Anodizing your Heatsink

[Saxito Pau]

Being very pleased with the success of powder coating my 4-year-old Thermaltake Armor Jr case,

I decided to see if I can do some restoration of my Thermalright Ultra 120 heatsink as well.

It has taken a beating over the years, and is now showing obvious signs of corrosion. Even the protective surface layer is flaking off (especially after I cleaned it in a solution of Water, salt and vinegar)

It was to be sold a while back, but I couldn't find the AMD bracket. I have now decided to keep it and am in the process of importing a new bracket (along with some Articlean/Arctic Silver if you interested!)

SO after some research, I found one good solution:

ANODIZING

The process is described here:

http://www.focuser.com/anodize.html

However, for a DIY project this is no easy nor cheap process, mainly because I do not have a proper work area to follow all safety measures and I have no clue where to get proper anodizing dye in Trinidad (no, I not using no el cheapo cloth dye!).

I would have loved to convince my chemistry teacher co-workers to help me do this in the lab at school, but alas, I am on vacation for a few weeks yet.

So the next step is to ask my fellow GATTers if they have ever tried it, or can recommend a local company who willing to black-anodize my heatsink.

EDIT: If it turns out that I can't black-anodize my heatsink, then chrome-plating will have to do instead

[W1nTry]

What you have to consider to is if anodizing will depreciate the thermal properties of the HS. Adding a layer of material not as conductive as the underlying metal could make it alot less effective. Just a thought.

On a related note, perhaps copper coating? Don't know the how or where, but just a thought.

[phoenix31tt]

good call by wintry in making sure u dont mess up your thermal properties...

what i wondering doh:

It has taken a beating over the years, and is now showing obvious signs of corrosion.

what you doing with your heatsink man :|

[Saxito Pau]

@ W11ntry: From what I've read so far, the reduction is not much. At the end of the day is the forced airflow will compensate for any loss of conductivity. Given that I have a stock AMD cooler, ANYTHING 3rd party is better than stock at this point.

In fact there IS an "official" black-anodized version of my heatsink: the thermalright True Black 120

http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/product_page/cpu/tb120/product_cpu_cooler_tb120_revc.html

http://tech.icrontic.com/articles/reviews/true120_black/



 So it seem that once you anodize it black, there is no issue...

@ phoenix31tt: to be honest, I let too much dust collect at a time between cleanings and that is what caused the initial set of corrosion. I will take a pic and mortify you with its current state...

[Arcmanov]

...and black/dark colours are supposed to be better at absorbing/radiating heat, so anodising wouldn't be a bad idea.

I say go for it if you can find someone who can do it.



Swyped from another Galaxy using Tapatalk

[Saxito Pau]

Well it looks I may have to turn to DIY the way things going:

a chrome place in el socorro said they don't do aluminium  and referred me to a place in trinicity

the trincity place said chroming wouldn't work as only part of the surface area of the heatsink fins would get plated. If they subject it to treatment it first (bathing it in acid solution to remove outer coating/impurities) it would just help to hasten the corrosion process...

*big fat steups...*

the hunt continues....

[W1nTry]

Note that chrome is VERY different from black anodyzing... I think you're better off DIY. Or like I said, look for someone who works with copper... can't go wrong (save if gets too heavy).