Supposedly there's a liquid in those copper covered tubes

Last two that I cut open had a sand-like material.

>>62356044
Its called a vapor chamber. They can explode (as was the case with some gpus in the past), effectivly becoming a handgrenade.

http://celsiainc.com/blog-heat-pipes-and-vapor-chambers-whats-the-difference/

The more you know

>>62356044
No. The system creates a heat pump, which drives pressure that moves linearly no matter which way it's oriented.

>>62356232
Yeah but the direction is going to be affected by hotspots which are a partially a product of orientation.

So if you had it mounted horizontally and was the hottest core in the package heatpipes 5 and 6's up-side will be disproportionately hot which will cause a thermal cascade through the diffusion interface, effectively altering the performance and generating hotspots throughout the system.

File: heatpipe-animation.gif (42KB, 612x317px) Image search: [Google]

42KB, 612x317px

>>62356044
I had the same question in mind. Then I learned that the internal bore of the heatpipes isn't smooth, but sponge like.

seems that the liquid medium can travel into this system by capillary action.