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Cutting Open a Heatsink Heatpipe To See Inside

Posted by timothy on from the well-lookie-here dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Frostytech gets to the heart of Zalman's CNPS11X heatsink by cutting a section of heatpipe from the CPU cooler to inspect its inner composite heatpipe wick structure. Now that's an in-depth heatsink review! Interesting photos of the dissected heatpipe's composite wick — sintered copper powder on top and axial groove wick below — that you're unlikely to see elsewhere. In the late 1960s the first commercial heatpipes were used by NASA to stabilize satellite temperatures; now they stabilize multi-core processors."

13 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. Oblig Futurama reference by LostCluster · · Score: 2

    That's pure heatsink pr0n, those heatsinks don't stay inside cases.

  2. Before anyone else says it... by roc97007 · · Score: 4, Funny

    > In the late 1960s the first commercial heatpipes were used by NASA to stabilize satellite temperatures

    Why didn't they just use fans? ...um, what? ...Really? Oh. Never mind.

    --
    Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    1. Re:Before anyone else says it... by roc97007 · · Score: 2

      That's either funny in a profoundly geeky way, or a perfect illustration of the perils of a public education. I don't know which.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    2. Re:Before anyone else says it... by roc97007 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Or, rather, lack of Whoosh...

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    3. Re:Before anyone else says it... by Thud457 · · Score: 4, Funny

      In space, no one can hear you Whoosh.

      --

      the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    4. Re:Before anyone else says it... by wagnerrp · · Score: 2

      Public education. You don't stabilize satellites with RCS jets. You use reaction wheels, or CMGs, or you just spin the whole thing up. RCS jets are fine for something like the shuttle and other low endurance space craft. For anything that stays up for years, you don't want to be wasting precious fuel for anything other than station keeping and potential orbit transfers.

    5. Re:Before anyone else says it... by LastGunslinger · · Score: 2

      It's cool. I've noticed Poe's Law extends to most crackpot political stances. Impossible to tell the difference between sincerity and parody.

    6. Re:Before anyone else says it... by SleazyRidr · · Score: 2

      I like using ~ as opposed to /s. Of course no-one understands that either...

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      Is 1563649 a prime number?
  3. Where's the juice? by bromoseltzer · · Score: 2

    There's a working fluid there somewhere, it must have come out, and it might be toxic. Or it might give you a high. The review is silent on this.

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    Fiat Lux.
    1. Re:Where's the juice? by Tjp($)pjT · · Score: 4, Informative

      The working fluid is often water. Sometimes ammonia but usually not for electronics. It is under lower pressure so that its boiling point is near the working temperature of the device. Boils off or evaporates, condenses in the cold side of the heat exchanger, then capillary action sucks it back faster than it would otherwise travel to the hot side. My favorite heat pipe was a flat grill ... awesomely uniform temperatures. Not sure what the working fluid was. Other ways besides fans are to immerse the cold side heat exchanger into more water at normal pressures and that can have even more surface area to cool the reservoir making an effective heatsink area that is HUGE...

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      - Tjp

      I am in wallow with my inner money grubbing capitalistic pig. ... Oink!

  4. Re:Gandalf disapproves by element-o.p. · · Score: 2

    These guys might take exception to Gandalf's advice :)

    (completely disregarding the fact that the guy in TFA did, in fact, know what the thing was; he just wanted to find out what made it tick)

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    MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
  5. Re:Mercury by Khyber · · Score: 2

    Mercury has SHIT thermal conductivity, what are you talking about?

    http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/mercury-d_1002.html

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    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  6. Re:But how does it compare to a solid heatpipe? by AaronW · · Score: 3, Informative

    They work much better. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pipe

    -Aaron

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