Copper or aluminum heatsink, which one do I buy?

Although we see many aluminum heatsinks on the market, there are copper heatsinks that are very interesting due to their thermal conductivity. There is some ignorance about the latter and we want to contrast them against the aluminum ones, since they are the most chosen option in air coolers. Let's start!

Copper heatsink

As you already know aluminum heatsinks, we want to explain how copper heatsinks work. Before starting, tell you not to confuse those aluminum heatsinks that have copper heat pipes, since here we refer to the complete copper heatsinks.

The difference lies in the thermal conductivity, that is, the ability of a material to conduct heat. Materials with a high thermal conductivity are heated and cooled earlier. The three materials that have the best thermal conductivity are the following:

Silver: 429 W / mK. Copper: 399 W / mK. Gold: 316 W / mK. Aluminum: 235 W / mK.

Seeing this you will think why the heatsinks are aluminum if it is the material with the lowest thermal conductivity? This has its explanation. Let's remove silver and gold from the equation because they are precious materials, which would make this component very expensive. Also, silver is not as robust, but of course, aluminum is not.

Reasons why there are no copper heatsinks

If we go to the main PC component stores, we will not find copper heatsinks. Why? Because manufacturers have observed that copper is heavy and more expensive than aluminum. Some may think "it doesn't matter, I'm willing to pay it", it's not just about that.

Logistics

Weight is an extremely important logistical burden, especially when transporting a shipment of components from one place to another. Let's put ourselves in the shoes of the manufacturers and in the situation of having to transport the heatsinks made in Asia to Europ to, for example.

We will do it by air, but we have a weight limit per shipment. So, for example, where we could send 500 copper heatsinks, we could send approximately 1, 000 aluminum heatsinks. Therefore, we are sending less quantity and we have to pay more shipments to meet the same demand. This example is totally made up, but I think it serves to explain it.

Motherboard

On the other hand, there are the dimensions of certain heatsinks. We can see components from Noctua or Cooler Master that are made of aluminum and weigh more than 1 kg. Can you imagine if they were made of copper? They would weigh more than double!

This would have a very strong impact on the PCB of the motherboard, since there would be more torsion and we could seriously damage it, even if it is reinforced. Therefore, it is not worth opting for a component of this material for dissipation.

Price

Logically, it is a more expensive material than aluminum, so its price would increase in such a way that the heatsinks would not be competitively priced. Why? Because aluminum heatsinks offer great performance, despite their lower conductivity.

Ultimately, consumers would opt for an aluminum heatsink because it has better value for money.

Aluminum heatsink, the standard

Today, there is little to threaten its existence in the market. It is a cheap component to manufacture, with a very light weight, with a very good performance and at an affordable price. All are benefits, seeing that its only disadvantage is that it has a lower thermal conductivity than gold, copper or silver.

For this reason, you will see many more aluminum heatsinks on the market. Their threat is AIO liquid coolers, but they do not end up fitting among average consumers for fear of poor maintenance or because their price is somewhat higher and they do not obtain a very different performance.

We hope this information has been helpful to you and, if you have any questions, comment below.

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Have you had a copper sink? What experiences do you have? Would you have a copper heatsink?