btw why is the true 120 extreme all aluminum isnt copper bettwer? if true was made from all copper would it preform 100% better? btw will a zerotherm all copper butterfly heatsink beat true? its huge all copper.. i dont get it how can true beat if its aluminium
The base of the TRUE is copper. It is just nickel plated. The design of the TRUE is why its so great. 12 heatpipes and a ton of fins. Also, copper aint cheap and is only marginally better at dissipating heat.
After a little more reading (yay google), apparently heat can be transfered TO copper better, but aluminum dissipates heat better. So this is why it has a copper base and aluminum fins with heatpipes to transfer the heat from one to the other.
As a material aluminum is cheaper, but it's one of the most difficult metals to work with (joining methods)...which means manufacturing costs are generally higher.
I think they just do ghetto-brazing on heatsinks though so I suppose that's not the issue. Perhaps they avoid copper because of the weight? I mean the TRUE is already nearly 1kg I think.