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.
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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.