I've run into an interesting discussion recently.  It centres around the new variety of heatsinks that are now available for cooling CPUs

The question is this: will a painted / anodized heatsink work better in a forced-air environment and if so, which kind of paint/anodizing?

I know that a black object radiates and absorbs heat far better than an equivalent object of any other colour.  But raidiation accounts for a small fraction of what convection does in a forced air heatsink.

Intuitively it makes sense to me that the less you have between the air and the heatsink, the better conduction to the air you'd get.  However, I know that where thermodynamics are concerned, my intuition is often wrong.

--Brendan

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