be quiet! Dark Rock TF2 top flow air cooler announced

[HEXUS]

Improves on the 2015 design with a weightier heatsink, new shape, and updated fans.

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[Skyflier]

Nice to see a new top flow cooler. They don't seem to get the attention the towers do, which is odd considering the added board/VRM cooling you get from them.

I wouldn't mind seeing a slim version of this, half the price & TDP but the same or similar look.

[QuorTek]

I wonder why they on all over the lines use a material like aluminium... well yes it is light yes... but it is not that good at transfering heat, kobber would seem better to me, as well probably easier to cool as well... but the price to follow though.

[LSG501]

I wouldn't mind seeing a slim version of this, half the price & TDP but the same or similar look.

https://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=368&bno=38&tb=21&area=en might fit the bill, it's been around for ages, I used the nt06 (non pro) version back on my s939 rigs using the psu fan and it worked great (sugo sg01, psu above cpu etc).

[Tabbykatze]

I wonder why they on all over the lines use a material like aluminium... well yes it is light yes... but it is not that good at transfering heat, kobber would seem better to me, as well probably easier to cool as well... but the price to follow though.

Mainly, strength. Copper is a very soft, malleable material and isn't good for something like fins on a radiator, they'll get damaged way too easily.

The other major factor for radiators is not the conduction of heat through the material (like the heat pipes) but the ability to transfer the heat to the air through convection, the comparative differences between copper and aluminium are quite small in that capability as far as I'm aware. I once read an article (can't see it immediately with a cursory google) where one of the cooler manufacturers tested this and published their findings and practically went "not worth the cost or effort to use copper". That and copper is far more expensive than aluminium so if the differences are minor...

Edit: I stand corrected, there are some manufacturers that do make all copper radiators for water cooling it seems. But the point still stands, it's not about the conductivity of the metal and is more about the potential surface area of the radiator to transfer heat to as much air as possible.

[LSG501]

Mainly, strength. Copper is a very soft, malleable material and isn't good for something like fins on a radiator, they'll get damaged way too easily.

The other major factor for radiators is not the conduction of heat through the material (like the heat pipes) but the ability to transfer the heat to the air through convection, the comparative differences between copper and aluminium are quite small in that capability as far as I'm aware. I once read an article (can't see it immediately with a cursory google) where one of the cooler manufacturers tested this and published their findings and practically went "not worth the cost or effort to use copper". That and copper is far more expensive than aluminium so if the differences are minor...

Edit: I stand corrected, there are some manufacturers that do make all copper radiators for water cooling it seems. But the point still stands, it's not about the conductivity of the metal and is more about the potential surface area of the radiator to transfer heat to as much air as possible.

There have been some full copper air coolers too, they never really took off though.

As to why they use aluminium over copper, weight could be another issue, (quick google) aluminium is about 60% as efficient as copper in heat transfer but it's also only 30% of the weight of copper. So at least in the case of the fins, which would add the bulk of the weight, it's just 'better' to use aluminium

[kalniel]

My cheap tower HSF (coolermaster evo 212 X) has a copper contact area and heatpipes, aluminium rest. As Tabbykatze says, a far more insulating step is the metal-air interface, however I suspect the main reason is aluminium is cheaper, lighter and doesn't corrode. You'd have to keep polishing a copper air fin (good luck getting between the fins) or coat it in lacquer (bye bye conduction with air), plate it, or alloy it with something else (=much more expensive).

[Xlucine]

Higher thermal conductivity helps shed heat from a fin (you see less temperature drop from the heatpipe to the edge of the fin), but in practice for desktops (i.e. relatively slow moving air past the fin) this is so low that you gain very little.

Copper radiators for water cooling are partly for corrosion reasons (if they've got copper in the rest of the loop) and partly for bling