Cooling System

Cooling Systems

• Electronic components generate heat, and too much heat can damage components

  • Components generating most heat: GPU > CPU (graphics-processing unit)

  • Case fans: make cooling system more efficient

  • Heat sink: draws heat away from CPU care. Fan on top of heat sink moves the heat away from CPU

    • Need thermal compound paste that dissipates heat from the CPU, which is applied between the CPU and the heatsink

    • Fans: can be dedicated to cool the graphics-processing unit (GPU)

• Active Cooling includes…

  • Fans (typical)

  • Liquids (high-end): Nitrogen, Helium, Water, Oil

  • Prone to liquid spillage

• Passive methods include…

  • Air

  • Limited in number of components

  • No mechanical parts

  • Not as powerful

• Component cooling includes…

  • Memory cooling

  • Hard drive cooling

  • Chipset cooling