Large Thermal Mass Rocks for Sketchy Heatsinks

ortizimo · March 13, 2019

hi guys...just watched a sketchy heatsink episode and was thinking why not us a think slice of rock with a large thermal mass as a heatsink to see if it works. just wondering...thnx.

Mira Yurizaki · March 13, 2019

3 minutes ago, ortizimo said:

hi guys...just watched a sketchy heatsink episode and was thinking why not us a think slice of rock with a large thermal mass as a heatsink to see if it works. just wondering...thnx.

It'll have poor surface area, so it'll be harder to cool. You don't want a "thermal battery" in a cooling system, you want to dump heat as efficiently as possible.

EDIT: If you meant "thin" then still a similar issue and I don't think rocks have nearly as much thermal conductivity as metal.

ortizimo · March 13, 2019

2 minutes ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

It has poor surface area, so it'll be harder to cool. You don't want a "thermal battery" in a cooling system, you want to dump heat as efficiently as possible.

right and as I understand, rocks like marble feel cool to the touch because it draws heat away from your hand even when hot outside...thinking about that and possible cutting a piece of it would be for a bit of science experiment as all tests like in sketchy heatsink. seeing their heatsinks in those episode cannot be as bad as doing something with LTM rocks.

Enderman · March 13, 2019

Please look up what thermal conductivity is.

For a rock it is hundreds of times worse than metal.

Thermal mass is irrelevant.

LogicalDrm · March 14, 2019

22 hours ago, ortizimo said:

right and as I understand, rocks like marble feel cool to the touch because it draws heat away from your hand even when hot outside...thinking about that and possible cutting a piece of it would be for a bit of science experiment as all tests like in sketchy heatsink. seeing their heatsinks in those episode cannot be as bad as doing something with LTM rocks.

The reason why it feels cool is because rocks take long time to heat up, and cool down. Though marble isn't best in that field. Diabase is one of better ones, usually used in sauna stoves. Another good one is talc-alcaline metamorphic rocks, often used in fireplaces. Both store heat and release it slowly. For heatsink use you don't want anything that stores heat. You want something that moves heat away from CPU and then dissipates it as quickly as possible.