Silver cold plate
 

someone help me find a silversmith or some source for a 45x45x8mm solid, pure silver coldplate.

not worth the cost IMHO. Does Onlinemetals do something like this?

no, the best they do is copper
and this should only weigh like 3.5 ounces max, so in terms of raw materials you're talking a max of 45 bucks
and silver conducts heat much faster than copper (not necessarily much better, but faster)

Just spoke with a jeweler today and he's going to find me some .999 silver to use to make me a coldplate with. He also mentioned that silver conducts heat much faster than copper, but low grade silver(sterling) doesn't *transfer* heat as quickly. High grade silver conducts and transfers heat quickly. He's going to put some gold into it as well (scrap gold) to improve conductivity and ductility as well. Silver is $7-10 per ounce depending on grade, downright inexpensive really.

wow

thats really interesting

cant wait to see some results

Why not go totally insane and have a cold plate cast out of 18K or 24K gold?

Check out DangerDen, they will order Cu for you, CHEAP!
www.dangerden.com

Copper is not good enough for him ... somehting about it not transferring heat fast enough ...

Well crap, yer talking about silver with some gold in it, why not go anf just got for the grand prize of Platinum? :P

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C-ya
Joe - Owner/Editor
www.ProCooling.com
Where the Completely Addicted Come to Cool Off

Somebody set up us the bomb.

well, because a silver/gold coldplate will cost me like 30-40 bucks, whereas platinum would cost me as much as a new car.

I wouldn't add gold to the alloy as you'll ruin the conductivity of the Silver that way.
The thermal conductivity of pure silver is 4.173 W/cm-K, the thermal conductivity o gold is only 2.913 W/cm-K, which is about 25% less than copper.

that's an excellent point there;
mmmmmm, silver and gold paperwieght.

well anyway, logo time,

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How fast do you want your heat to flow ?
Well, how much money do you have ?

Some thermal conductivity numbers:

Al - 237
Cu - 401
Ag - 429
CUSIL - 515

Let me see, if a 6.5% increase (Cu/Ag) is worth a 5X increase in material cost, then a 22% (Cu/CUSIL) increase would justify a 15X cost increase, unfortunately the increase in cost is not linear - but exponential.

CUSIL (WESGO Metals) is the eutectic alloy (lowest melting temp) of Ag and Cu ? 72%Ag & 28%Cu
This material is sold as Cusil in the US (or Eutectic Alloy H12 in the UK) for brazing; only in fine wire or thin sheet form.
Wesgo has a continuos casting process which at one point has the metal at 1/4 in. thick and 5.5 in. wide. They were gracious enough to quote me a price for a 2 x 5.5 x 1/4 in. piece: $517.96, plus shipping.
(Quote based on spot Ag $5.36)

Cut into 3 cold plates, about $180 each.
So I went to a casting co for a "custom" alloy, $200 each, IF the 1st pour was a success.

If anyone can come up with a reasonably priced source, please post it.

www.overclock-watercool.com has silver cold plates now

BillA: while i appreciate your point about silver not moving much more heat than copper, what silver does do is spread the heat out faster (yet doesn't move much more).
kevin: i already have a silver coldplate that i'm to pick up tommorow, it's somewhat thicker than the overclock-watercool's plate - i personally don't think 1/8" is thick enough to spread the heat out well, and if the one i have is too thick i just have to mill it down

You might want to take a look at a somewhat more comprehensive article at http://www.overclockers.com/

Thicker is better, and 1/4 in. or so should be the starting point.
(assuming an Athlon and 48mm TEC)

be cool

yes it is!

I'm gonna get a 10mm (3/8") coldplate of copper witch outperformes any 6.5mm (2/8") coldplate of silver.

btw the site was <A HREF = http://www.overclockers.com/articles305/ > here </A>

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OC'ing is my middlename

Why gold in it? Gold is much worse than silver at heat conductivity.