What Is A Heatsink?

[Dak1ng 0]

I've heard this word being used in terms of building computers, but what is t? is it the clear stuff you put on the CPU? And if not, can someone still tell me what the purpose of that clear stuff is? I'm usually not a newb when it comes to computers, but thats for software, etc. I can't understand the hardware (besides CPU, HDD,RAM, basic stuff)

[kawai 0]

its quite complex , so complex i cant explain it but i can show you this link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_sink

its a way to cool down motherboards for example, that draws heat from a object and then give it to the heat sink itself?

[rvalkass 5]

A heat sink is a device for transferring heat from something that needs cooling down, so that object doesn't over heat. Generally heat sinks are made from copper or aluminium, as these metals have high thermal conductivity and can rapidly dissipate the heat they pick up from whatever they are cooling. They also tend to have large surface areas (normally created with the fins common to most heat sinks) as the amount of energy they can dissipate is proportional to their surface area - a greater surface area allows more heat to be removed. Of course you still need to get that heat out of the heat sink. For smaller heat sinks this isn't normally a problem and the process of convection is good enough to keep a supply of cool air to the heat sink. However when there is a need to remove a large amount of heat, such as with a CPU, a fan becomes necessary to keep a constant supply of the coolest air possible hitting the fins of the heat sink.The 'clear stuff' you put on the CPU (normally actually silver or grey) is called thermal paste. Despite their appearances, neither the surface of the CPU nor the surface of the heat sink are perfectly smooth. They are actually covered with microscopic grooves. When you put the CPU and heat sink together, only the peaks of those grooves would touch, and therefore transfer heat. The rest of the heat would have to pass through small amounts of air, filling the grooves on the CPU and heat sink. The thermal paste fills those grooves in so that heat can be transferred quicker. The thermal paste normally has a very high thermal conductivity to transfer as much heat as possible as quickly as possible.

[truefusion 3]

Those new to system building often get confused by the thermal paste that often comes pre-applied to the heatsink. This confusion tends to result in the removal of the paste by the consumer. Never attempt to remove the pre-applied thermal paste from the heatsink unless you have purchased new thermal paste and are replacing the thermal paste that was already on the heatsink. Removing the paste can cause the CPU to overheat and frequent crashes of the system may occur. If you have mistakenly removed the paste, you should purchase new thermal paste and learn to apply it. It is recommended that no more than paste the size of a (long) grain of rice should be applied to the processor. Spreading the paste across the top of the processor may not be necessary; however, if you want to be neat, or are a perfectionist, you could use a plastic bag to help spread the paste. Some heatsinks may bring the paste separately and may also provide their own paste spreader.