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[Russel1]

Is there a chemical reaction or is it just evaporation? I assumed the cooling was evaporation which is why I wanted to try different orientations.

 

[dude_56013]

Is there a chemical reaction or is it just evaporation? I assumed the cooling was evaporation which is why I wanted to try different orientations.

IIRC, it acts kind of like a car radiator (kind of, is the key there). No chemical reaction, as that would cause the HSF to become useless rather quickly (you'd have 2+ things making 1 or more products and would run out of the initial substances; like gas + air in an engine can't be a closed loop, which is why you have to fill up on gas. That's a chemical reaction). Instead, it's a state change. When the liquid in the heat pipes absorbs energy (at the bottom; touching the CPU), it turns into a gas/vapor and rises to the top of the heat pipes where the heat is then transferred by contact to the fins (which then dissipates the heat radiantly). Once the vapor/gas loses enough heat, it cools back down, becomes a liquid again, travels back down the heat pipe to start the process all over again.

 

[culexor]

Great explanation, dude. I was going to post something similar to this, but not as detailed (I also was unsure if I was right).

 

[sniperviper21]

but then does that also mean the bigger the heat pipes the better the absorption (6mm vs 8mm)? and the number of the heat pipes?

 

[dude_56013]

but then does that also mean the bigger the heat pipes the better the absorption (6mm vs 8mm)? and the number of the heat pipes?

I'm kind of doubting it since the Xigmatek HDT-S1283 out performs most other coolers with heat pipe technology. But, then again, it could be that the Xigmatek does a better job of contacting the CPU surface and then a better job of dissipating the heat on the top side than the other coolers with HDT (other coolers focus on making themselves look "fancy" instead of being an efficient cooler). IIRC, the only thing that will out perform a Xiggy is the TRUE. But I could be wrong. Cabbs would know (hence the honorary heat sink whore award ) or AR can give you a linky. I think the site is Frosty Tech that does the benches. I'm sure it's something you could fine out.

 

[ndatoxicity]

 

[setishock]

Here's an interesting read on how it works and little bit of it's history of concept and usage.
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Heat_pipe

The sodium I refer to is sodium choride. Common salt. When loaded in the tubes in a paste form the salt lowers the evap point of the water used as the thermal medium.
Sorry I used the wrong terms but I see you did get the message.
As for larger tubes I think it would come down to what thermal medium you used. Likely more smaller tubes would be more efficent.

 

[dude_56013]

As for larger tubes I think it would come down to what thermal medium you used. Likely more smaller tubes would be more efficent.

Yup. Kinda what I hinted at. I think it's kind of comparible to gauges of wire. The thicker the gauge, the more resistance. So in heat-pipe terms, if the tubes are bigger (and effectively thicker), then it will take longer to heat them up, as well as take longer to cool them down--which wouldn't work well in a closed loop system like a HSF. So, if anything, an abundance of smaller tubes would seem to work better than a few large tubes; probably why the CM V8 does a pretty good job; but you still have to factor in the manufacturing process and what the "guts" of the system are--which obviously matters since Xigmatek pretty much owns any other air cooling out there (including other HSFs with HDT) other than the TRUE (which is technically a different story since it's all copper and not really comparable to the Xiggy. If the Xiggy was all copper, it would probably do as well as the TRUE). The thing to note here, with all air cooling, is that you can basically only get a cool as the ambient air temp in the room/case. Any cooler and you have to mess with the hassle of H20, or in extreme cases, mess with dry ice or liquid nitrogen, etc, etc.

I kind of want to know how well a mineral oil submersion would do for heat dissipation...I've seen them built before. I would imagine that if you put your entire system in it, you could keep it cool without much hassle for at least an hour (since it would probably take the mineral oil that long to heat up). After that, it'd be cool to see if a radiator could keep the whole batch cool enough for some extreme OC'ing. Then again, if mineral oil acts like water, it would take quite some time for that liquid to absorb the heat of the CPU/RAM/GPU, and might do more thermal insulating than anything.

Sometimes I just wish I had endless amounts of money to test these things ...would be fun!

 

[Cabbs]

The TRUE is NOT all copper. The base and heat pipes are copper while the fins are aluminum. The only all-copper TRUE is the limited edition one, which is ridiculously heavy. It did offer a performance increase though.

 

[dude_56013]

The TRUE is NOT all copper. The base and heat pipes are copper while the fins are aluminum. The only all-copper TRUE is the limited edition one, which is ridiculously heavy. It did offer a performance increase though.

Ahh. Well that's the one I was thinking off I guess then (this one; the one everyone always links to). I did not know the standard ones had aluminum fins. My bad. That must be this one?