don't get cheated on comp heat sinks

**IdahoScrapper** · 12-22-2011, 07:52 PM

Originally Posted by easyrecycle

Make sure you take out the copper heat sinks. They may look like aluminum but they are copper plated with nickel. If you are unsure scratch test the bottom of the heat sink and see if you see copper.

The copper heat sinks that are plated with nickel will be very heavy..a good clue for you to check it.

Where are these found? Computers? Servers? elsewhere?

**bjybjy** · 12-22-2011, 08:00 PM

Originally Posted by IdahoScrapper

Where are these found? Computers? Servers? elsewhere?

I've been getting a lot of them in Dell P4 era computers. At first glance they look sort of like extruded aluminum, but tend to be a little shinier and the bottoms are a little thicker and definately more dense. The plating can be pretty thick so take a thick screwdriver or something and really scratch the bottom good. Go deep enough and you'll see that nice copper pink show through.

Often it is aluminum fin soddered to a plated copper base.