How to choose a suitable CPU heatsink

Function of CPU heatsink:

     When the CPU is working, it will produce a lot of heat. If these heat are not dissipated in time, it may cause crash at least, or it may burn the CPU. The CPU heatsink is used to dissipate heat for the CPU. Heat sink plays a decisive role in the stable operation of CPU. It is very important to choose a good heat sink when assembling a computer.

Selection of CPU cooling heatsink:

     It is very important to choose a good heatsink for the CPU, with a good thermal performance, the CPU heatsink will help to make the whole system working in stable. The heatsink material, fan material, fan speed,noise and other parameters are need to be considered.

Fan speed: generally, the higher the speed of the fan, the greater the air volume it provides to the CPU, and the better the air convection effect will be. However, the extremely high speed will bring heat and aggravate the wear of the fan, so a balance needs to be struck between the two.

Fan noise: refers to the sound made by the fan during its operation, which is mainly affected by the fan bearing and blade.

Fan volume: fan exhaust volume is an important index to measure the performance of a fan. The angle of fan blade and fan speed are the decisive factors affecting the exhaust air volume of cooling fan.

Heat sink material: aluminum alloy with low price and good heat dissipation effect is widely used as heat sink. At the same time, in order to improve the thermal performance of the heatsink, medium and high-grade heatsink use copper material with better heat dissipation effect where they are in contact with the CPU heat dissipation core.

     When designing the heatsink, the engineer should not only focus on the cost ,the heatsink performanace , production reliability，material and other factors should also be in consideration. If the resource permits, it will be very helpful to  run a thermal simulation before sample build, which will help to shorten the R&D cycle.