how heatsinks work?

[homerj14]

How exactly do heatsinks work I think its amazing technology i saw a video of a guy testing out his CPU and he would play like quake 3 or something and he took the heatsink off and the processor reached like 700 degrees in a split second

 

[m3trj]

Well yes it would.

The heatsink is made of metal right, so the heat from the processor surface is conducted onto the base of the heatsink, and out onto the fins of the heatsink where the air moving past removes that heat as the ambient air temperature is lower than the heatsink. The heatsink will pass heat to the air particles passing by. The aim is to keep the surface of the heatsink at the same temperature as the air. So basically the heatsink is passing the heat from the processor to the air.

When you take the heatsink off, the processor has nowhere to pass the heat to, as it doesn't have a large surface area to dissapate the heat. So instead of heating up the heatsink to take the heat away, it heats itself up very fast.

 

[homerj14]

so the Fins that are pointing upwards the heat goes to the top of them or not?

 

[Trotter]

The heat spreads into the heatsink because it is metal and has direct contact with the CPU... like a spoon in boiling water.

The heat radiates into the fins because they are there. The fins increase the surface area of the heatsink, allowing it to dissipate the heat much more efficiently.

A fan is used to increase the heat transfer. it works like blowing on hot food.

Without a HS/F, your CPU would be a charred lump of silicon in a matter of seconds.