Old bequiet CPU cooler (dark rock 3). This formed on the surface. Any idea what it is? It's rough to the touch.
reddit.com/gallery/l2lovpPosted Jan 22, 2021, 11:17 AM UTC
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My best bet is oxidation, but I have no idea why.
I took this apart couple of days ago since I swapped my cpu and motherboard for new ones, and I had to change the cooler as well since it's incompatible with AM4.
I immediately noticed these weird spots, but I initially thought it was dust. Once I cleaned the whole thing thoroughly I noticed they formed a pattern and were definitely not dust by the color.
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Appears to be corrosion (via oxidation) to me. Do you live in a very humid place?
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I live in Sicily, but that's not the rainforest. Plus other bare aluminium and steel stuff I have lying around from bout the same time doesn't show any similar sign of oxidation, so why would it show up on the cpu cooler in particular?
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Hmm, I'm at a loss then
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It's the heat. It causes the aluminum to oxidize much faster. Was this PC OC'ed by chance.
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It could be from salt in the air. I would guess that it shows up on the CPU cooler because it has more surface area.
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It's oxidation. in Germany I had a paste called "Elsterglanz" to make chromed, steel or aluminum parts shine again and clean the oxidation off... sadly I don't know what it had inside as ingredients to tell you what would be equal.
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It’s through heat. You get the same on exhaust headers or when welding. It’s appearance depends on the type and finish of the original material. It’s sometimes referred to as ‘blueing’ and should not affect performance
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Oxidation for sure.
Why - well probably kondensation due to humidity.
Also why aluminium/copper rust - cause its probably some iron/nickel solution its never pure like you think.