this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2026
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[–] Contramuffin@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Good question. I had to modify my code to run more efficiently, since not throttling implies that the copper block reaches a steady state with very little temperature changes over time.

But, with the changes, I can say that there is no copper block length that would prevent throttling with a 120 W CPU. It seems the heat transfer within the block is slow enough over such long lengths that you get diminishing returns with longer and longer copper blocks. Here's a graph I made summarizing the different block lengths that I tested

With a 65 W CPU, a 32 cm (double the original length) copper block is sufficient to prevent throttling, but it'll reach steady state at 97 C

[–] Avicenna@programming.dev 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Have you considered the possibility that Ea-nāṣir might have been delivering inferior quality copper to you?

[–] Contramuffin@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Ea-nasir promised that these were good quality copper, and I do not have any reason to suspect otherwise. But I'll have you know, if the copper is of inferior quality, I will make sure to send my messenger to complain. He will not hear the end of it!

[–] Jumi@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Would the result change if the copper block gets wider instead of higher?

[–] Contramuffin@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Apparently, yes. You can prevent thermal throttling if you expanded the base from 4 cm x 4 cm to 4.5 cm x 4.5 cm, and if you increased the height from 16 cm to 100 cm. The temperature caps at around 97 C.