Is It A Horrible Idea to Gold Plate My Heat Sink?

[HogtownHero]

I'm putting together my new computer and I'd like to go with a super cheesy black and gold theme. The case frame and a few other bits (video card cover, motherboard shield thingy, etc) are going to hopefully be spray-chromed gold but I'm hesitant to do the same with the air cooler heat sink (an NH-D15S) because this particular spray-chrome process (there are a few) essentially involves some layers of paint. I know most people are going to say that getting the cooler itself gold-electroplated sounds ridiculous and is probably not a GOOD idea; I'm not going to dispute that. I just want to know if anyone thinks it's a horrible idea; are there better, safer alternatives? Gold has pretty decent thermal conduction, but would the electroplating process itself cause any unwanted thermal insulating factors? Additional thoughts?

[samcool55]

Umm, just do it?

Performance might decrease but honestly it can't be that bad. If you aren't planning to do a sick OC it likely won't matter

[KenjiUmino]

just buy a cooler with a copper heatsink and pretend it is gold (just kidding)

[MkaiL]

Only paint the top of the heatsink, not the entire thing? The rest is barely visible anyways, especially with the fans on.

[Noob1337]

Will you can do it but,,,

it will sightly affect performance

D:

[DrMikeNZ]

If you have access to the right equipment and don't care of the cost, it is your choice, performance difference will be negligible.

If you can only see the top fin of the cooler, you might be able to get away with spray painting the top plate. Just use a few pieces of paper slid between the top fins to protect the rest of the cooler while painting.

 

[Bananasplit_00]

will see you dropping maybe 10c or so in cooling, NCIX has a video about it

[Princess Luna]

6 minutes ago, KenjiUmino said:

just buy a cooler with a copper heatsink and pretend it is gold (just kidding)

Although a FULL copper heatsink would be really neat too indeed in a black and gold themed rig

[KenjiUmino]

2 minutes ago, Princess Cadence said:

Although a FULL copper heatsink would be really neat too indeed in a black and gold themed rig

 

[CostcoSamples]

You should go for it.  But are you talking about gold plating with real gold, or gold colored spray paint?  Paint will affect thermals, gold will not.

[CostcoSamples]

Also, depending how thorough the spray process is, it might not fully coat the inner parts of the heatsink - thus thermals will be unaffected in those parts.

[Spuriae]

Have you considered anodizing them gold? If anything that'll improve your thermals.

 

Edit: I'm stupid, they're nickel plated.

Edit 2: Wait, the Nickel plating is there to prevent an oxide layer from forming (and for looks) despite relatively poor thermal properties; gold would theoretically be better in this application. Wonder if you could etch the nickel off then plate in gold for a thermal upgrade.

[Guest]

I might be stupid, but gold has good thermal properties? They use it in space "alot", and some car engine bays were gold coated because of them thermals? I'd say: just do it.

 

35 minutes ago, KenjiUmino said:

I've got one just like it. But they are rather old. They also came with blue LED fans. Got no clue where to buy new fans, so that can be an issue. (I mounted 2 stock fans on it with 2 pieces of wood and lots of zip-ties)

[Bcat00]

In pretty sure hes painting it gold color and not actually coating it in gold.

[HogtownHero]

1 hour ago, Bcat00 said:

In pretty sure hes painting it gold color and not actually coating it in gold.

To clarify: most components that are going to be gold are heading to be spray-chromed gold by a shop I found in town. Their specific spray-chrome process is NOT the fun chemist-set type (with water and sensitizer baths), THEY will paint a base coat, gold coat, top coat.

The Air Cooler itself would suffer severe thermal insulation if it went through that process (I would be at least marginally better off spray painting it gold!) so instead I am considering either Gold Anodizing or Electroplating. So yes Bcat00, we're talking about actually coating it in gold.

[WoodenMarker]

43 minutes ago, HogtownHero said:

The Air Cooler itself would suffer severe thermal insulation if it went through that process (I would be at least marginally better off spray painting it gold!) so instead I am considering either Gold Anodizing or Electroplating. So yes Bcat00, we're talking about actually coating it in gold.

Coating it in gold probably wouldn't make much of a difference in performance. A thin coat of regular spray paint usually raises temps by just several degrees.