Re: [Work in progess] Burnins Avalon Chip to mining board service
he actually responded to this issue a few pages back. Shouldn't take too much time to find & he explains why he did this
OK find this:
"Exposing the copper on the bottom will increase the thermal coupling but i want to keep the heat sinks isolated.
(Important for water cooling, electrical corrosion)"
Well it makes difficult to solder heatsink on painted surface and using stripper will remove all paint. Not good. Electrical corrosion blah. If use same ground no broblem or use non conducting coolant.
Would have thought this is to prevent galvanic corrosion. Bonding grounds won't help I think it's dissimilar metals that form a cell. The aluminium would likely act as an anode to protect the copper and corrode aggressively. This will be a prob in watercooled systems that mix metal types e.g. Copper rad and Alu heatsink with water electrolyte.