Thinkpads Forum

I could have sworn the heatsink/vent on my original t61 was copper.
Unfortunately, I had to send it in for repairs. Now that I finally got it back from the repair warehouse, it's aluminum. Just wondering what the original was.

From what I understand, copper conducts heat better than aluminum, but aluminum dissipates heat better than copper. Is that right? any material science engineers out there?

Who says aluminum dissipate heat better than copper?
Conducting/Dissipating Heat mean the same thing. Copper is obviously better than Aluminum because it is a transition metal with ways more free electrons.
Also, the Aluminum has that protective oxide layer outside which reduce its effectiveness in conducting heat between surface over time.

Copper also oxidizes, apart from that, XIII is right. We'll also need to bring surface area into the "equation" if the two fan assemblies aren't identical in construction.

With the T60 lenovo used aluminium heatsinks for configurations with GMA950, and copper with X1x00, V52x0.
I'd imagine the same for the T61, integrated X3100: aluminium, discrete 140M: copper.

rukiri wrote:I could have sworn the heatsink/vent on my original t61 was copper.
Unfortunately, I had to send it in for repairs. Now that I finally got it back from the repair warehouse, it's aluminum. Just wondering what the original was.

Generally speaking, if they modify--replace something, they would mention it on the repair list.

The csr told me that they replaced the motherboard in the machine. On the work page I got w/the machine, they said they replaced the "planar board" which... I'm going to assume is the same thing?

Hmm... If copper is all around better than aluminum that kinda bugs me. I should never and sent the thing in for repair in the first place, it's not even fixed! anyway, thanks for the replies, just wanted to know.