[SOLVED] What is inside the heatsink on my ATI 4870 Graphics card?

[Jrminot]

Hello all,

So I have this nerdy dream of one day smelting my own ingot of copper (for kicks/science/bucketlist). To that end, I am always saving copper I find.

Yesterday I began junking my old gaming PC, may it rest in peace. There were various components that I identified as having copper in them, so I pulled out the copper towards my ingot project.

Now, I had a massive aftermarket heatsink that feels very heavy and seems to be made out of pure copper.

But, I pulled out the heatsink from my ATI 4870 graphics card, and the heatsink that was on the motherboard for something else.(think it was the north bridge? been a while since I took A+)

These seems to be hollow pipes of copper??. When I began cutting up the one from the graphics card, I noticed that it was filled with some grainy copper colored material. Anyone have any idea what this substance is? I don't want to be messing with it if it's toxic or might cause issues if I apply heat.

If this belongs in a better forum, please feel free to move.

Thanks in advance!

 

[MetallicMonk]

The substance inside the copper heat pipes is usually powdered copper. "Sintered wick structure"