerman4 said:
			
		

> Is this good enough to be stickied?


 
It should have first been sent to ian via a private message so admin could review it.


----------



## dunerider5 (Oct 25, 2005)

It is definately helpful... read through it again though.

"COPPER is better at absorbing heat than COPPER but it is more expensive and not as formable as aluminum."

Theres a typo on xoxide's site also, lol.


----------



## Ku-sama (Oct 25, 2005)

Took my idea, that wasnt very nice, was it?


----------



## Yeti (Oct 25, 2005)

Some pieces are a little inacurrate and needs to address other areas more in depth/at all.


----------



## 34erd (Oct 25, 2005)

Bunch of errors that aren't what you _meant_ to say, but just came out. and a noob might not know.


> HSF: Heatsink and Fan, this is what cools your CPU. It sits on top of your CPU and absorbs the heat created by it.


The objective is actualy to disapate the heat.



> Copper is better at absorbing heat than copper but it is more expensive and not as formable as aluminum.


Uhhh...



> Thermalright XP-120 ~$50
> 
> Zalman 7700(Cu or AlCu) ~$45
> 
> ...


You're making it seem like zalman and thermaltake make the only good heatsink.



> Heatsinks also require some kind of conductive paste or pad that lets heat get into the heatsink much faster and making sure that the heatsink makes contact with the CPU.


Just make sure you mention that these TIMS (thermal interface materials), are still much poorer conducters of heat then metal.



> Heatpipes: These are pipes that contain tiny traces of water that absorb heat and evaporate to a higher place and then condense back down to move more heat.


One of the major advantages of heatpeipes is that they are not affected by gravity.  Inside the heatpipe there is a wick or thread of some sort that lets the condensed liquid travel back to the source of heat by capilary action.

Basicly, you have a lot of vaguenesses to fix, misacuracies, and places to get more technichal.  Personaly, I think we should just leave the 101's to praetor (meaning when he feels like writing them), he seems to have done a pretty good job on the other ones


----------



## Cromewell (Oct 26, 2005)

Anyone can write a 101, just double check everything and make sure it is complete.  Maybe a 101 submission method could be devised, similar to the mod application.  As for this one, if you don't like it or don't want to update and make corrections to it just let it fall off the page.


----------



## Geoff (Oct 26, 2005)

dunerider5 said:
			
		

> It is definately helpful... read through it again though.
> 
> "COPPER is better at absorbing heat than COPPER but it is more expensive and not as formable as aluminum."
> 
> Theres a typo on xoxide's site also, lol.



are you saying that he copied this from there?


----------



## gamerman4 (Oct 26, 2005)

I think he is just saying that xoxide has a typo too because I didn't even see a mention of copper on that xoxide.com link. I don't even see a typo on that link...


----------



## gamerman4 (Oct 26, 2005)

I fixed some stuff and I'm doing a little more research to make this better.


----------



## Praetor (Oct 31, 2005)

> Anyone can write a 101, just double check everything and make sure it is complete. Maybe a 101 submission method could be devised, similar to the mod application. As for this one, if you don't like it or don't want to update and make corrections to it just let it fall off the page.


Agreed. For the record I'll say it's a good start ... but incredibly incomplete and either missing some extended data (benifit of a doubt ) or there are some errors ... regardless, a good start and points definitely noted.  (woulda replied sooner, been busy)


----------



## gamerman4 (Oct 31, 2005)

UPDATE!
Added a whole lot more info on heatsinks.
And more on fans


----------



## Yeti (Oct 31, 2005)

> Positive Air Pressure Cooling: This is a type of cooling setup where you have more air (CFM) moving into your case than being pumped out. This creates heat pockets where the hot air can’t get out and just serves to heat your case up. Unless you are using a special cooling system, don’t use this.
> 
> Negative Air Pressure Cooling: This is the most common cooling setup. This is when more air (CFM) is pumped out of you case than pumped in. This creates a vacuum effect where hot air is sucked out and the inside temp stays pretty stable. A guide http://www.xoxide.com/computer-cooling.html


Technically both setups will have more CFM exiting than entering due to the increase in density from the temperature rise.  Just use the push/pull analogy.  As a side note, not everything from other sites, such as xoxide.com, is necessarily correct.

*SECTION 2*
Maybe mention that the CFM is linearly proportional to the speed and proportional to the diameter cubed.  Noise proportional to ~ speed^5.5 and diameter^7.5.

Also, half this section is a direct quote from another site on the in depth difference of bearing types.  Is this really necessary?

*SECTION 3*
Express thermal conductivity as W/m-K (W/mK is read as watt per millikelvin).

The reason that filling in the gaps helps – the thermal conductivity of air is 0.025 W/m-K.  If there is a 1 micron (1E-6 m) average gap between the CPU heat spreader and the heat sink base, there is a resulting contact resistance of 0.063 K/W.  Put in perspective, a decent heat sink has an overall thermal resistance of about 0.2 K/W (lower resistance = better cooling)



> Aerodynamics: It sounds kind of weird but this is a huge factor in heatsink performance. Good heatsinks are designed so that air can move quickly through it, leaving no empty spaces. A single tiny heat pocket can completely ruin an otherwise decent heatsink. This factor also depends on the fan CFM. A heatsink with great aerodynamics will only benefit from a fan that can blow enough air to utilize this factor.


Aerodynamics is independent of CFM.  The convection coefficient, on the other hand, is directly related to the CFM (or, more accurately, the velocity).



> Thermal Transfer: This is the most obvious one since heatsinks are in existence to transfer heat. Surface area is needed to dissipate a lot of heat but thicker fins allow for more heat transfer. A happy medium needs to be found between surface area and mass. Most heatsinks have a thick base to transfer heat from the CPU and then move the heat to very thin fins on the top.


Technically you need to optimize the fin efficiency which is dependent on the length, cross sectional area, and convection coefficient.  The convection coefficient is going to depend on the fin spacing – in too closely spaced fins the thermal boundary layers meet and cooling ceases.

SECTION 4


> Heatspreaders. These are little metal plates that are attached to RAM cards and they try to dissipate the heat from the chips. These aren’t as effective as many manufacturers advertise.


Heat spreader is a term for, well, anything that spreads heat – an example being the piece of metal that is on all recent CPUs – and not exclusively for the RAM heat spreaders.


----------



## Praetor (Oct 31, 2005)

heeehee yes ... Yeti's the guy to consult when writing a cooling101 (yeah sorry buddy, been busy lately, not had time to consult yet)


----------



## gamerman4 (Oct 31, 2005)

wow....alright....no more guide writing for me...


----------



## Yeti (Nov 1, 2005)

> wow....alright....no more guide writing for me...


Didn't mean to shoot you down there.  By all means keep on going with editing.  It's just that it takes a lot of time and knowledge to do it well, and there's a lot of misinformation that you have to dig through to understand some of this stuff .


----------



## 4W4K3 (Nov 1, 2005)

Hey man why'd you delete it? It was a great start, don't be too discouraged with all the editing that goes with it. If anything you spend more time editing/perfecting what you write than you do on the first draft.


----------



## gamerman4 (Nov 2, 2005)

heatsink-guide.com has all the information on cooling someone would ever need.
If I knew that site existed, I wouldn't have even tried to make a cooling guide. I thought there would be a use in this until I found that site. Go there, you will see what I mean.


----------



## Geoff (Nov 2, 2005)

I made a Video Cards 101, but it is long forgotten now.  They are good starts, but we should rely on the Admin's to make the 101's.


----------



## gamerman4 (Nov 2, 2005)

> we should rely on the Admin's to make the 101's



100% agreed.


----------

