i have been looking for was to better cool my old P3 and desided that I wanted to take a shot at building a custome heatsink. I have since found it very dificult to find the main part to build the heat sink out of, a copper bar. If anyone knows where i might be able to buy a bar of pure copper please let me know. thanks for the help I have been looking for hours
try this then lol http://search.ebay.com/copper-bar_B...refZC12QQfromZR8QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ1QQsacatZ12576
yea i had looked on e=bay at first but the best size i could find was 2" by 2" by 12". i was looking for one about an inch bigger but i think that i might be ablt to make do with the smaller one.
Just look in the phone book for machine shops or metal shops, either that or ask at a hardware store, they can probably recomend where to buy some. This is what my friend did when he was building his waterblock.
yes i had found the same link there at useful links unforentualy I can not spend anything on a copper block afterall because of some much bigger projects that i am also working on. So for now I am moding the oem heatsink into a bracket and mounting a xeon heatsink to cool this thing down. the bad thing is that now that i cant spend any money on my current project i am going to half to do a lot, lot more work. (stupid riser cards cause too much money) o well looks like this project I have cooked up is going to take a little bit more dremeling than i thought (probibly some extra sodering too now that i think of it) I will make a new topic when im finished. it looks like it is going to turn out very nice. but to hint at what im working on it involves a recaver.
Heatsink fabrication is quite difficult...especially if you want small fins and are using copper. I can't think of a copper heatsink that was machined from one block, at least not one with very thin fins. Those were always soldered on. If you wanted thick fins like you see on aluminum blocks, it's more doable, but machining copper is a pain in the ass. Aluminum and especially steel are MUCH easier. If you wanted to make your own heatsink, I'd suggest aluminum. I assume you have a milling machine and bits to fabricate a heatsink? If not, you're probably in over your head. DIY waterblocks are much easier and can be cobbled together from scrap (well, not quite) and still perform pretty well. I'd recommend that over a heatsink for DIY. Unless you want to try it for kicks and aren't expecting to succeed. Which isn't bad, it's always a good learning experience, but from the sound of it you don't have money to blow.
There is little performance loss when soldering the fins properly. The hard part is soldering them. It's not like soldering wires. You need something capable of heating up the entire block of copper so the solder will stick. So...not your soldering iron and not your soldering gun. More like a blow torch. Then you have to figure out a way to heat all the fins at the same time (after tinning them of course), while having the block heated to the melting point of solder (i.e. a second torch) then you have to figure out some way to press them onto the bass uniformly and firmly so you get good contact (i.e. you want the fins to be pressed in HARD) and hold it there until all the copper can cool.
