Leveling the copper plug on stock intel HSFs

That little copper plug sticks up half a millimeter so that's the only area contacting what you're trying to cool. Has anyone leveled that off?

I would think ideally it would be pressed further in so no material is lost.

I don't know how thermal expansion works. Would it theoretically be easier to press them together more if both pieces were cold, or if the aluminum were hot and the copper cold?

Could just stick it in a vice and see what happens. Just thought I'd ask.

Aluminum has a larger thermal expansion coefficient than copper, so if you're going to press it I think hot would be the way.

Would the mounting pins tolerate the half millimeter of height change, though? You'll wind up with less mounting pressure at best. May not be a problem; it's been a while since I looked at a stock Intel HSF.

I don't think you'll see much of a difference by increasing the area, but I could be wrong. Got a donor you're willing to potentially destroy in order to test? XD

Honestly the heatsink is so small I don't think the extra cpu surface area would help. I think the copper core is enough to saturate what little aluminum there is.

Intel has apparently stopped making \ using the thicker versions of these and we are now getting these thin garbage pentium line heatsinks even with i7-9700(non k)s.

Its been in a drawer for 7 years, its going to cool one of those DOB LEDs. The copper area isnt even as large as the LED array, but there are some components around the edge with no contact with the heatsink. I dont know how well the aluminum backing on the LED transfers heat sideways.

I guess ill pop the heatsink in the oven for a bit then squish it in the vice.

COB leds up to 100w will cool fine on those coolers, imho. With the fan spun up near max rpms.

But the cob area is larger than the copper area, so i would sand the thing down to entirely flat. This is especially important because those cob leds like to break easily if they're flexed even half an mm in a convex difection... it stresses the internal connections and stretches the bonding wires if theyre not mounted flat (aka if it bends convex due to the screws pulling a bit too hard)

Copper bit on them is thin at top. I do about 3w fanless with my leds. 12w is really pushing it...
You'll probably want a press for that. Not worth it though.the old 775 presshott etc coolers are better, solid Copper not a cup like one you posted.

Fyi, at 36v and 2.5a (90w between driver and 100w cob led, 98w from the wall) these small heatsinks keep the cob temps down to 72c with fans running at a full 12v.

I have since moved on to watercooling these 100w COB leds.

What's up with these LED's?! Looks like something diy fun.