System Fans and Computer Cooling
Here we are taking a closer look at gaming computer cooling solutions and computer cooling system alternatives and how essential heat dissapation factors performance into your overloaded components. The reason a cool temperature is required, is to avoid over stressing hardware like the CPU or GPU, which could ultimately end up preventing disabilities in your gaming PC. Among the many variations of cooling techniques, case cooling and induvidual component cooling are what we are going to direct our attention at, because these methods are compliant and standard for majority of gaming computers. Here is a list of cooling techniques: Case Fans, CPU Fans and Heatsinks, HDD Cooling, Motherboard Cooling, Video Card Cooling, and PSU Fans.
When you decide to purchase a brand new gaming computer or build a custom machine, gaming desktops are the contenders which feature strategically placed fans and cooling device. Believe it or not, the components that produce heat and use fans, also generate an annoying amount of noise, regarding how powerfull the fans are. To avoid any unneccasary noises, more complex solutions included a water based cooling method, undervolting certain fans, (not recommended for a gaming computer), or adapting a more efficent fan controller to fixate a speed more effective. The cooling system inside your case will be greatly effected by the actual dimensions. In the article below, each section summarizes general cooling methods and their particular techniques.
System Cooling or Case Cooling
With the implication of induvidual cooling techniques, discussed further on, a system of components requires a more general form of heat reduction. The case that houses the various hardware parts for your system also hosts fans or install bays prebuilt for computer fans with the purpose to create a constant air flow based off the amount of heat inside your computer. These fans aerate cold and hot are through the case to prevent any damage or overheating to select heat generating components. Below I generalize the most common forms of heat reduction and information pertaining to each subject.
Air Cooling
You'll notice many chassis today are designed to ensure your gaming computer doesn't overheat. Using your best judgement, you can purchase a pre-built system with adequate fans or install better fans to acomodate for the heat build up. To establish a constant air flow, proper handling of component wiring must be accounted for to. Try to position the wires together and away from the larger components. This can be done by inspecting the placement of hardware, fans, and install bays before you purchase a case/chassis. Prebuilt systems usually come set accordingly to the manufacuters specifications. Lets look into some of the active heat reduction methods associated with "air" cooling.
Fans
A system of fans is usually related to a gaming desktop setup. This can be done by situating numerous fans inside the case to bring colder air in from the front of the case and warmer air out through certain areas of the back of the case, a modern and traditional cooling method. Case fans are one of the first things noticed on a gaming computer because of their use of LED lights and decorative features. Standard fan dimensions to consider for gaming dekstops are 80 mm, 92 mm or 120 mm along each side, this being an important specification. Most fans use 12 V, powered directly by the power supply.
Spot Cooling
The components that generate the most heat and commomly have fans that produce noise inside a gaming computer would be the CPU (One of the most important), video cards, chipset, storage devices and power supply unit. These hardware parts sometimes specifially utilize their own method of cooling , known as spot cooling, to induvidualize each component for its degree of heat production.
Heat Sinks
This is a device that is physically connected to a component that absorbs and dissipates heat from that device into the surronding air, known as a heat sink. There are two types of heat sinks avalible on the market. They are known as Active heat sinks and Passive heat sinks. Both variations involve the same principles of heat reduction, the only difference being the active heat sink having a fan blowing over the designated component. The heat sink uses a conductive gel or spred to effectively redistribute heat to the actual metallic sync, rather than remove it.
Passive heat sinks shouldn't be included in your gaming system, because they only prove efficent for components that produce a minimal amount of heat. Active heat sinks are a modern solution to dissipate heat from advance CPU's and dedicated video cards.
Water Cooling
A second, more practical and most effective, yet sophisticated method of cooling for the devices mentioned above inside a gaming computer would be "Water Cooling." This doesn't immdiately sound promising as water near electrified mechanics isn't the safest remedy. It has many advantages to typical fan or heat sink, which we will compare later on.
The big advantage to this method is the extremely effectice and extremely quiet settings. This cooling arrangement consists of a looped system of circulated water that consists of a water block, a water pump, and a radiator, the radiator actually consisting of a few fans at the end of this process. Less commonly, GPU (Video Cards), Northbridges (Chipset), Secondary Memory devices (HDD's), Primary Memory (RAM), and even Power Supplies can all be connected to the same water cooling system, this being a very complicated structural setup.
This is a good cooling setup for top of the line gaming desktops, even though it may take some amount of time to find the proper kit, install it, and maintain it. Building a water cooling system takes alot of expertise to adopt into your system, where as purchasing a system with a preinstalled water cooling kit has more advantages, despite the price you may have to pay. This setup is becoming more common for the induvidual gamer, but take into consideration, if you are not confident and fully capable of setting a liquid cooling system up, leave it to the professionals, as they have it down like a form of art.
Noise
Noise in advancing gaming computers has been a constant issue regarding system setups using fans, heatsinks, and inproper hardware assemblies. Noise reduction methods have been implemented to avoid the common culprits on pre-built computers. This specific section will feature guides regarding how select components deal with noise reduction in the future, so please refer back in the next few months.
In conclusion, use a preventative approach towards heat and noise in your computer, as this is the most cost effective and simplistic approach you can take. Refer to TigerDirect.com as they feature an appropriate selection of cooling devices to help your system beat the heat and lose the extra noise.