[plug] [OT] Tech rant

[James Devenish]

In message <20041104084400.GA19529 at mail.guild.uwa.edu.au>
on Thu, Nov 04, 2004 at 04:44:01PM +0800, James Devenish wrote:
> Although surely a *un*painted black anodised heatsink would be better
> than a black-painted heatsink (I would have expected that paint would
> be a 'red herring', and perhaps even be counterproductive, unless you
> have such a thing as `heatsink paint' and apply it careful).

Urgh. What an ugly sentence. What I meant to say was: I would have
thought that picking up any old black paint and applying it to your
heatsink would do far more harm than good. For one, you will first need
to find a paint that is black at infra-red frequencies, not at optical
frequencies. Also, an efficient unpainted black anodised heatsink looks
black for reasons that have nothing to do with paint. The anodisation
should produce a pitted surface, not a smooth surface, and this should
theoretically enhance the heat dissipation in a far more significant way
than attempting to apply any layer of paint. Also, you would want paint
that is thermally conductive, not paint that is mildly insulative.