anybody made there own CPU cooler ?

[Oreo]

I was wondering if anyone here has made there own heatsink for the cpu ? I have access to lots of metal working facilities and CAD machines and also laser cutters capable of cutting metal, all at my school.

I was interested in making my own CPU cooler just for a bit of fun, but i would like it to be atleast functionable. Is it possible to make a good one or am i wasting my time ? I am not expecting it to be as good as aftermarket coolers, but to get one as good as a stock intel cooler would be pretty cool

 

[thirdshiftdj]

I'm sure you could make your standard heatsink out of a block of aluminum but if you want to get crazy then you'd have to get heat pipes and cut a bunch of aluminum fins and solder then together

 

[joshd]

Just strap a massive block of copper to it. Maybe cut a fin or two into it while you are at it.

 

[saltynay]

Unlikely unless your an engineering genius you need to think of air turbulence over the fins and materials as copper comes in different grades.

 

[Oreo]

Yes yes. But it all seems pretty logical to me. I can put it in a smoke tunnel to check hot air doesn't linger around when the fan is activated etc. Just be a bit of trial and error

 

[saltynay]

Expensive trial and error a block of copper or aluminium isn't cheap and the most conductive metal so the best material to use would be silver . If you going to go through with it make your mock ups for shape from cheap iron scrap then the cost is low

 

[Hefemeister]

How about the tin can dry ice pot?

 

[CrazeD]

To get one as good as the stock Intel one really wouldn't be that hard. All you'd need to do is get a chunk of copper and mill out some fins and fan tabs, and it should perform at least as good as the stock Intel one.

 

[David@CC]

To get a operational heat sink theres no complications around it. You'll need to look at some possible designs of other heat sinks first tho, I've seen heat sinks that look like medevil meat pulpers and they still seem to do the job.

If you want to make a cheap and easy heat sink you should be thinking about fins.. about 15 fins evenly spaced on a 8 x 8 cm block of copper. with fans mounts at the top. nothing will go past 70oC so you can use plastics as mounts for the fan.

If you want to go a bit more technical, try and achive a passive heat sink, this is where the fan is mounted on the side on the heat sink blowing air over the processor this requires thiner fins.

When mounting your heat sink onto the mother board try and go for the easery options of making a frame that will be able to screw into the motherboard, as the bit of plastics that holds the heat sink to the motherboard can be screwed off. You could have spring loaded screws to save mesuring how far up the processor is from the board and getting it right.

If you have all the tools there this would be fairly simple job.

 

[Oreo]

Expensive trial and error a block of copper or aluminium isn't cheap and the most conductive metal so the best material to use would be silver . If you going to go through with it make your mock ups for shape from cheap iron scrap then the cost is low

The school has lots of metal, sure, technically i'm not allowed to use it without paying. But they wouldn't notice

Thanks guys, i'm really going to give this a shot if i can get the time at school.

I am a little unsure how i will attatch it to the motherboard but i will figure something out.