The present invention relates to a heat dissipating apparatus for interface cards and particularly a heat dissipating apparatus mounted onto an interface card for discharging heat generated by the interface card outside the computer casing in order to achieve heat dissipation effectively.
In computer products, heat dissipation is a problem that often baffles users. The computers often malfunction or are not able to operate due to overheating. Thus, heat dissipation has become a critical issue most vendors are trying to resolve. Conventional heat dissipation apparatus include heat sinks, fans and heat pipes. The heat sink usually has a plurality of metal fins located on one side thereof to reduce the temperature of computer devices. The commonly used one is a passive heat sink. It can generate convection or does not need additional airflow to disperse heat. The heat sink mainly aims at increasing the radiation area. While the heat sink can increase the radiation area, heat energy still has to be discharged by airflow in the surroundings. The air fan aims at improving heat discharge. In general, the air fan generates airflow to carry heat energy away from the heat sink. The heat pipe is an advanced technique adapted on electronic devices. It is made from pure oxygen-free copper tubes and copper meshes filled with pure water or acetone as a working fluid. The fluid at the heat receiving end is vaporized to become a vapor phase. The vapor flows in the hollow tube to a cooling end to be cooled and condensed to the fluid phase again. The condensate is seeped and returns to the heat receiving end through capillarity effect to complete the heat absorption and discharge cycle. By means of the phase changes of the working fluid, a great amount of heat energy can be transferred by a small temperature difference. However, all the heat dissipation techniques mentioned above neglect to discharge heat energy outside the machine casing. As a result, the discharged heat energy still remains inside the machine casing, and heat dissipation is not very effective.
In general, in computer systems, CPU, disk drives and display cards are the devices that generate the most heat. However most vendors have mainly focused on providing solutions for heat dissipation of the CPU and disk drives. A monitor consumes the greatest electric power, hence heat energy generation from the display card is also significant. If the heat energy generated by the display card cannot be discharged effectively, performance and service life of the display card will be severely affected.
Therefore the primary object of the invention is to resolve the aforesaid disadvantages. The invention provides a heat dissipation apparatus on the interface card to discharge heat energy generated by the interface card outside the computer casing so that heat generated by the interface card won""t be trapped inside the computer casing thereby to achieve effective heat dissipation and improve operation stability and service life of the interface card.
In order to achieve the foregoing object, the heat dissipation apparatus of the invention includes a heat sink and a heat pipe located on the heat sink and an airflow generator located on the heat sink. The heat sink is mounted onto an interface card to discharge heat generated by the interface card outside the computer casing so that the heat is not trapped inside the computer casing to achieve effective heat dissipation.