Why Are Koolance Blocks Plated?

There is a golden rule among water cooling enthusiasts: "never mix copper and aluminum". Koolance absolutely agrees with this IF both metals are exposed to liquid in the same cooling system.

However, there are many methods for reducing the likelihood of corrosion. For example, Koolance liquid coolant contains strong anti-corrosives. Koolance also employs another major strategy: we coat all copper in gold or nickel.

Gold and nickel are extremely stable, and strongly resist oxidation and galvanic corrosion both inside and outside the block. This also means plating has an aesthetic advantage; it retains its luster. In contrast, bare copper oxidizes quickly and becomes blotchy with tarnish. (Note: the oxidized sample below was severely accelerated for thermal testing.)

Does Plating Affect Thermal Performance?

Both gold and nickel have a lower thermal conductivity than copper. Does this mean performance is equally reduced with plated copper blocks? Of course not. Keep in mind Koolance's plating is only microns thick and heat is transferred from source to liquid very quickly.

To verify any measurable impact plating has on performance, Koolance produced identical copper slugs and plated one in gold. (If you wish to do the same, our gold-plated copper spacer can be sanded-down.)

Next, we coated both sides of the metal slugs with a thin layer of thermal paste. In each test, the metal discs were sandwiched between our CPU water block and a heat generator producing 200W. Temperatures were taken from inside the heat surface and on the coolant outlet.

Conclusion

As temperatures indicate, differences in performance are negligible and fall well within test tolerances (slight variances in mounting, thermal paste, water temperature, etc.). We have long felt the benefits of plating are clear, which is why Koolance was the first PC water cooling company to gold-plate copper.