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Copper (media.piefed.social)
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[-] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 31 points 2 months ago

Looks nice. Why they don't sell PCs with cooling like that? What are the downsides?

[-] ManaYoodSushai@feddit.org 88 points 2 months ago

I would guess that the low surface area would lead to problems. At first it would cool very well because of the huge thermal mass, but once it reaches thermal equilibrium the cooling would be quite weak.

[-] Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social 57 points 2 months ago

I'd also think moving your PC will rip your CPU right off the motherboard

[-] Hedup@lemmy.world 30 points 2 months ago

The trick is not to move the PC, but rather the copper block, which just happens to have a PC attached to it.

[-] fartographer@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago

So, you're saying that putting blocks of copper on everything in a PC will automatically shed unnecessary parts, building a more efficient system?

[-] jaybone@lemmy.zip 10 points 2 months ago

Just run a solid copper block for maximum efficiency.

[-] fartographer@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Wouldn't gold be more efficient? Can't I just fill my PC with gold doubloons? The rattling noise means it's running.

[-] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 22 points 2 months ago
[-] gigachad@piefed.social 11 points 2 months ago

Yes! The only way to increase the surface is to build a higher tower!

[-] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

Theoretically... Hell yes!

[-] Slovene@feddit.nl 14 points 2 months ago

lead to problems

We're talking about copper, dumdum.

[-] protogen420 3 points 2 months ago

how long till it reaches thermal equilibrium? maybe it can endure a full load for an hour

[-] jaybone@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 months ago

Your mom can endure a full… oh never mind.

[-] vithigar@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 months ago

You're looking at about a half hour per kilogram of copper to raise it by 50 °C with 100W of heat.

Actual delta from ambient to thermal limit will typically be a little higher than that, but so is processor wattage on mid-to-high performance CPUs, so I'm happy enough with that as a ballpark estimate.

Someone else estimated that block as 4.5kg, so you've got something close to two and a half hours of cooling from an ambient start.

[-] ManaYoodSushai@feddit.org 1 points 2 months ago

I was wondering about this too, but I'm not an engineer so I would have to look up how to calculate this

[-] grue@lemmy.world 37 points 2 months ago

Do you have any idea how expensive a solid block of copper that big is?

[-] Iconoclast@feddit.uk 33 points 2 months ago

If that block is roughly 4.5cm x 4.5cm x 25cm then the volume of it is about 500cm³ which translates to 4.5kg of copper. At 11€/kg that makes about 50 euros.

[-] tempest@lemmy.ca 17 points 2 months ago

Cheaper than some noctua coolers.

[-] TomMasz@piefed.social 1 points 2 months ago

If this were in an enclosure, would it cause the PCB to bow over time?

[-] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 30 points 2 months ago

Would you even notice, after buying the ram and storage?

[-] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 14 points 2 months ago

Yes but you save on manufacturing.

[-] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 12 points 2 months ago

Despite the cost, it's damn heavy.

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago

and just stupid. Cooling fins of aluminum work better.

[-] SolSerkonos@piefed.social 4 points 2 months ago

Copper isn't that bad. It's not cheap exactly, but it's probably going to cost what an expensive CPU cooler already would.

[-] Skyrmir@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Probably around $150 worth of copper there, but you'll have to spend about twice that to get it because it comes in a larger size you'll have to cut down.

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago

but a CPU cooler will work better because it is active.

[-] SolSerkonos@piefed.social 1 points 2 months ago

Well, yeah. Even a passive CPU cooler would probably work better.

[-] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 3 points 2 months ago

11 euro per kilogram

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago

What's a solid block of copper cost? one banana?

[-] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I have a micro ATX case that itself is the cooler. Heatpipes transport the heat to the case walls and they have fins to increase surface area. It can handle up to 65 watt CPUs.

It's not produced anymore. But with all the talk of the Gabecube I've been itching to make a new build with it. Unfortunately I have neither the money or the energy.

[-] SolSerkonos@piefed.social 8 points 2 months ago

Fanless cases are a thing, and they're neat.

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago

they use aluminum as a heat sink and heat transfer medium.

[-] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Weight, cost, and it's probably not effective for the long haul. The mass of a copper ingot like that will work like a heatsink, but it has a very low surface area for the energy it can absorb. So it'll heat up to a point that is uncomfortable for the CPU, then fail to radiate that energy out to the air effectively.

As a test-bench temporary heatsink, this is actually kind of inspired. No fans, to fussy clips, just stack a copper brick on the CPU, run some benchmarks, and then turn it all off.

[-] pulsewidth@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago

Incredibly unwieldy. Real quick estimate of volume puts that at around 1.75kg of copper, so it wouldn't be possible to mount in a vertical PC case orientation (ie the majority of consumer PC cases) without significant (expensive) modifications to both the mobo socket mount and the case, else its weight would snap the motherboard, or just slowly flex it until traces failed.

It may not even be able to be used vertically like that for very long or it will compress and damage the CPU / socket / mobo. Just as an example, the weight limit of the thermal solution (HSF/water chamber heatsink/etc) for socket LGA 1700 is 950g.

[-] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Real quick estimate of volume puts that at around 1.75kg of copper

I assume it's at least ~5 cm × 5 cm × 15 cm. Given the mass density of copper, 8.96 g/cm^3 , its mass is at least 3.36 kg.

[-] ozymandias@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

i find your estimate to be overed

[-] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

It begins with the question: How wide is the cpu?

Based on that dimension, it's approximately 3× as tall.

[-] ozymandias@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

(if you notice the space bar, i think it’s a tiny computer)

[-] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 1 points 2 months ago

I'd say, the copper block is ~3 USB connectors wide

[-] ozymandias@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago

i’d say about 2, @2.4 cm total then…

[-] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

My guess is that will only work until it saturates with heat. Some liquid cooling setups are also like that, where the rad isn't capable of dissipating heat fast enough to prevent the whole thing from overheating, but it'll work fine for a while because the loop itself can absorb a bunch of heat before it stops being able to take any more. Then they probably blame the chip maker for running too hot even with liquid cooling when their liquid cooling setup is actually less effective than the stock cooler or their case has horrible airflow and would choke any size or number of rads. But their reservoir acts as a heat buffer, so it takes 30 mins to even realize that, but they've already concluded it works.

[-] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

And sometimes that even would be a good strategy for cases where there's only short burst of higher heat output.

this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2026
743 points (100.0% liked)

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