Cooling Fans
In the early days of computing - and you don’t have to go back many years! - computers were silent, apart from the occasional murmur of a Disk Drive. Rapid developments in technology enabled computer chips - the CPU - to run increasingly faster. The inevitable result of so much electrical activity packed into such a small space was that the chips ran hot so small fan were added to cool the system.
Cool It!
It’s not only CPUs that need cooling - modern graphics cards can also fry eggs and fast hard drives also contribute to global warming. Modern RAM chips also get hot and some companies have released special heatsink fins to help keep them cool. And, of course, there’s the PSU (Power Supply Unit) which has been an integral part of most PCs since 1997.
Keeping these components cool is vitally important. If they run too hot they can literally burn out. However, even if they’re not hot enough to incinerate, excessive heat will impair their performance and reduce their life so it’s essential to keep the inside of your computer as cool as possible.
Hot Air
So modern PC design, especially for high-end machines, has made much of optimising the inside of the case to improve air flow, and providing enough fans to see that the air flow vents the hot air out from the case.
A common arrangement on modern PCs is to have a fan at the front pulling in cool air and one at the back pushing out hot air. On heavy duty rigs, there may well be more than one fan doing each job. Add to this the PSU’s fan and the one on the CPU and it’s possible for the air flow to get snarled up so the system does not work as efficiently as it should. Air flow and case design are, therefore, an important consideration when designing a computer.
Quiet Please
The CPU box usually includes a fan, often called the reference fan as the efficiency of all other fans is compared to it. While they do a fair job, they are usually not the most efficient fan on the market, nor will they be the quietest. This is especially important if you are overclocking your CPU but even if you just use your PC for surfing and writing, a noisy fan can disturb the experience.
Heatsink
As well as a fan, chips like the CPU usually also cooled by a heatsink. This is a piece of metal attached directly to the chip with thermal paste. It works rather like a radiator, drawing the hot air from the chip and radiating it to the air around it.
In an effort to produce the most efficient cooling systems, manufacturers have designed lots of heatsink and fan designs. As a rule of thumb, the larger the fan, the more cooling it provides for the same number of revolutions so it’s easier to run larger fans more quietly.
Many systems allow for the regulation of the Fan Speed, either automatically or manually. This can be useful if you stretch your computer at times, playing games or processing video, for example, when you can increase the speed to keep the system cool.
Laptop Fans
Laptops pose design problems of their own. Being so compact, their Cooling Fans have to be compact, too, and it’s important to keep their underside clear to allow adequate ventilation.
The heat produced by electronic components is the result of a combination of the circuits and the amount of power they require. The most recent generation of chips are trying hard to reduce the amount of power they require, not only helping reduce the heat they generate but also to reduce running costs and cut down on environmental heat pollution!
Keep It Clean
While fans are good at moving air through your computer, they are also good at dragging dust into it. No matter how powerful your fans are, they won’t keep your systems free of dust.
Dust sits on the electronics insulating them, making them run hotter and making the Cooling System run harder so it’s important that you spring clean the inside of your computer when it starts to build up. You can use a small soft-hair paintbrush but an aerosol can of compressed air is also useful here.
You can also vacuum up the dust. A hand cleaner will be easier than a floor model but many are sorely lacking in suction. Whatever you use, be careful not to let the vacuum touch any of the electronics.