Dull heatsink make a difference?

[deepinya]

I have a zalman copper heatsink and the base doesnt have that highly reflective luster it used to.. Will this hurt the perfomance?

Should I shine it up? ....and if so, how?

 

[imported_Kensai]

Some people swear that it matters, I haven't noticed a difference.

 

[Baked]

People who lap their heatsink have way too much time and are super anal. TIM will fill in the gaps.

 

[mindwreck]

do u mean dull as in the tarnish?

My cnps6000cu was brown from the tarnish and i didn't notice any temp changes.
It should be fine as is.

 

[irwincur]

Why the hell would it matter? I am sure that it does not change the cooling properties of the metal. And if it did, I really doubt it would cause any significant difference.

 

[deepinya]

mindwreck- Yes tarnished.

I thought maybe the tarnish would impede cooling.

Just checking.

thx

 

[Baked]

Well you can always use some metal polish to clean off the tarnish then wipe it w/ alcohol, rub AS5 on the surface of the heatsink, wipe it off w/ lint free cloth, and finally apply thin layer of AS5 on the CPU's core and put the HSF back on.

 

[l Xes l]

i only use pure gold HSU cause it shines the best..

 

[Tiamat]

Theoretically tarnishing would affect temps since Cu-oxide is not as good of conductor as pure Cu. However, the heatsink has so much surface area that the Cu-oxide "poorness" doesnt really make it to the real picture.

IE. You are fine. 😀

 

[Zepper]

Flatness more important than shininess. Most commercial HSs can use a good lapping for flatness and if it happens to make them shiny in the process, what the hey...

.bh.