There are three main ways of transferring heat:heat conduction, heat convection and heat radiation. In thermodynamics, heat dissipation is heat transfer. The transfer of energy is called heat transfer, either by the substance itself or when it comes into contact with the substance.This is the most common way of heat transfer. For example, the way that the CPU heat sink base directly contacts the CPU to take away heat is heat conduction. Thermal convection refers to the way in which the flowing fluid ( gas or liquid ) transfers heat to the tropics.In the heat dissipation system of the computer chassis, the " forced thermal convection" heat dissipation mode in which the heat dissipation fan drives the gas to flow is more common. Thermal radiation refers to the transfer of heat by means of radiation, and the most common thing in daily life is solar radiation. None of the three ways of heat dissipation is isolated.In daily heat transfer, the three ways of heat dissipation all occur at the same time and work together.

        In fact, any type of heat sink will basically use the above three heat transfer methods at the same time, but the emphasis is different. Such as a common CPU air-cooled radiator, the CPU heat sink is in direct contact with the CPU surface, and the heat on the CPU surface is transferred to the CPU heat sink through heat conduction. the airflow generate by that radiating fan carry away the heat on the surface of the CPU radiating fin through thermal convection; The flow of air in the cabinet also takes away the heat of the air around the CPU heat sink through thermal convection to the outside of the cabinet. At the same time, all the parts with high temperature will radiate heat to the parts with low ambient temperature.

        The heat dissipation efficiency of the radiator is related to the heat conductivity of the radiator material, the heat capacity of the radiator material and the heat dissipation medium, the effective heat dissipation area of the radiator and other parameters.

        According to the way of taking heat away from the radiator, the radiator can be divided into active heat dissipation and passive heat dissipation.The former is usually an air-cooled radiator, while the latter is usually a heat sink. Further subdividing the way of heat dissipation can be divided into air cooling, heat pipe, liquid cooling, semiconductor cooling, compressor cooling and so on.

        Air cooling is the most common and very simple way to remove the heat absorbed by the radiator with a fan. It has the advantages of relatively low price and simple installation, but it is highly dependent on the environment, for example, its heat dissipation performance will be greatly affected when the temperature rises and the frequency is overclocked. Heat pipe is a kind of heat transfer element with extremely high heat conductivity.It transfers heat through evaporation and condensation of liquid in a totally enclosed vacuum pipe.It uses fluid principles such as capillary suction to achieve the effect similar to refrigeration of refrigerator compressor. It has a series of advantages such as extremely high thermal conductivity, good isothermal property, freely changeable heat transfer areas on both sides of cold and hot, long-distance heat transfer, controllable temperature and so on, and the heat exchanger composed of heat pipes has the advantages of high heat transfer efficiency, compact structure, small fluid resistance loss and so on. Because of its special heat transfer characteristics, the temperature of the pipe wall can be controlled to avoid dew point corrosion.

        Liquid cooling is the forced circulation of liquid driven by the pump to remove heat from the radiator.compared with air cooling, it has the advantages of quiet, stable cooling, less dependence on the environment and so on. However, the price of heat pipes and liquid cooling is relatively high and installation is relatively troublesome.

        When buying radiators, you can buy them according to your actual needs and economic conditions.The principle is that it is enough.