Cold Plate?

[steimm]

Hi!

I've read som posts about coldplates in Copper and that is one way to get better colling effect, or am I wrong? How thick or thin should it be to get the best effect? 1mm, 2mm, 3mm, 4mm, 5mm, 6mm?

But the real question that I have:

Is there anyone here that can tell me if Titanium-plate is better than Copper-plate?
Which metal of them is better for heattransporting?

Overall, which metal is best for coldplate between core and heatsink (gold, silver, copper etc...?
Or is there any other material that would be better, like glass?

Steimm
"No Chemistry expert"

 

[daverules]

As far as I know, Cold Plates are generally used in Peltier applications. Cold Plates act as a 'spacer' between the Peltier and the processor. If you don't know how a peltier works, quite simply, it uses electrical current to draw waste heat away from the processor. Using some kind of electrical property, one side becomes very very cold, but the other becomes very very hot. Really, it's magic. Peltiers, though, are generally quite thin. The hot side is very close to the hot side, and therefore, close to the processor. Sometimes this heat can still damage the processor due to it's proximity. So, to make a long story short (too late), the cold plate protects the processor from the peltier's dangerous heat, but still conducts the processor's heat to the peltier to be drawn away. Still, magic. Really, cold plates don't have a place in traditional HSF setups, but they're sometimes necessary if you have a powerful peltier

Generally, Cold Plates are made of copper. I suppose silver or gold would be better, but Cold Plates are usually large, and heavy, therefore making other metals impractical. I just found out, though, there's another magical material called cusil, which I've never heard of, but it's supposed to be expensive. To learn more about cold plates, peltiers, and this cusil, check it:

http://www.overclockers.com/articles305/

Overclockers has a bunch of pages all about peltier cooling and other great stuff.