How the Aerodynamics of the Heatsink Influences its Performance

When we talk about CPU coolers , we can find a lot of shapes and sizes. Each manufacturer designs their heatsink to deliver the best possible performance, but how does the shape of the heatsink fins influence their performance ? How much does aerodynamics affect? In this article we will explain how the aerodynamics of a heatsink works, what factors influence it, and how the shape affects its performance.

As a general rule, heatsinks -whether they are of the tower, double tower or shell type- always have an aluminum sheet structure crossed by copper heat pipes, which are the ones that “take” the heat out of the processor. Except for passive heatsinks, a fan (or several) is used to cool the structure of the heatsink by introducing fresh air between the fins to cool them, and given the high thermal conductivity of the materials used (copper and aluminum), it is possible to cool the processor.

Aerodynamics of the Heatsink Influences its Performance

How fin shape and arrangement affects heatsink performance

Depending on the make and model of the heatsink, you will notice that the aluminum sheets can be in a different arrangement, and even have different thicknesses and shapes. Each manufacturer is supposed to have studied this to provide the best performance, but why is each one built in a way and there is no unified criteria? Hasn’t the most optimal way been discovered?

The answer is that the arrangement, shape, and thickness of the aluminum fins on the heatsinks is highly dependent on the fan being used. For example, if in a very thick heatsink we were to use a fan with little static pressure or that simply did not have enough force, what we would achieve would be to cool only the first part of the aluminum sheets, leaving the accumulated heat in the most remote area heatsink.

Disipador ThermalRight

Similarly, thicker aluminum foils may have a better ability to dissipate heat, but their greater property, which is that of being able to change temperatures quickly, would lose effectiveness, so it is important to find the right point.

Likewise, thicker blades would make more interference with the fan, allowing less air to pass between them, and if this were not enough, the separation between the fins must also be taken into account, since if they are too close together it may not happen. enough air between them, or if they are too far apart, the passing air may not cool the upper or lower well. All this depends, as we have said, on the fan used and its properties.

On the other hand, the shape of the fins must be taken into account. In most cases they are simply flat fins, but many manufacturers create shapes in these to generate turbulence in the air that is pushed by the fan, so that the air flow is better distributed and the heat dissipation is more efficient.

Disipador de CPU Cryorig H5

Therefore, and answering the question in the statement, the shape, arrangement and size of the aluminum fins that make up the heatsink structure do have a great influence.

It is almost always better to use the fan that comes standard

As we have seen, aerodynamics is as important as the materials used in the heatsink to obtain the best thermal performance. For this reason, the fan that the heatsinks incorporate at the factory will always be specific to the heatsink in question, aimed at offering the best performance and the lowest possible acoustic level, which is why it is not recommended to change the fan or fans that come together with the heatsink for different ones.

Obviously there are exceptions, and that is that there are fans that are specifically designed for liquid cooling radiators, for example, and of course we can consider “generic” heatsinks that have smooth aluminum sheets and in which we can change their standard fan for another with better characteristics. But you must bear in mind that this is not always the case.