On Thu, 5 Oct 2006 20:58:37 +0000 (UTC), Andrew Smallshaw
<andrews@sdf.lonestar.org> wrote:

>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.

The difference from color is usually very minor, and the
annodized finish can in itself offset the improvement you'd
otherwise have from it being matte. Most parameters matter
more.

> 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.
>

True, but what does it have to do with the context of
computers? A passive sink in a computer is not necessarily
better with non-horizontal fins, because while the sink is
passive it is in an actively cooled system, more often than
not (you seldom see any systems without ANY fans in them).


>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.

Certainly some are, but others that look similar enough
really do perform impressively.