How to properly place coolers in the system unit. Proper cooling of the system unit
Theoretical basis of cooling
So, a little theory. From a physics course we know that any conductor through which electric current flows generates heat. This means that absolutely all components of the computer, from the central processor to the power cables, heat the surrounding air. The amount of heat generated by one or another computer component directly depends on its energy consumption, which, in turn, is determined by many other factors: if we are talking about a hard drive, then the power of the electric motor and the controller electronics, and if we are talking about a processor or other chip, then the number elements integrated into it and the technological process of its production. This is the physics of our world, and there is no escape from it. But no one has yet come up with the idea of gluing radiators to electrical wires and blowing air over, say, internal modems! It's because various components computers affect the temperature in the case in different ways, and if such a “cold” device such as a modem does not require any additional cooling, then we pay too much attention to the same video card, so modern boards and install huge coolers, sometimes even with two fans.But first of all, let's review what a cooler is. A cooler (from the English Cool - cold) is a device for cooling something. The main task of any cooler is to reduce and maintain the temperature of the cooled body at a given level. And depending on the type of device being cooled, be it a transistor, a chip, a processor, or even a hard drive, different types of coolers are used. In our minds, a cooler is like a “big piece of iron with a propeller,” and the bigger it is, the better it is. However, coolers can also be more complex devices, costing hundreds of dollars. Typically, coolers used in computers consist of a fan, a radiator and a mount.
Radiators
A radiator (from the English Radiate - to radiate) is used to remove heat from a cooled object. It is in direct contact with the cooled object, and its main function is to absorb part of the heat generated by the body and dissipate it into the surrounding air. As you know, again from a physics course, an object gives off heat only from its surface, which means that in order to achieve the best heat removal, the cooled object must have as large a surface area as possible. Today's radiators increase the surface area by installing more fins. Heat from the cooled object moves to the base of the radiator, and is then evenly distributed along its fins, after which it goes into the surrounding air, and this process is called radiation. The air around the radiator gradually heats up, and the heat transfer process becomes less efficient, so the efficiency of heat transfer can be increased if cold air is constantly supplied to the radiator fins. Fans are used for this today. But we'll talk about them a little later.The radiator must have good thermal conductivity and heat capacity. Thermal conductivity determines the rate at which heat spreads throughout the body. For a radiator, the thermal conductivity should be as high as possible, because often the area of the cooled object is several times smaller than the area of the radiator base, and with low thermal conductivity, the heat from the cooled object will not be able to be evenly distributed throughout the entire volume, over all the fins of the radiator. If the radiator is made of a material with high thermal conductivity, then at each point the temperature will be the same, and heat will be released from the entire surface area with the same efficiency, that is, there will be no situation when one part of the radiator will be hot, and the other will remain cold and will not release heat to the surrounding air. Heat capacity determines the amount of heat that must be imparted to the body in order to increase its temperature by 1 degree. For radiators, the heat capacity should be as high as possible, because when it cools by one degree, the body gives off the same amount of heat. The heat capacity and thermal conductivity of the radiator depend on the material used for its manufacture.
Table of thermal properties of materials
As you can see, it is most profitable to use two materials for the manufacture of radiators: aluminum and copper. The first is due to low cost and high heat capacity, and the second is due to high thermal conductivity. Silver is too expensive to be used to create radiators, but even if you do not take into account its high price, due to its good thermal conductivity, this metal is best used for the manufacture of radiator bases only.
The radiator design also has great importance. For example, the fins can be installed at different angles to the air flow. They can be straight along the entire length of the radiator, or cut across; they can be thick and with burrs if the radiator is made using extrusion technology, or thin and smooth if it was cast from molten metal. The ribs can be flat, bent from plates and pressed into the base. The radiator can generally be needle-shaped, that is, instead of ribs, it can have cylindrical or square needles. Today it is known that needle radiators perform best in terms of fin design.
Thermal interface
Radiators are adjacent with their base to the object being cooled, and heat from it to the radiator passes only through the surface of their contact, so we must strive to make it as large as possible. But even the usually available contact area (for example, the surface of the processor core) must be used one hundred percent. The fact is that when two surfaces come into contact, tiny cavities filled with air remain between them. This cannot be avoided, and no matter how even and smooth the surface of the radiator may seem to you, it still has cracks and depressions where air collects. Air conducts heat very poorly, and therefore the cooling efficiency will be significantly lower than the capabilities of the radiator.To get rid of air cushions and increase cooling efficiency, various thermal interfaces are used. They have high thermal conductivity and, due to fluidity, fill all the unevenness of the radiator base. As a result, those places where there was previously air that bothered us are now filled with material that conducts heat well, and the radiator is already working with maximum return. Thermal interfaces come in different types: thermal paste or conductive pads. Gaskets are rubber-like polymer plates applied to the base of radiators. When heated, they change their state of aggregation and, softening, fill in all the irregularities. Nowadays thermal pastes are supplied with the vast majority of branded coolers. More often, thermal paste is simply placed in a box with a cooler in a syringe or a small plastic bag. But it happens that it is already applied to the base of the radiator. In this case, it will only be enough for one or two installations, since assembling it from a cooled chip or processor will be more difficult than buying another bag of paste. When choosing a thermal interface, I would recommend using thermal pastes rather than thermal pads. The greater fluidity of thermal pastes allows them to better fill all the unevenness of the radiator, and due to the use of materials such as silver or aluminum in their composition, they have higher thermal conductivity. Today you can find thermal pastes with 90% silver content on sale. And although silver is excellent electrical conductor, manufacturers guarantee that the thermal paste will not short-circuit the contacts of the elements of the board or device on which it is applied, but still recommend not checking the insulating properties of their product and, if possible, avoid getting thermal paste on electrical elements computer.
Fans
Fans provide a continuous flow of air over the radiator, turning the less efficient process of radiation into the more effective process of convection. Convection is a heat exchange process that differs from radiation in that the cooling air is constantly in motion. In active coolers, it is forced into the radiator and, when heated, is dissipated in the environment. With the use of a fan, the cooler becomes much more efficient, and the temperature of the cooled object can drop by half, or even more, depending on the performance of the fan. Fan performance is its main characteristic, measured in the number of cubic feet of air it moves per minute, abbreviated as CFM (Cubic Feet per Minute). It mainly depends on the area of the fan, its height, the profile of the blades and their rotation speed. The larger these values are, the more air the fan can move, and accordingly, the more efficient the cooling will be. Today, fans for computer coolers do not have the ability to endlessly increase either the size or the rotation speed of the impeller. It is clear that a fan larger than 80 mm is already difficult to place in the case, and the speed of the propeller directly affects its noise level. In addition, a larger fan will need to have a more powerful and more expensive electric motor, which will affect its cost.All fans used in computers today are powered by direct current, most often 12V. To connect to power, they use three-pin Molex connectors (for Smart fans) or four-pin PC-Plug connectors.
The Molex connector has three wires: black (ground), red (positive) and yellow (signal). PC-Plug has four wires: two black (ground), yellow (+12 Volts) and red (+5 Volts). Molex connectors are installed on motherboards so that the system itself can control the fan speed by applying different voltages to the red wire (usually from 8 to 12 V), and change it if necessary. Via the yellow signal wire, the motherboard receives information from the fan about the speed of its blades. Today, this has become very relevant, since a stopped fan on a processor cooler can damage the processor. Therefore, modern motherboards make sure that the fan is always spinning, and if it stops, they turn off the computer. Connecting via Molex has one drawback: it is dangerous to attach fans with a power consumption of more than 6 W to motherboards. The PC-Plug connector can withstand tens of watts, but when connected to it, you will not be able to find out whether your fan is working or not. Today, more and more often, fans come with PC-Plug - Molex adapters to connect them to the power supply, or even both connectors at once: PC-Plug and Molex to receive power from the computer's power supply and communicate via the Molex signal wire motherboard about the speed of the motor.
Fans can also have different types of rotor suspension. For this purpose, sliding bearings (Sleeve bearing) or rolling bearings (Ball bearing) are used. A fan may have one or two bearings, and sometimes they combine different types- Sleeve and Ball. Fans with rolling bearings (ordinary ball bearings) are considered the most reliable. Manufacturing companies promise them continuous operation for 50,000 hours, which is more than five years, and those that use plain bearings promise to live no more than 30,000 hours, about three and a half years. Today there are already fans with ceramic bearings, which are promised almost immortality - 300,000 hours of continuous operation, and that’s thirty-six years! However, on the one hand, the stated life times of fans very rarely correspond to reality, and often they must be divided by two or even three, and on the other hand, believe me, a computer will not live for thirty-six years. You should expect that a regular fan can last a year or two. Then it starts to hum, and it needs to be lubricated, but even lubricant will solve the problem only for a while, and soon the fan will have to be replaced with a new one.
Some modern fans have automatic speed control, depending on the ambient temperature or radiator temperature. We will tell you about one of these at the end of the article. Almost all of them have a temperature sensor located directly on the fan itself and may not reflect the actual temperature of the object being cooled. That is, when the processor temperature rises, the cooler on which such a automatic fan, can only increase its speed after a couple of minutes. Another thing is fans with stop alarms installed on them. When the rotor speed drops below a certain limit, a special electronic unit on the fan wire emits a loud squeak, and you know for sure that it’s time to turn off the computer and replace the cooler.
Passive coolers
Passive coolers are ordinary radiators installed on the cooled object. They remove heat only by radiation, if they are not blown by any computer fans, and are used to cool low-power and small-sized elements, for example, memory chips or transistors. Radiators are installed today on video cards, some motherboards that do not yet have full-fledged coolers, memory modules, and in general on almost everything that needs to be cooled, and even on central processors if they have low power.
A special case of a passive cooler is a heat distributor. It looks like a “bald” radiator made from a plate, without ribs and with a small surface area. Heat spreaders are used today for cooling system memory. In particular, Thermaltake produces special kits for DDR SDRAM DIMM modules. The disadvantage of heat spreaders, like passive coolers, is their low efficiency.
Active coolers
Coolers that operate by convection are called active. Simply put, this is a radiator with a fan installed on it. Most often they are used to cool processors. And today, when we say the word “cooler,” we mean, first of all, exactly them. Active coolers are used almost everywhere where cooling is required, replacing conventional radiators. The advantages of such cooling can be considered significantly greater efficiency compared to conventional radiators. Active coolers are able to cool hot processors while maintaining small sizes. But fans are always a source of noise in computers, and sometimes vibration. Therefore, they only need to cool very hot elements, otherwise working behind a noisy machine will become unbearable. Another disadvantage of active coolers is that they are short-lived. The fan blades rotate, and sooner or later the bearings on the rotor will fail and it will stop. Naturally, in this case the cooled element will overheat and possibly fail. But more often than not, the fans begin to hum loudly before stopping, so you will be warned in advance.
Now that we understand the basics of computer cooling, we can move on to look at the heat sources in a computer and how to cool them.
What heats up in a computer and how does it cool down?
Well, having an idea about coolers, let’s now get a picture of what gets heated in computers and how (if necessary) it needs to be cooled. We'll start with the most basic element of any PC - the central processor. Today, processor cooling is given Special attention, and therefore every manufacturer of PC coolers necessarily has CPU coolers in its assortment.Processors
If we do not consider server and laptop computers(including laptops), today personal computers use processors from two manufacturing companies: Intel and AMD. They use three main platforms: Socket 370, Socket 478 and Socket 462 (Socket A). The numbers in the platform designation indicate the number of pins of each processor. Naturally, all these standards are not compatible with each other, and Pentium III for Socket 370 cannot be installed in a motherboard with any other socket. Until recently, the Socket 423 standard was also widespread for the first Pentium 4, but with the advent of the more modern Socket 478, it almost disappeared and is now being successfully forgotten. Each type of processor has its own cooler standards.
Socket 370 uses Intel Pentium III processors, Intel Celeron(except for new ones for Socket 478) and VIA C3. Processors made by AMD (Duron, Athlon on the Thunderbird core, Palomino and Thoroughbred) use the Socket A connector. Coolers for Socket 370 and Socket A are almost compatible with each other. More precisely, we can say that they are fully compatible, but this does not mean that you can install a cooler for an Athlon on a Pentium III. The fact is that although the Socket 370 and Socket A sockets have the same dimensions, the standards by which AMD recommends building motherboards differ from Intel’s. First of all, look at the photo. Socket A has three teeth on the front and back for attaching the cooler. Initially it was understood that Athlon processors more powerful coolers will be installed, which will require a more rigid mount, and one tooth may break under the cooler spring. In addition, AMD recommended that motherboard manufacturers leave a so-called free zone to the left and right of the socket. There should be no elements in this area that could interfere with the installation of rectangular coolers longer than 55 mm (slot width). Thus, on Athlon and Duron processors you can install coolers with a size of 60x80mm and as high as your case allows. The Pentium III, of course, is unlikely to have such large coolers, but this again depends on the motherboard.
In addition, many motherboards for Athlon/Duron have four holes around the socket. This is another way to attach the cooler - not to the socket, but to the motherboard. On the one hand, it is more convenient, since the cooler will no longer fall off, breaking off a tooth, but on the other hand, to replace it or upgrade the processor, you will have to remove the motherboard. For better or worse, AMD recently stopped requiring four holes in the clear area near the processor socket, and all future coolers will be attached only to it, and not to the motherboard.
Athlon processors generate up to 73 W of heat when not overclocked. For powerful servers, such heat dissipation from the processor is common, but for desktop computers this is a lot, and besides, the area of the processor core is constantly decreasing, so coolers for modern processors actively use copper in their radiators. And on sale you will be able to see coolers not only with aluminum radiators, but also with a copper base, or completely copper. Some manufacturers, trying to increase the efficiency of coolers, also coat the copper with nickel, silver or other materials with high thermal conductivity. Fans on such coolers most often have a size of 60x60x25 mm, although 70mm and 80mm models are now becoming widespread. They have a lower rotation speed and are much quieter.
| CPU | Heat dissipation, W |
|---|---|
| AMD Duron 1100 | 51 |
| AMD Duron 1200 | 55 |
| AMD Duron 1300 | 57 |
| AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1400 | 73 |
| AMD AthlonXP (Palomino) 2100+ | 72 |
| AMD AthlonXP (Thoroughbred) 2600+ | 68.3 |
In the case of coolers for Socket 370, everything is much simpler: they all cling to two teeth of the socket and have dimensions that do not exceed the size of the socket. Typically from 50x50 to 60x60 mm. The heat dissipation of Pentium III processors is approximately half that of the Athlon, so it is easier to cool them, and coolers with all-aluminum radiators or with a copper base are most often used on the Pentium III. They are cheaper than all-copper ones, which are also not necessary.
If we continue talking about Socket 370 and remember about VIA C3 processors, then we can completely forget about coolers. The fact is that VIA C3 have a reputation as “cold” processors, because they emit too little heat and can also work with passive coolers - ordinary radiators, or very simple coolers. For them, heat generation is not a problem, and therefore computers based on them operate very quietly.
Today it is more profitable to produce coolers for Intel Pentium 4 and Celeron processors for Socket478. The fact is that the market for Athlon coolers is already quite saturated, and besides, the price of computers with AMD processors are low, and not every user is willing to pay dearly for good cooler. The situation with Pentium 4 is completely different, since they are much more expensive than competitors from AMD, and coolers costing several tens of dollars can be sold to the high-performance processor market.
In computers with Pentium 4 and Celeron processors under Socket 478, the cooler is attached to a special rack on the motherboard. There is an opinion that Pentium 4 processors do not overheat at all. It is fundamentally incorrect, and the first Pentium 4 actually ran cooler than their Athlon counterparts, but now the power consumption of the Pentium 4 with a frequency of 2.8 GHz is around 64 W, and the Pentium 4 3.0 GHz promises to require up to 80 W. Of course, modern technological processes and the design of the Pentium 4 with a built-in heat spreader help it better deal with the heat generated, but it, like the Athlon, requires a large cooler. True, boxed versions of processors are already supplied with coolers, but if necessary, you can find a wide range of coolers for Pentium 4 in stores.
Coolers for Socket 478 have basically one type of fastening: with two steel brackets they cling to the plastic stops of the motherboard and are firmly pressed against the surface of the processor. Sometimes the motherboard bends slightly due to too strong cooler springs, but by and large this is not a big deal. For computers using Pentium 4 in low-end or server cases, there are coolers that attach to the motherboard without using racks around the processor.
Just as is the case with some coolers for Athlon, the mount in them goes through holes in the motherboard (to do this you will have to remove the standard holders for the cooler) and is fixed on top of the processor. In this case, much less physical stress is applied to the board. Unfortunately, such coolers are not very common.
Coolers with various radiators are available for Pentium 4. There are both pure aluminum ones and those with copper bases, or all copper ones. Fans for such coolers are usually installed quiet, because they low performance compensated by the large size of the radiators. Although, loud models are also a common occurrence among coolers for Socket 478.
One of the integral elements of a personal computer is its cooling system. Since all PC components run on electric current, then they tend to heat up, and the degree of their heating is directly proportional to the level of load on these components. In other words, if you want your computer to be able to successfully cope with assigned tasks without burning out, then you should pay attention to selecting high-quality cooling. Basic system cooling is needed even for the simplest computer, but if you are or plan to become the owner of a gaming or professional PC, then good cooling Under no circumstances should you skimp.
Types of cooling systems
On this moment There are two main types of computer cooling systems: air and water.
Air cooling systems
Today, air cooling is the most common. Operating principle of the system air cooling lies in the fact that heat from the heating element of the PC is directly transferred to the radiator, and then dissipated into the surrounding space. The effectiveness of this cooling method depends on several conditions: the usable area of the radiator, the material from which it is made and the speed of the passing air flow. For example, copper is the best guide heat than aluminum, although its cost is much higher. Also, for better heat transfer of the radiator, blackening of its surface can be used. Air cooling of a computer can be active or passive.
- Active Cooling implies the presence, in addition to the radiator, of a fan, which significantly speeds up the process of heat removal from the radiator tubes into the surrounding space. Typically, fans active cooling, or, as they are also called, coolers, are used to cool the “hottest” PC components - the processor and video card.
- Passive cooling is mainly installed on those elements of the computer that do not heat up very much during operation, since its efficiency is significantly lower than that of active cooling. However, there are passive radiators that are designed specifically to build a silent system - they are characterized by high heat removal efficiency at low air flow rates.
Liquid cooling systems
Water cooling systems, which were previously used only on server systems, Lately They are also used quite effectively in home computers. Their main advantage is their cooling speed, since the liquid can conduct heat approximately 30 times faster than air. basis liquid cooling is a refrigerant - a working fluid, with the help of which heat is removed from the heating element of the PC to the radiator, where it is then dissipated into environment. Distilled water, oil, antifreeze, liquid metal or other special substance can be used as such a working fluid.
In addition to the radiator and pipes through which the working fluid is carried, the water cooling system includes a pump for circulating the fluid, a reservoir to compensate for the thermal expansion of the fluid, and a heat sink - a metal plate that collects heat from the computer components.
As you can see, the liquid cooling system is a rather complex structure, the installation of which requires special knowledge and considerable effort. In addition, if the water cooling system is installed incorrectly, a leak may occur, resulting in damage to computer components or even failure. Therefore, it is better to entrust the equipment of such a system to professionals, or simply buy a ready-made, assembled water-cooled PC.
A water cooling system can be used for two purposes: to ensure high performance of the computer or to create a silent PC. Some people mistakenly believe that with water cooling you can maximize both, but unfortunately this is not the case. A highly efficient liquid cooling system must have a powerful pump, and the noise from such a pump may well exceed the noise from active system PC ventilation. On the other hand, silent water cooling will not provide such high efficiency.
In any case, liquid cooling systems are not a mass product at all, because even the most inexpensive configuration of such a system will be several times higher than the cost of air cooling. Therefore, water-cooled computers are most often purchased by gamers, as well as those for whom high performance is critical for work. For other users, traditional air cooling will be enough.
Cooling system elements
To build a competent cooling system, you need to know which computer elements most need heat removal, and how to properly organize this removal.
Cooling for the case
In inexpensive configurations of personal computers, air exchange in the system unit occurs due to the ventilation grille and the exhaust fan on the power supply. Air enters the case through ventilation holes, passes through the PC components and dissipates heat outside through the power supply. However, with more or less decent computer power, this is often not enough and then it is necessary to install additional fans in the system unit. But they must not be placed haphazardly, otherwise hot air will “walk” inside system unit, which will negate all cooling efficiency. The illustration below shows a diagram of proper air exchange inside a computer case: cold air is drawn in by a large fan from below, passes through all the main components of the PC and is pulled upward using several small fans.
CPU Cooling
The processor is the hottest component of the computer and therefore especially needs good cooling. The best solution to remove heat from the processor there will be a high-quality radiator with a cooler of medium or large diameter - this will ensure high efficiency with a low noise level.
Also, do not forget about the correct and timely application of thermal paste - without this substance, a thin air layer with extremely low thermal conductivity will form between the processor and the heatsink.
Cooling for video card
The video card also needs high-quality cooling, because it also experiences considerable load during operation (especially when playing games or working with graphic editors). Most video cards are sold with a built-in active cooling cooler, but there are also models with a radiator passive cooling. The latter are purchased by fans of silent systems, as well as by enthusiasts who additionally install a cooler on them, thereby increasing the performance of the video card.
Cooling for hard drive, chipset and RAM
The average user hardly needs to worry about cooling the motherboard, RAM or hard drive. However, for owners of powerful components, installing passive heat sink elements on the above components will not hurt at all. The motherboard chipset can become especially hot when heavy loads its temperature sometimes reaches 65-70 degrees Celsius.
Dust is the main source of overheating
In addition to installing a good cooling system, it is also necessary to ensure the cleanliness of the internal space of the computer system unit. When clogged with dust, the efficiency of heat sinks is reduced by at least half, and a fan clogged with dust is unable to provide sufficient air circulation inside the case. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out scheduled cleaning of the computer from dust on time, which should also include: cleaning of fans, radiators, power supply and contact surfaces of components (video card, RAM, etc.).
It's no secret that when a computer is running, all of its electronic components are heating up. Some elements heat up quite noticeably. The processor, video card, north and south bridges of the motherboard are the hottest elements of the system unit. Even with normal computer idle time, their temperature can reach 50-60 degrees Celsius. But if the system unit is not periodically cleaned of dust, then the heating of the main components of the computer becomes even greater. Increased heating leads to constant computer freezes, fans run at high speeds, which leads to annoying noise. Overheating is generally dangerous and leads to an emergency shutdown of the computer.
Therefore, the main problem of the entire electronic part of computer technology is proper cooling and effective heat removal. The vast majority of computers, both industrial and home, use heat removal air cooling. It gained its popularity due to its simplicity and low cost. The principle of this type of cooling is as follows. All the heat from the heated elements is transferred to the surrounding air, and the hot air, in turn, is removed from the system unit case using fans. To increase heat transfer and cooling efficiency, the hottest components are equipped with copper or aluminum radiators with fans installed on them.
But the fact that heat removal occurs due to air movement does not mean at all that the more fans are installed, the better the cooling will be overall. Several incorrectly installed fans can do much more harm than solve the problem of overheating, when one correctly installed fan will solve this problem very effectively.
Selecting additional fans.
Before purchasing and installing additional fans, carefully examine your computer. Open the case cover, count and find out the dimensions of the mounting locations for additional case coolers. Look carefully at the motherboard to see what connectors it has for connecting additional fans.Fans should be selected in the largest size that suits you. For standard cases this size is 80x80mm. But quite often (especially recently) fans of sizes 92x92 and 120x120 mm can be installed in cases. With the same electrical characteristics a larger fan will be much quieter.
Try to buy fans with more blades - they are also quieter. Pay attention to the stickers - they indicate the noise level. If the motherboard has 4-pin connectors for powering coolers, then buy four-wire fans. They are very quiet and the range automatic adjustment Their revs are quite wide.
Between fans receiving power from the power supply through Molex connector and running from the motherboard, definitely choose the second option.
There are fans on sale with real ball bearings - this is the best option in terms of durability.
Installation of additional fans.
Let's look at the main points of correct installation of case fans for most system units. Here we will provide advice specifically for standard cases, since non-standard cases have such a varied fan arrangement that it makes no sense to describe them - everything is individual. Moreover, in non-standard cases, fan sizes can reach 30cm in diameter. But still, some aspects of cooling non-standard PC cases are discussed in the following article.There are no additional fans in the case.
This is the standard layout for almost all computers sold in stores. All the hot air rises to the top of the computer and is exhausted outside by the fan in the power supply.
The big disadvantage of this type of cooling is that all the heated air passes through the power supply, heating it even more. And therefore, it is the power supply of such computers that most often breaks down. Also, all the cold air is not sucked in in a controlled manner, but from all the cracks of the housing, which only reduces the efficiency of heat transfer. Another disadvantage is the thin air produced by this type of cooling, which leads to the accumulation of dust inside the case. But still, it's better than incorrect installation additional fans.
One fan on the rear wall of the case.
This method is used more out of desperation, since the case has only one place to install an additional cooler - on the back wall under the power supply. In order to reduce the amount of hot air passing through the power supply, install one fan that works to “blow” out of the case.
Most of the heated air comes from the motherboard, processor, video card, hard drives comes out through an additional fan. And the power supply heats up significantly less. Also, the overall flow of moving air increases. But the rarefaction increases, so dust will accumulate even more.
Additional front fan in the case.
When the case has only one seat on the front of the case, or there is no possibility of turning on two fans at once (there is nowhere to connect), then this is the most ideal option for you. It is necessary to install one fan on the front part of the case.
The fan must be installed opposite the hard drives. It would be more correct to write that the hard drives should be placed opposite the fan. This way, the cold incoming air will immediately blow over them. This installation is much more effective than the previous one. A directed air flow is created. The vacuum inside the computer decreases - dust does not linger. When additional coolers are powered from the motherboard, the overall noise is reduced as the fan speeds are reduced.
Installing two fans in the case.
The most effective method of installing fans for additional cooling of the system unit. A fan is installed on the front wall of the case for “blowing”, and on the rear wall – for “blowing”:
A powerful, constant air flow is created. The power supply operates without overheating, since heated air is removed by a fan installed under it. If a power supply with adjustable fan speed is installed, the overall noise will be noticeably reduced, and more importantly, the pressure inside the case will be equalized. Dust will not settle.
Incorrect installation of fans.
Below are examples of unacceptable installation of additional coolers in a PC case.One rear fan is set to "injection".
A closed air ring is created between the power supply and the additional fan. Some of the hot air from the power supply is immediately sucked back inside. At the same time, there is no air movement in the lower part of the system unit, and therefore cooling is ineffective.
One front fan is set to “exhaust”.
If you install only one front cooler and it works as a blower, then you end up with very low pressure inside the case and ineffective cooling of the computer. Moreover, due to the reduced pressure, the fans themselves will be overloaded, since they will have to overcome the back pressure of the air. The computer components will heat up, resulting in increased operating noise as the fan speeds increase.
The rear fan is for “blowing”, and the front fan is for “blowing”.
An air short circuit is created between the power supply and the rear fan. The air in the area of the central processor works in a circle.
The front fan tries to “lower” the hot air against the natural convection rise, working under increased load and creating a vacuum in the housing.
Two additional coolers are set to “blowing”.
An air short circuit is created in the upper part of the housing.
In this case, the effect of the incoming cold air is felt only for the hard drives, since it then enters the oncoming flow from the rear fan. Excessive pressure is created inside the case, which complicates the operation of additional fans.
Two additional coolers operate as a blower.
The most severe operating mode of the cooling system.
There is reduced air pressure inside the case; all case fans and inside the power supply operate under reverse suction pressure. There is not enough air movement inside the air, and, therefore, all components work overheating.
These are, in principle, all the main points that will help you in organizing correct system ventilation of your personal computer. If there is a special plastic corrugation on the side cover of the case, use it to supply cold air to the central processor. All other installation issues are resolved depending on the structure of the case. We will be glad if you write your thoughts on this matter in the comments to the article.
Theoretical foundations of cooling system unit elements. Component cooling
In a previous article devoted to issues of processor cooling, we already mentioned that any consumer of electrical current heats up to one degree or another during operation. It is very easy to determine the approximate amount of heat generated; it is enough to determine the total electrical power consumed by the system unit. Consumption of modern gaming systems, for example, is in the range of 500-1000 W. It is easy to calculate that the components of such computers emit up to 1 kJ of thermal energy per second. Approximate calculations show that with a system unit weighing about 10 kg, it heats up by 1 °C in less than five seconds. It turns out that in order to heat the entire system unit to the failure temperature of the semiconductor elements (85-90 °C), it only takes five to seven minutes of PC operation. And taking into account the uneven heating, system failure in practice will occur in less than a minute. Obviously, in order to prevent overheating of the system unit and its individual elements, it is necessary to properly organize their cooling.
In fact, the task of proper cooling in a personal computer system can be divided into two complementary stages: cooling individual components and organization of heat removal from the system unit case. Let's look at these stages separately.
Heat removal from the system unit
The task of removing excess heat from a PC system unit is not as trivial as it might seem at first glance. First, let's remember the design of a typical tower-type computer case with a top-mounted power supply.
In a typical case without additional funds cooling fan of the power supply, working for exhaust, creates a vacuum inside the system unit. Cold “outboard” air enters through the ventilation holes at the bottom of the front panel, passes, heating, through the area where the RAM and processor are located, and exits through the power supply.
The diagram clearly shows that a large video card, expansion cards, as well as hard drives and 5.25" devices are serious obstacles to the passage of air and because of this, stable zones of hot air are created, which leads to an increase in the temperature of the components located in them.
Installing additional case fans opposite the central processor and a blower fan on the front panel will somewhat reduce the size of the “hot zones”, but will not completely remove them, since the air bag itself will not go anywhere and large devices will still impede the passage of air. Air, like flowing water, always seeks the shortest path from input to output, and the turbulence generated when it collides with obstacles does not fundamentally solve the problem of cooling the nooks and crannies of the system unit.
Nevertheless, solving the problem of proper airflow is quite simple. Step one - install the case fans so that a rarefied atmosphere is created in the case. The total power of exhaust fans should be greater than those that provide air flow inside. I know that many experts will immediately object: “This way my computer will turn into a vacuum cleaner...”, etc. But the answer to such “experts” is the same - vacuum cleaner around the computer more often, then it will have nothing to pull into itself. In addition, no one has canceled the need to regularly clean computer hardware using a regular vacuum cleaner.
Step two - ensure air flow into the system unit not only through standard ventilation holes (for the sake of beautiful design, manufacturers often make too few of them), but also near each heat-generating object. This is done quite simply. On the rear panel, the plugs under the video card and expansion cards are removed, and on the front panel, the plugs for the slots for installing a floppy drive and unoccupied 5.25" slots are removed. If you are concerned about the design of the front panel, then in place of the removed ones, you can buy decorative mesh plugs to your taste The result of such manipulations with the body is presented in the following diagram.
Author of the article simple removal plugs under the video card lowered its temperature by 21°C, which surprised me a lot, since I was planning to replace the cooler on the graphics processor, with a total budget for the entire event of about 20 USD. e.
Of course, the above diagram is not a dogma. Big variety computer cases, different organization of their standard cooling, different locations of ventilation holes and system unit components clearly cannot correspond to the same template. This typical example simply shows general principle correct organization of air flows. Ensure the passage of cold air past all heat-generating elements, paying special attention to the video card and hard drives, and this will greatly increase the stability and reliability of the system as a whole without additional investments into expensive cooling systems.
When planning housing ventilation, consider one more point - the general direction of air flow should always help natural air convection. Warm air rises, entering the system unit from below.
Cooling motherboard components
The motherboard is a device to which, as a rule, only its manufacturers pay sufficient attention to proper cooling. The average PC user, by default, assumes that the developers have provided for everything necessary measures on its thermal protection. And I placed the radiators where they are needed, and look, even heat pipes laid where needed. This means there is absolutely nothing to worry about. Unfortunately, such an attitude towards cooling the motherboard elements often leads to its premature failure.
First of all, let's figure out which elements of the motherboard generate enough heat to make it worth bothering with forced cooling. There are only three “hot” elements on the motherboard:
- north bridge;
- south bridge;
- Surge Protectors.
Of all the ones listed, the least problematic is the south bridge. Since it is responsible for working with slow components, even increasing the standard frequencies when overclocking a computer has little effect on its heat dissipation. If, however, test utilities show too high a temperature, in most cases it is enough to install a small radiator on the southbridge. Since there are no mounting holes in the boards near the south bridge, the radiator is installed with hot melt adhesive.
The North Bridge, unlike the South Bridge, is more powerful source heat. Almost all motherboard manufacturers install standard radiators on it. If the heat dissipation rate is insufficient, a small-sized cooler should be attached to this radiator. As a rule, for its installation, motherboards have mounting holes around the bridge chip. If these holes are not present, then the fan is installed on the radiator using ordinary superglue.
Cool everything you can
Voltage stabilizers are no less susceptible to overheating than the northbridge. A group of stabilizers is located, as a rule, between the processor and the connector block. Modern motherboards often have standard radiators installed on them. Top motherboards even organize a single cooling system for bridges and stabilizers on heat pipes. However, for normal cooling of stabilizers, good airflow is much more important than solid radiators. This must be taken into account when choosing a cooler for the central processor. If you have a super-powerful cooler installed with an air flow direction parallel to the motherboard, or if you have a liquid cooling system that does not create air flows at all, then the stabilizers can easily overheat even if they have good radiators on them.
This cooler only cools the processor perfectly.
Using similar systems To cool the central processor, it is imperative to take additional measures to cool the area where the voltage stabilizers are located. If your processor cooler directs air flow to the motherboard, then in most cases this will be enough to cool stabilizers with radiators to normal temperature.
If, in your opinion, the cooling system is designed correctly, all radiators and fans are in place, the airflow is normal, but the bridge or stabilizers still overheat, change the thermal paste. Often the cause of overheating is a poor thermal interface between the heat-producing PC components and their cooling systems.
Cooling RAM
Serious overclockers approach the issues of cooling RAM modules with no less responsibility than cooling the processor. If, in most cases, to operate in normal modes, the correct organization of air flows in the system unit case and the installation of simple radiators for complete calm are enough, then during overclocking, high-quality cooling is the key to success.
Heatsink on the RAM stick
For more reliable RAM cooling, manufacturers offer a wide range of devices of various types. The most inexpensive are air cooling systems, which are a set of radiators placed on each memory stick and a fan block covering the entire row of strips. Such systems have significant drawback- rather large dimensions, due to which it is often impossible or undesirable to install them next to a large processor cooler.
The cooler cools the memory perfectly, but eats up half the air from the processor
Liquid RAM cooling systems do not have this drawback. In such systems, it is attached to special radiators contact pad, through which coolant is pumped. Such liquid systems show maximum efficiency, especially since there are systems that use liquid nitrogen as a coolant.
Let us remember that such radical measures to cool the RAM are necessary only when overclocking the system. If you are not going to increase the standard frequencies, then heatsinks on the memory strips and proper organization of air flow in the PC case are quite enough.
Cooling video cards
Modern video cards, in the vast majority of cases, are devices that are well balanced in terms of cooling their elements. Standard radiators and fans installed on modules graphics memory and on the graphics processor, provide sufficient cooling of these elements in normal modes. Nevertheless, a wide range of computer enthusiasts are making serious efforts to reduce the temperature of video card elements when overclocking them, since in this case the performance of standard coolers is no longer enough. And, of course, additional measures to reduce operating temperature components graphic cards must be taken if instability of their operation is noticed under heavy loads or test programs show close to critical data from temperature sensors.
Hybrid graphics card cooling system
The basic steps to improve the cooling efficiency of video cards differ little from those described above for other components. First of all, it is necessary to analyze the air flows in the system unit and ensure a stable flow of cold air into the radiator area of the video card cooling system. If everything is fine with the airflow, but the temperature of the chip does not decrease, then you should think about replacing the standard cooling system with a more efficient one. The range of coolers for video cards is slightly inferior to the range of processors - powerful radiators with two or three high-performance fans, liquid cooling systems, hybrid coolers that combine the advantages of air and liquid cooling in a wide variety of options. And, of course, for the most radical overclockers, there are cooling systems that use liquid nitrogen as a coolant (more like a coolant).
Cooling hard drives, optical drives and other devices
Hard drives and other "slow" devices are less susceptible to overheating. However, given that they are often installed in places with insufficient ventilation, cases of failure of hard drive electronics due to overheating are not so rare. Therefore, it is still necessary to properly organize the airflow of controllers even for such “slow” devices, both through the correct organization of air flows inside the system unit, and with the help of special hard drive coolers that force airflow directly onto the electronics boards. Such coolers can be attached directly to the device, or they can be a kind of 5.25" pocket with a forced ventilation system, inside which 3.5" hard drives are already installed.
Conclusion
Organizing effective cooling of system unit elements is one of the important elements of ensuring the stability and durability of the entire PC as a whole. One of the most important stages This job is to ensure efficient removal of excess heat from the housing. In the vast majority of cases, this stage will be the only one necessary for those who are satisfied with the performance of their computer in normal mode.
For a wide range of extreme sports enthusiasts who want to squeeze the maximum possible out of the computer hardware in their hands, there is a wide range of various high-performance cooling systems for any of the elements of the system unit, which we tried to give a short overview of in this article.
Have a good day everyone))) As promised, I will try to describe in as much detail as possible the process of manufacturing this modification of the case. To begin with, I apologize to the moderators of this project, because... a link is used, and the photographs used were taken at different times and not all are directly related to this modification, although they are as close as possible. But, the link is from this site)))) So, let's get started. To do this, we will need: (a) a firm belief in the need to modify your case, (b) a regular centimeter ruler, (c) a compass or a simple pencil + a thin marker, a color different from the color of the case, (d) a drill or screwdriver with two drills (on 4 and 8), (e) a jigsaw with a metal blade (file) mounted on it, (f) a Phillips screwdriver, a fan and fastenings (screws), (g) a protective device (grid, mesh, or without it). Next, in order: a) It is necessary to find out the location of our modification. In my case - opposite and slightly lower than the video card, so that the flow of fresh air blows directly onto the video card. You can also apply air flow to HDD, CPU, north or south bridge of the motherboard, in a very rare case - to the power supply. b) Using a ruler, we find out the diameter (diameter of the fan) of the hole cut in the housing, which can be drawn (c) with a compass on the wall of the housing. Or we will outline the inside of the fan with a pencil or marker on this surface..jpg d) We will need a drill and drill bits to drill holes in the housing. Drill size 8 - to insert the file from the jigsaw and start sawing (pictured in red), and drill number 4 - to attach the fan with screws. Having cut out the required radius, we proceed to fastening. To do this, we need to mark the mounting points from (e) the fan and drill them out (in the photo in black). (g) A grate or its equivalent (whatever your heart desires, you can even do without it. But I used protective grille from the power supply, because in the house Small child) we will fasten it simultaneously with the fan using the screws that come with almost all “Carlson” units from the store. After mounting, I applied power to the fan. I used a connector on the motherboard and a speed-reducing resistor.