[BigDirty]

Im running Asus m3n-ht mobo with the mempipes

I want to paint the "mempipes" black for looking cool. will I see any performance issues? I plan to use high heat/engine enamel type paint.
http://www.duplicolor.com/products/engine.html

If painting the heatsinks is not a good idea, im interested in hearing about alternatives. Also planning on painting rad fins, yay/nay?

 

[jacksknight]

Its been talked about before and you will get lots of arguments either way. Personally i dont think it would make a huge difference if you do paint it. Temps might go up a little but nothing to worry about.

 

[wildfire99]

You could do it if you wanted to, however it would negatively affect your temps so do so at your own discretion. How much the performance of the heatsink would degrade is unknown to me but hopefully someone else will have better incite on this issue. ^_^

 

[Skullzaflare]

if you put to heavy of a coat of it will just retain extra heat and run hotter

also it will void your warrenty

 

[BigDirty]

Im going to be lighting the board with white led. I want to get the copper out and replace with some black/chrome heatsinks. Painting the heatsinks doesnt sound like a good idea. Using the above photo as a guide, the top of the mempipe covers the mosfets, the middle near the cpu is the northbridge and below that the southbridge?

 

[BigDirty]

hmm doesnt look like there are many options for chipset cooling 780a mobo. its late, maybe i will find somethign tomorrow

 

[silent_nightr34]

If you spray it with a thin coat of flat black paint your temps might actually lower due to the emissivity of the color..

 

[boyasaurus]

gotta be thermal paint.

 

[tombom]

Quote:

Resists temperatures up to 500 degrees F

Quote:

Resists temperatures up to 1200 degrees F, intermittently

There is NO way the heatsinks get THAT hot. So, it's safe to use, but I'm not sure how it would affect the temps otherwise.

 

[Hayday]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tombom There is NO way the heatsinks get THAT hot. So, it's safe to use, but I'm not sure how it would affect the temps otherwise.

Paint works as a insolator by making an extra layer so instead of the heat getting picked up by the air right away it has to get hot enought that the paint gets hot and then afterwards the heat is picked up. In other words, it seals heat in, keeps air out.

And to respond to silent_nightr34's point, painting it black or white will not change temps, only if the heat source gets hot enough that it emits like, then white will the color of choise because black absorbs all light waves, light is energy, and so is heat. Thus black would be a bad idea to paint a heat source, but a heat sink doesn't get that hot, if it does then you have a problem.

 

[silent_nightr34]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hayday And to respond to silent_nightr34's point, painting it black or white will not change temps, only if the heat source gets hot enough that it emits like, then white will the color of choise because black absorbs all light waves, light is energy, and so is heat. Thus black would be a bad idea to paint a heat source, but a heat sink doesn't get that hot, if it does then you have a problem.

Actually, I've done acutal testing with flat black paint on LED heat sinks. We took a 50W LED (Lamina Titan) and mounted it onto an unpainted heat sink and measured the temperature using thermocouples and a FLIR camera. I then painted a thin but full coat of normal flat black purchased at home depot and the temperature did in fact drop noticeably. I don't remember how much the temperature dropped but I'm fairly certain it was more that 5 degree.. We didn't do the testing but a polished surface would actually increase the temperature by decreasing the surface area and trapping heat in.. Anyways, this is one reason all of Lamina Lighting's heat sinks are anodized black.

Here is a Yahoo Answers page that confirms it:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...8182304AAHge72

 

[xandypx]

OK guys... Has anyone ever been in an office building that has all the little 4" round metal plates all over the suspended ceilings? Ever think of what they were for?

Under these plates are the fire supression sprinkler heads... You know what? These cannot be painted! You know why? If they are painted, the sprinkler heads don't go off when they should because the paint on the cover acts as an insulator, and slows the heat from the fire from setting off the sprinkler heads at their designed release temperature. These covers come from the manufacturer, anodized. So paint is actually an insulator, and will cause higher temperatures.

Painting is not the same as anodizing. Anodizing is an electrolytic passivation process used to increase the thickness of the natural oxide layer on the surface of metal parts. Anodization changes the microscopic texture of the surface and can change the crystal structure of the metal near the surface. Anodized coatings are often porous, even when applied thick.

Painting on the otherhand seals the surface, and can trap heat.

How much heat I can't tell you, but it would be some, causing higher temps of the heat sink/radiator.

 

[doat]

i would not bother painting a heatsink because paint could glob up and block some airflow if not done properly. I think it is a waste of time because you don't look at your case.

 

[repo_man]

Go for it. All these guys talking a/b messing up temps, meh. I would be willing to wager the delta of temps would be negligible. A thin coat won't effect you too much either way.

 

[silent_nightr34]

Quote:

Originally Posted by xandypx OK guys... Has anyone ever been in an office building that has all the little 4" round metal plates all over the suspended ceilings? Ever think of what they were for? Under these plates are the fire supression sprinkler heads... You know what? These cannot be painted! You know why? If they are painted, the sprinkler heads don't go off when they should because the paint on the cover acts as an insulator, and slows the heat from the fire from setting off the sprinkler heads at their designed release temperature. These covers come from the manufacturer, anodized. So paint is actually an insulator, and will cause higher temperatures. Painting is not the same as anodizing. Anodizing is an electrolytic passivation process used to increase the thickness of the natural oxide layer on the surface of metal parts. Anodization changes the microscopic texture of the surface and can change the crystal structure of the metal near the surface. Anodized coatings are often porous, even when applied thick. Painting on the otherhand seals the surface, and can trap heat. How much heat I can't tell you, but it would be some, causing higher temps of the heat sink/radiator.

Well I'm just stating my opinion from what I have experience in real life and what physics says.. A "thin" coating will improve temperature but a thick coating will probably increase the temps.. I wish I still had the data from the test I did since it was recorded overnight on a computer..

Anyways if you want to paint your heat sinks, make each coat a very very light mist over the heat sink and let it dry.. It should be hard to even tell that paint was added... Just keep on misting the part until it is as black as you want.. Thick coats will probably hurt the temperatures and I don't think you need high temperature paint.. I can only imagine that it is thicker since it has to deal with such high temperatures.. It probably took me a good hour or so to paint a 4in^3 pin heatsink.. Just tons of very light coats... It looked good too..

Like Doab mentioned, if you mess it up your heat sink will probably perform worse..