From the baseplate, that thermal energy moves into the attached heat pipes. Big air coolers tend to take up more internal space in your PC case, particularly when it comes to vertical clearance off your best motherboard. In simple terms, a computer case can either have: Positive pressure – The case fans push more air into the case than then pull out, so there is more air pressure inside of the case. Dust accumulation is already a hazard to electronics, and cigarette smoke produces the worst kind of dust thanks to the moisture and chemicals that it mixes with. Air cooling is a simple but effective way to cool your processor. Desk cubby holes seem incredibly convenient, but weigh that against the inconvenience of replacing overheated components. Subscribe Today to get the latest ExtremeTech news delivered right to your inbox. Corsair Hydro Series H100i Pro. This fan is expelling heat directly from the CPU into the case’s main airflow lane. Unlike air coolers, water cooling doesn't blow hot air around your case. The liquid moves heat to the radiators, and efficiently blows it out of your case. Fans are an active cooling solution — they require power to run. That means you should mount your intake fans on the front of the case, or occasionally (if you have a multi-fan setup or the front mounting brackets are blocked) on the bottom. But for the sake of completeness: water cooled components have a minimal effect on the internal airflow of a case. Do not mount exhaust fans on the bottom of the case; since hot air rises, a bottom-firing exhaust fan will be working against physics by expelling slightly cooler air instead of warmer air. Fans on the rear and of the case are usually exhaust fans, expelling the hot air warmed up by the components back into the room. Your CPU has its own heatsink and fan, even if you haven’t added one yourself—it’s the only fan directly mounted onto a motherboard component. But there are a few basic principles you can apply to almost any build to get optimal airflow, and thus, optimal cooling. Air cooling is a less expensive alternative to PC water cooling and can significantly cool your PC's internal components quickly and efficiently. Air-Cooled. Noctua NF-S12B redux-1200. Some office desks include a large cubby designed to “hide” a PC—don’t use these. If you’re seeing too much dust buildup, move one of your output fans to an input position. This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Get as many of these cables out of the way as you can. Ideally, you want to place an exhaust fan as close to the CPU as possible to quickly expel this hot air. The above article may contain affiliate links, which help support How-To Geek. Alright, let’s talk about how to place your fans for optimal airflow. Because the liquid creates a much more efficient heat transfer, liquid cooling systems tend to be more effective and quieter. Fans on the rear and of the case are usually exhaust fans, expelling the hot air warmed up by the components back into the room. A good air cooling system involves a plethora of fans including case fans, graphics card fans, and CPU fans with a strong heatsink on the bottom. Both approaches have their advantages. Michael Crider is a veteran technology journalist with a decade of experience. Most cases include multiple mount points for case fans—sometimes even more mount points than included fans. If you don’t want to do a ton of research, we highly recommend Noctua fans for great noise-to-performance ratio—though some of their models are on the pricier side (not to mention the standard line is butt-ugly). Your climate will be a consideration in your cooling design. The easiest thing you can do to help keep your computer cool is to give it a little … A liquid cooling system uses water or another liquid to cool the CPU. The enclosed nature of the cabinet will limit the available air to your case fans, making them less effective. Most cases sold for system builders come with some kind of dust filter, but if you need more, you can buy some nice magnetic ones in different sizes for your intake fans. It is united by the need for compactness, yet divided in the aim of different products. If possible, mount your radiator and fans as exhaust fans. Cooling may be designed to reduce the ambient temperature within the case of a computer, such as by exhausting hot air, or to cool a single component or small area (spot cooling). Before you begin, you’ll want to look at your available fan mounts and decide the best way to plan out your airflow. If you live in a particularly hot area you will need to put more thought into cooling your system, even going so far as to consider more enclosed solutions such as the aforementioned water cooling or phase-change systems. Remember, case fans draw in air on the open side and expel air on the grille side. …And a not-so-nice example. While gaming, this heat causes air cooler fans to run at a very high speed, producing noise. Most cases are designed with a certain directional airflow in mind–usually front to back, and bottom to top. The humble PC fan has been in active service for decades and remains the primary cooling method used in PCs to this day. Building a modern desktop PC is surprisingly easy, thanks to modular parts and a lot of solid engineering. Most people opt for a more balanced approach, leaning slightly toward negative air pressure (for theoretical cooling) or positive air pressure (for less dust buildup), and we’d probably recommend something in the middle there. Having the ability to remove superfluous cables makes for a much cleaner system, and allows you to easily add cables for hardware acquired in the future. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our, AMD’s Retail Market Share Surges Based on European Reseller Data, ET Deals: Save 15 Percent on Dell Alienware, XPS, and G5 PCs, Make Your Work Space Work For You With This Innovative Desk Pad, Elon Musk, Now World’s Richest Man, Reaffirms His Intention to Live on Mars, Nvidia’s Purchase of ARM Is Being Investigated by UK Watchdog, ExtremeTech’s guide to air cooling your PC. Here’s a really nice example of a case with good cable management creating open airflow. Assuming all the fans are the same size and speed, then you have one of three possible options for the air pressure inside the case: Because of the way the internal components create blocks in airflow, it’s more or less impossible to achieve a truly equal air pressure inside a case. CPU coolers are your overheated PC’s saving grace, and they come in two predominant forms: air coolers and custom or water coolers. Think of a PC case as an enclosed box, and the air going in or out of each fan as roughly equal. Problems occur when systems aren’t adequately set up to allow cool air to flow smoothly through a case, and air to be expelled before it can get too warm. If you’re looking into a water cooled setup that uses liquid convention to draw heat directly from your CPU or GPU to a radiator, odds are that you’re already working on a pretty advanced build. If you can, move your desk and your PC to a cooler room. When heated, this liquid becomes a gas and travels up the heat pipe where the heat load is spread across the aluminum fins and dissipated by a fan. The fans on the front of your PC’s case are typically intake fans, drawing in the relatively cool air of the surrounding room to lower the temperature inside the case. The fans on the front of your PC’s case are typically intake fans, drawing in the relatively cool air of the surrounding room to lower the temperature inside the case. 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