On 2006-10-05, Timothy Daniels <TDaniels@NoSpamDot.com> wrote:

> as with all turbulence. That this increases the amount of calories
> that the bulk air flow is able to remove per minute is a measure
> of efficiency of turbulence is ignored and unseen by various
> computer modders who would call themselves "designers".

Quite right - there's an awful lot spoken about heatsinks by people
who clearly do not understand the basics - that's all I would claim
to understand, but you know something is amiss if you simply _look_
at the heatsinks sold to case modders and overclockers.

How many _shiny_, _silver_ (or copper coloured for that matter)
heatsinks have you seen, for instance? They may look very nice
but it's basic physics - the best colour is matt black. Similarly
I've seen passively cooled sinks with their fins arranged horizontally,
again a no-no for anyone who's done even the slightest study into
the things.

It's long been my suspicion that a lot of sinks sold to end users
are designed with cosmetics (simply _looking_ impressive) in mind
rather than actual efficiency.

--
Andrew Smallshaw
andrews@sdf.lonestar.org