OK, so I'm sorry if I did not post this in the correct spot, but I am curious... Has anyone done any testing on powder coated heat sinks? The place I work is a metal fab and Powder coat shop, so I have access to all sorts of crazy fun things to work with. I was thinking of making some heat sinks, and having them PC a translucent pearl, cause I like the look, but I'm afraid that the PC will hold more of the heat in. Really, I'm pretty sure that it will, but my thoughts are that if there is enough airflow, that the added heat retention will be offset? Any thoughts? -TBG
You might be able to get away with it on a hardrive cooler, but heatsinks are having a hard enough time keeping up with the newer chips. You could PC some brass-topped waterblocks and radiators, though.
I am having them run a test on a spare video card heatsink, with a candy color right now, should have that today or Monday. least that should let me see how much that changes things. Maybe from that I can do some (math) and try to figure things out. Been tossing around WC for a little while on the ground-up case I'm planning, and if that's the final thought, I'd be OK NP. I love the look of machined aluminum, but sometimes it's just not fancy enough.
Anodising can give some nice translucent finishes and does not detract from performance. Black paint is pretty common as a budget job but I guess it's much thinner than powder coat?
Anodizing does do the same thing, but PC is free for me... PC can be thin, depends on how you put it on, how many coats, ect, just like paint.
