Heatpipe or heatsink?

[ming]

OK, most of you will have heard or seen HSF with heatpipes.
My question is, is or isn't the heatpipe just a piece of metal that's thick and bulky and is stuck on to the heatsink?
If not, can someone explain how it works and what's inside those 'pipes'?

 

[LeeJend]

No it is not.

A heat pipe usually has a high conductivity heat transfer fluid in it that carries the heat away from the hot area to the cooler area. Like a mini-liquid cooling system with no motor.

At the extreme the fluid can be designed to vaporize at the CPU then recondense at the remote fins so you pick up the advantage of material state change energy to make heat removal even more effective. That's how an airconditioner (or in reverse a heat pump) works except on a much bigger, noisier scale.

 

[ming]

Ahh.. thought it had something to do with liquid...
cheers