Pro/Forums - copper vs aluminum

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- - copper vs aluminum (http://forums.procooling.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=5321)

Quote:

Originally posted by unregistered
pretty close Ben

WOOT! A compliment from BillA!

Party in the House!:D

Quote:

Originally posted by bigben2k
And strangely enough, we've all failed to answer your question...

"How much do you really lose by using aluminum for your waterblock construction over copper?"

Answer:
It's going to depend on the design of the block.

If you compared the exact same design in both metals (which one wouldn't do), you might see a difference anywhere from 5 degrees C to 20 deg C.

Correct. The design is probably more important than the material, depending on how good (or bad) the design is. You can make a 100% copper waterblock and if your design is not good, the cooling effectiveness might be crap compared to a very well designed aluminum (or even hybrid) block.

If you have aluminum laying around, AND IF you don't have a lot of machining/water block design experience, use the aluminum to practice your machining skills and block designing. Then move on to copper if you really feel you have the need. If you are comfortable with machining and design, might as well make the block out of copper.

in response to the discussion on why fins on hsf's are made from aluminum instead of copper, i would say its probably because aluminum is stronger (higher modulus of elasticity) than copper - basically it makes it harder for the noobs insalling their cooling gear to bend those fins (that would much more fragile if made from copper)

Personaly I think that has nothing to do with it :) ...

"(higher modulus of elasticity)" Does this mean more or less flexible/elastic?...

PS, Fragile = Fragment/shatter, flexible/damageable is tha wurdz!...

modulus of elasticity refers to the metal's tensile strength, specifically its highest stress/strain it can withstand before plastic deformation begins to occur. Actually, I was wrong in saying that aluminum has a higher E than copper, but I was thinking in terms of the ratio E/density, which i should have said - copper is roughly 3 times as dense as aluminum. In my opinion, the ratios of E/density and thermal conductivity/density make aluminum more ideal as the metal to use for the pins.