As far as the heat sink material is concerned, the thermal conductivity of each material is different, and the thermal conductivity is arranged from high to low, which are silver, copper, aluminum and steel. However, if silver is used as a heat sink, it will be too expensive, so the best solution is to use copper. Although aluminum is much cheaper, it is clear that thermal conductivity is not as good as copper (about 50% of copper).
The commonly used heat sink materials are copper and aluminum alloy, both of which have their advantages and disadvantages. Copper has good thermal conductivity, but it is expensive, difficult to process, and too heavy (many pure copper radiators exceed the CPU's weight limit), heat capacity is small, and it is easy to oxidize. Pure aluminum is too soft to be used directly. The aluminum alloy used can provide sufficient hardness. The advantage of aluminum alloy is low price and light weight, but the thermal conductivity is much worse than copper. Some radiators take their own strength and embed a piece of copper on the base of the aluminum alloy radiator.
For the average user, the use of aluminum heat sinks is enough to meet the cooling needs.
The radiators that are heated in the north in winter are also called heat sinks.
The heat sink plays an important role in the construction of the heat sink. In addition to the active heat dissipation of the fan, the evaluation of a heat sink depends largely on the heat absorption capacity and heat transfer capability of the heat sink itself.