Term of the Moment
accelerator card
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Definition: heat sink
A material that absorbs and dissipates heat. Typically made of aluminum, heat sinks are widely used in all electronic devices that get very hot. Small heat sinks are the most economical method for cooling chips and are commonly glued or clipped to the top or side of the chip package. See heat pipe, CPU cooler and thermal grease.
A Simple CPU Cooler
More Efficient
Glued to a CPU chip, this is the most basic type of heat sink.
All the fins on the Noctua NH-D9L make it a much more effective heat sink for a CPU. More elaborate yet are the heat removal methods in graphics processing units (GPUs). See GPU and water cooled. (Image courtesy of Noctua.)