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purple cat
Feb4-08, 12:32 PM
Hi I need help selecting a material to make a water-cooled heatsink.
The heat sink is to be attached to an integrated circuit (IC), removing 75deg Celcius heat.
Ok so most heatsinks are made of Aluminum because of it's high thermal conductivity.
Is it the same for water-cooled ones?
What do you have to consider when selecting material?

chroot
Feb4-08, 02:25 PM
Aluminum is great, because it won't corrode. It's also easy to mill. I'd suggest a water/alchohol mixture though, to inhibit bacterial growth.

- Warren

TVP45
Feb4-08, 03:25 PM
You might look at some of the over-clocking sites. Those guys run some pretty awesome home-brew heatsinks, including water-cooled.

russ_watters
Feb4-08, 04:15 PM
There are also kits you can buy for this specific purpose.

berkeman
Feb4-08, 04:27 PM
Hi I need help selecting a material to make a water-cooled heatsink.
The heat sink is to be attached to an integrated circuit (IC), removing 75deg Celcius heat.

BTW, the temperature of 75C is not the most important specification for your heatsink. You need to think in terms of a Theta[J,A] in units of "Degrees C per Watt" in your heatsink design and specification. You will have some allowed temperature rise for your component (from the inner semiconductor junctions "J" if applicable to the external ambient temperature "A"), and that component will be dissipating some power in Watts. Your heat sink will need to extract enough heat from the device (through your water cooling system or whatever) to keep the max temperature of the device (semiconductor junctions) within specifications.