Re: Effect of colour in SSD heatsinks

On 01/06/2025 17:40, Pimpom wrote:

I'm thinking of installing simple heatsinks on the SSDs in my desktop and other computers. The SSDs are seldom subjected to heavy write loads and can do very well without the add-on heatsinks. But the peace of mind they bring is well worth the price of UD$1.10 apiece in a pack of 5.
 Here's an example: https://tinyurl.com/mpjar5bw There's a choice of three colours on Amazon India - black, gold and plain aluminium. How much of a difference, if any, will the colour make when fitted inside a computer case? I expect that cooling will be mostly by convection than by radiation.

It depends a lot on how hot things get. Metallic surfaces make lousy radiators and so are very bad for heatsinks if deltaT > 30C or so.
Forced air ventilation it won't make that much difference. Unless the SSDs are being hammered it seems unlikely that they need heatsinking. Worth monitoring them rather than waste your money on toy heatsinks.

 This is more of an academic interest than of practical requirement because, as I said, the heatsinks are not a necessity.

I once had a 12v PSU with a 7812 regulator go into thermal foldback because the case was nice mirror finish shiny aluminium metal.
A coat of black paint fixed it.
(any colour of non-metallic paint is black in thermal band IR)
--
Martin Brown