Using a copper penny as heatsink medium?

Wouldnt it be easier to just take the shroud off and put an 80mm fan on the heatsink?
 
Blkout said:
This sounds like a very expensive project. Have you considered the cost?
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I was just thinking about the samething, all the time and effort went into this...

I would imagine it will be easier to pick up an used card from ebay instead.
BUT, it's an interesting story...that's for sure.
 
I would think the surface of a penny would be too uneven to evenly distribute the heat, but sounds like your temps are in line. there are websites that sell various metals and you can get a piece of copper basically cut to fit... surfaces are rather rough though so may not be of any great help. Haven't bought any for awhile and can't remember the specific site, but Google should help you out
 
jaychen said:
I was just thinking about the samething, all the time and effort went into this...

I would imagine it will be easier to pick up an used card from ebay instead.
BUT, it's an interesting story...that's for sure.
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They say "time is money"

Would be quicker/easier than ebay to just buy a new card at the store, but likely costlier.

I have time, but no money. (most people have money, but no time)

I tried looking on ebay for similar cards either to use or salvage their fans but the cost of shipping/time on ebay was much more expensive than my heatsink which cost $3 + shipping which turns out to be $10 total.

So $10 + $0.01 for the penny + 30 min time

What I got was a fixed card that is fanless and some useful knowledge I didnt have before. I'm sure someone else out there would eventually similarly have this issue. Just for fun ill try sheet copper when I find some for free ;)
 
ShimizuToshie said:
Should I even bother trying to find a real copper penny? I'm getting 71C load temps which is tolerable for me. Wonder how much lower it will get had it been a real copper.
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10-15C ? Sanding paper isn't that hard to get and if you want to lap your penny to sufficient flatness 120-400 grit will do just fine. You can find sandpaper of those grits in any Home Depot store.
 
DeadSkull said:
10-15C ? Sanding paper isn't that hard to get and if you want to lap your penny to sufficient flatness 120-400 grit will do just fine. You can find sandpaper of those grits in any Home Depot store.
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hehe, guess you didnt finish reading the thread when replying, as I already redone it with sanding. I got 2C improvement. I suspect I've reached my aluminum heatsink's limit of dispersing heat since I went from zinc to copper base penny but only 2C difference. That or the thermal paste supplied by the heatsink package from coolmaster can't perform much better.
 
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"Title 18 United States Code, Section 331

Whoever fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs, diminishes,
falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the mints of
the United States, or any foreign coins which are by law made current
or are in actual use or circulation as money within the United States;
or

Whoever fraudulently possesses, passes, utters, publishes, or sells,
or attempts to pass, utter, publish, or sell, or brings into the
United States, any such coin, knowing the same to be altered, defaced,
mutilated, impaired, diminished, falsified, scaled, or lightened -

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five
years, or both"

Wait...is that black helicopters I hear growing closer...? LOL Great thread!
 
Used a sanded down penny for my dv9720us Laptop GPU cooler worked great had to use mic to get it just the right thickness. Stays in the low 40 to mid 50c for temp reading.
 
I've used copper pennies on laptops in place of the crappy pads that they use to fill the huge gaps between chips and their sinks. The old laptop I'm on now has one between the GPU and it's sink and it works perfectly. It dropped the temps from highs of 150+ (F, while gaming) to the mid 130's. I did the same for a few Dell XPS m1730's (GPU, CPU & Northbridge chips) with excellent results. Just make sure you lap them evenly and mic the gaps to get a good fit. My customers are happy with the results and that's what matters to me. I use a stiff clay/putty to measure the gap and mic that to find out what I need to lap them to. Rotate the penny constantly while sanding to assure an even shim. I use double sided tape to hold the penny to a small sanding block and tape sandpaper to a sheet of glass for a level surface.

This is old skool stuff for us ol' farts. :D
 
jaychen said:
I was just thinking about the samething, all the time and effort went into this...

I would imagine it will be easier to pick up an used card from ebay instead.
BUT, it's an interesting story...that's for sure.
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LOL, my comment was sarcastic. I hope yours was too.
 
This is a pretty well documented fix for several problematic laptops, the T60 and some Acer one come to mind.
 
Well I got one of those 100% copper shims nicely cut off ebay for 99cents. Its 2mm which is thicker than a penny, but stiff was able to fit. Got my video card idle temp down to 32c and load at 57c. Works better than using a penny but cost me 98cents more lol.
 
DarkTower said:
Quarter is nickel and I dont have a silver dollar. :(
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Really dude? Old quarters are silver (and new quarters in Silver Proof Sets). You can come across silver quarters every so often or buy one for like a buck. Silver would do a better job than copper.
 
As good a deal as the CoolViva Z1 is, I just want to say one thing, it's a shame CM made the blue heatsink so tall. Look at this picture:

http://forum.ge/uploads/post-54-1315412239.jpg

They probably had a good reason for designing it this way (compatibility) but if they had made the heatsink a bit wider and less tall it would only take up one slot instead of two. IMO it's a bit ridiculous to have a mid-range passive heatsink take up three slots (two on one side and one more on the other).
 
Carlitos714 said:
awesome dude! where are the pics?
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I took these 4 pictures just as personal reference before installing the heatsink in case I forget something. Didn't think to take pictures of it with penny being installed to post here.


Took these pictures after you guys request some picks. You can see the copper shim sandwiched between the gpu and heatsink. Too lazy to remove the heatsink to show the copper shim on top. Didn't want to redo the thermal paste =]


Post pictures. Some reviewer didnt like the blue colored aluminum, said it look ugly, but looks fine to me.


Installed in desktop. Takes 2 slot and a little room above it. Has option to install a 80mm fan, but I didnt need to. My case has 120mm intake fan next to the fins which supply enough airflow
 
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doz said:
Really dude? Old quarters are silver (and new quarters in Silver Proof Sets). You can come across silver quarters every so often or buy one for like a buck. Silver would do a better job than copper.
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Well Copper's Thermal conductivity is 400 W/mK while Silver is 429 W/mK. Not much of a difference except copper is cheaper to come by. Maybe someday I'll try using diamonds, it has the highest thermal conductivity at 2,300 W/mK!
 
Well Copper's Thermal conductivity is 400 W/mK while Silver is 429 W/mK. Not much of a difference except copper is cheaper to come by. Maybe someday I'll try using diamonds, it has the highest thermal conductivity at 2,300 W/mK!
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while this is true, good luck finding a diamond that is large enough to cut into a thin sheet. to use as a shim. That and i'd hate to think of the price of something like that.
 
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