How does a heatsink break?

[Johnx014]

The one in my notebook broke and i just got a new one and had a friend of mine put it in. I don't want this one to break to.So how exactly do they break?

[chaud]

They are basically large blocks of metal with cuts to increase surface area. Much more would have broken if it did, I imagine your fan just wore out.

[Atreies]

They are basically large blocks of metal with cuts to increase surface area. Much more would have broken if it did, I imagine your fan just wore out.

Yes many times the easiest way to find the part is to get the heatsink/fan as one unit. Can be hard to find just the fan by itself. A heatsink is just a chunk of metal so it can't really break. Either the fan breaks or the mounting system holding the heatsink onto the cpu/gpu/chipset.

[op3l]

Or the thermal compound is shot, but yea, the heatsink itself is really hard to break.

The fan and thermal compound on the other hand...