The process of removing heat from computer components.

Excess heat must be dissipated in order to keep the components within their safe operating temperatures.

Varied cooling methods are also used to achieve greater performance such as overclocking.

Excessive heat can cause all sorts of problems. Overheated parts generally exhibit a shorter maximum life-span and may give problems resulting in system freezes or crashes.

Manufacturers have given very close tolerances for operating temperature and humidity.

Using vacuum tubes Using transistors Using integrated circuits Using microprocessors

Vacuum tubes produce heat while operating.

This waste heat is one of the principal factors that affect tube life.

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Method of anode cooling. Radiates the heat by black body radiation from the anode to the glass envelope.

Natural air circulation, convection, then removes the heat from the envelope.

forced air cooling adding fins to the anode. operating the anode at red hot temperatures. Tubes with external anodes may be cooled using forced air, water, vapor, and multiphase.

There was less heat generated per circuit.

There was only narrow tolerances to temperature variations.

A transistor, also normally used as a switch, could turn on accidently, when overheated, causing chaos

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in the system.

Room air conditioning became very important.

Most systems were installed on false floors, with a space of about 1 meter or 3ft below the floor.

This allowed the air conditioning to be supplied

A typical Air conditioning unit for cooling server racks.

under the floor, and exhausted through the false ceiling

Tape drives(storage device) were particularly large producers of heat.

Tapes produce a lot of heat due to the powerful motors they use.

tapes and disks to be installed in a separate room, or partitioned off from the mainframe, so that air conditioning requirements could be better controlled.

Amount of heat generated by an integrated circuit is the prime cause of heat build up in modern computers.

It is a function of the efficiency of its design, the technology used in its construction and the frequency and voltage at which it operates.

In operation, the temperature levels of a computer's components will rise until the temperature gradient between the computer parts and their surroundings is such that the rate at which heat is lost to the surroundings is equal to the rate at which heat is being produced by the electronic component, and thus the temperature of the component reaches equilibrium.

For reliable operation, the equilibrium temperature must be sufficiently low for the structure of the computer's circuits to survive.

Air Cooling Liquid Cooling Heat Sinks

The term computer fan usually refers to fans attached to a computer.

Most common are CPU fan, GPU fan, Chipset fan, PSU fan, HDD fan & PCI slot fans.

It basically allows airflow that will help cooling.

Size varies from 40mm 240mm dia.

Sufficient number of fans will create a neutral airflow that will keep the temperature inside the cabin under control. Positions of fans is important.

Air is drawn in at the front of the rack and exhausted at the rear

blade chassis - In contrast to the horizontal orientation of flat servers, blade chassis are often oriented vertically. This vertical orientation facilitates convection.

When the air is heated by the hot components, it tends to flow to the top on its own, creating a natural air flow along the boards.

Submerse the computer's components in a thermally conductive liquid. Does not require any fans or pumps. cooled exclusively by passive heat exchange between the computer's parts, the cooling fluid and the ambient air.

Water has the ability to dissipate more heat from the parts being cooled than the various types of metals used in heatsinks. Can be set up to cool the CPU, GPU, and other components at the same time with the same system.

Involves attaching a block of machined or extruded metal to the part that needs cooling.

This block usually has fins and ridges to increase its surface area.

The heat conductivity of metal is much better than that of air.

Its ability to radiate heat is better than that of the component part it is protecting.

Same principle as passive, with the addition of a fan that is directed to blow over or through the heat sink.

The moving air increases the rate at which the heat sink can exchange heat with the ambient air.

Primary method of cooling a modern processor or graphics card.

A hollow tube containing a heat transfer liquid.

As the liquid evaporates, it carries heat to the cool end, where it condenses and then returns to the hot end.

Heat pipes thus have a much higher effective thermal conductivity than solid materials.

In computers, the heat sink on the CPU is attached to a larger radiator heat sink by a large heat pipe.

Dust acting as a thermal insulator and impeding airflow, thereby reducing heat sink and fan performance.

Poor airflow including turbulence due to friction against impeding components, or improper orientation of fans, can reduce the amount of air flowing through a case and even create localised whirlpools of hot air in the case

Poor heat transfer due to a lack of, or poor application of thermal compounds.

Thermoelectric Cooling Liquid Nitrogen Cooling Liquid Helium Cooling Phase-Change Cooling

Run parts of computer (such as the CPU and GPU) at higher voltages and frequencies than manufacturer specifications call for.

This can dramatically increase the performance of the computer.

Results in a greater amount of heat generated and thus increasing the risk of damage to components and/or premature failure.

More advanced and expensive cooling systems are required in these cases.

As liquid nitrogen evaporates at -196 C, far below the freezing point of water, it is valuable as an extreme coolant for short overclocking sessions.

CPU will usually expire within a relatively short period of time due to temperature stress caused by changes in internal temperature.

Liquid helium, colder than liquid nitrogen, has also been used for cooling.

Based on Peltier effect inverse of Seebeck effect. Applying a voltage to a thermocouple creates a temperature difference between two sides. Modern TECs use several stacked units each composed of dozens or hundreds of thermocouples laid out next to each other, which allows for a substantial amount of heat transfer.

Uses a compressor of the same type as in a window air conditioner.

Compressor compresses a gas (or mixture of gases) which condenses it into a liquid.

Liquid evaporates (changing phase), absorbing the heat from the processor.

The evaporation can produce temperatures reaching around 15 to -150 degrees Celsius

Some laptop components, such as hard drives and optical drives, are commonly cooled by having them make contact with the computer's frame, increasing the surface area which can radiate and otherwise exchange heat.

Practice of running the CPU or any other component with voltages below the device specifications.

An undervolted component draws less power and thus produces less heat.