Which is better?

[Ð88]

What works better, a heatsink made entirely of copper or one made with a combination of copper and aluminum. I am looking at buying a Zalman CPU cooler but it comes in these 2 forms. I'm not sure which one to buy. Some help would be much appreciated.

 

[Kage]

Hmm, well copper ones I think are the older forms. The newer ones are alluminium I believe, so i'd think they'd keep heat off more.

This may help which I've just found :

http://www.coolingzone.com/Guest/News/NL_FEB_2003/ATS/ATS_Feb2003.html

 

[Lac3y]

haha, Americans pronounce Aluminium wrong, English people pronounce it:

'Al-u-min-e-um'

You crazy Americans pronounce it:

'A-loom-in-um'

Obvious I know but it had to be said I'm afraid...

 

[Gamingfreak]

the all copper ones are better, copper absorbs heat faster than aluminum i think

 

[Kage]

That depends. Read the website I linked to.

It makes....some sense

 

[Ð88]

But I still don't know which applies to me for sure. I have been looking at thermal resistance between the aluminum and copper heatsinks and it seems that the copper ones tend to have the lower thermal resistance. It looks like copper is the better heat conductor if you go by that.

edit - I found this article differentiating between the two. It seems to help explain things a lot better.

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/6/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=77909585&m=106091502

 

[ownage]

copper ones are better, hands down. Im using a 7000B right now and my AXP stays at a nice a toasty 43*C. But watch out with the Zalmans, they attract dust like a magnet attracts metal.

 

[Gamingfreak]

ya ive had that problem with my zalmans as well, dust gets stuck between the fins, i think this would be better http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835106061