CPU heatsink selection advice

  Generally speaking, the most economical cooling fan for computers must be the heatsink made of aluminum alloy. The reason why aluminum can be used as heat sink is that aluminum is not very light and has good thermal conductivity. Therefore, it is widely used as the best material for heat dissipation of electronic parts. However, the heat sink is not 100% pure aluminum, because pure aluminum is too soft, so a small amount of other metals will be added and cast into aluminum alloy to obtain appropriate hardness.

  Another material is copper. Copper has better thermal conductivity than aluminum, but the cost is much higher than aluminum heatsinks. Considering the cost, pure copper heatsinks are generally used for high-end radiators, and the cost is relatively high. Another point is that the pure copper heatsink is heavy and easy to bend and deform the main board. Now there are relatively few products using pure copper heatsink.

HeatPipe heatsink:

    The heat dissipation effect of the heatsink with heat pipe is much better than that of ordinary products. This is because the copper heat pipe contains flowing heat-conducting liquid, Through the flow of liquid (the principle of thermal expansion and cold contraction), it can quickly take away heat, and then cooperate with the heat sink to conduct heat. The cost of heat pipe heatsink is naturally much higher. If the thermal power consumption design of CPU is not particularly high, it is not necessary to buy high-end heatsinks such as 5 heat pipes heatsink. At most, 3 heat pipe heatsinks are enough.

Fan Size:

    The design of some CPU heatsinks is really exaggerated. In addition to conventional models, many are equipped with large cooling fans of 8cm or even 12cm, so that the air volume is larger and the heat dissipation effect is better. However, this kind of fan has high requirements for the installation environment. In particular, the memory slots designed on some motherboards are too close (or the memory heat sink is too high), or higher heat sink is installed on the power supply module, which may cause it to be unable to install. Be sure to know the installation height of your motherboard before purchasing.

Down or side blowing:

   There are many kinds of CPU cooling fans, but they are inseparable from the most basic technical features, and the cooling wind direction is one of them. In the early years, the CPU fans of computers were very simple, It is down blow type,the fan blowing downward facing the CPU; Now there is also a side blowing mode. The fan is designed on one side of the CPU radiator to blow from the side.

  Compared with the heat dissipation methods of the two CPU heatsinks , the down blow type is more effective and intuitive; For players who want to meet the heat dissipation requirements and intend to build an overall heat dissipation channel, they should choose side blowing heat dissipation. However, this is also related to the air duct in the chassis - if it is a compact chassis and no heat dissipation equipment is planned to be installed on the front and rear sides of the chassis, the down pressure radiator is the best choice.