The Difference Between Radiator And Water Cooling Plate

We all use electronic products in our lives. If they are used for a long time, they will heat up and affect the operation of the products. Therefore, it is necessary to cool down electronic products to maintain the stable operation of the products. Radiators and water cooling plates are used in electronic products to cool down the products, so what is the difference between them?

Radiator 

Generally, if the heat is exchanged through liquid circulation, it is called a radiator, and many are also called heat exchangers, such as the finned radiator in a car; If it is a device that directly contacts electronic components to dissipate heat, this type of radiator is generally translated as cooler, such as CPU cooler, computer cooler. At the same time, some people call the heat sink, heatsink, also a radiator. Strictly speaking, the heat sink does not have a fan, it is just a hardware product. The heat sink is a combination of the heat sink and the fan.

Water cooling plate

It is called cold plate in foreign countries, cold plate in literal translation, and many domestic translations into water cooling plate, or liquid cooling plate. This is a component that exchanges heat through liquid cooling. The principle is to process a flow channel in the metal plate, and the electronic components are installed in On the surface of the board (coated with heat transfer medium in the middle), the coolant enters from the inlet of the board and exits from the outlet to take away the heat emitted by the components. Common processes for forming water-cooled plate runners include friction welding, vacuum brazing, buried copper pipes, and deep hole drilling.

If the radiator is understood as a heat exchanger, then the radiator + water cooling plate + water pump + pipeline forms a complete liquid cooling system. The water-cooling plate is responsible for absorbing the heat of the heating element and transferring it to the flowing liquid, while the radiator is responsible for absorbing the heat of the added liquid with fins, and then through the heat exchange between the outside air and the fin surface, to achieve the purpose of cooling the components .