How to Make Your PC Run Cooler
Overheating a common problem, and has been since the invention of the computer. Modern computers, powerful as they are, produce a great deal of excess heat as a result of their operation, and it isn’t just CPUs or video cards which can run hot and cause crashes. Hard-drives, RAM, motherboards, and power supplies are all susceptible to overheating, and will operate poorly when driven to temperatures beyond their normal operating limits.
The symptoms of an overheating PC are many. Corrupt graphics, crashing programs, blue-screens, and lock-ups can all be the result of overheating components. Unfortunately, these symptoms can also be caused by other problems, so they alone do not indicate that your computer is overheating. A better way to figure out if your computer is overheating is to download a program such as Speedfan or Coretemp to monitor system temperatures. Rivatuner can be used to monitor the temperature of your video card. How hot a component can run without problems depends on specific hardware, but temperatures of over 60 degrees Celsius are generally bad. The exception is some video cards, such as ATI cards, which can run at temperatures of up to 90 degrees Celsius with no ill effects.
If you see that your computer is overheating, don’t worry. You can follow these easy steps to solve the problem.
Step 1: Clean your computer!
Dust is the ultimate enemy of computer hardware. The fans which most computers need to operate will suck in any dust which is floating in a room, allowing that dust to deposit inside the computer case. As you can imagine, that isn’t good for the parts inside. A computer component covered in dust is going to act as if it is wearing a thick winter jacket – in other words, its going to get toasty!
Thankfully, dust is easy to get rid of. The only tool you need is a can of compressed air, which can be had for a few bucks at any office store. Unplug your computer from the wall, then remove one side of the case, as well as the front of the case. This should give you a clear shot at the intake fans. Once you’ve done that, give everything a good spray with your mini air-cannon. The dust should fly! You may also want to have a dust cloth handy for wiping dust off the case and the fans, but be sure to avoid the electronics themselves. The chance of shocking your computer with static electricity isn’t high, but one spark can fry your motherboard.
While you’re dusting, take a gander at your computer’s internal wiring. If you have a ton of cables running in front of a fan, you’re probably reducing your overall airflow. Move the cables to a different part of the computer, where they’ll be out of the airflow. If you can’t get them to stay put with gravity, buy zip-ties to bundle them up and secure them in a location where they don’t interfere.
Once you’ve cleared your PC out, turn it on and check the temperatures. If everything is cooler, great! If not…
Step 2: Move or Add case fans
If you’re still seeing high temperatures, you may need to add more case fans, or re-arrange the ones you already have.
Re-arranging fans is generally the first thing you should try, because it costs nothing. In order for a computer to be as cool as possible it needs to have both intake and exhaust fans. The intake and the exhaust should be balanced, and you should also have intake or exhaust fans near critical parts, such as your hard-drives and CPU. When looking at the fans you already have, make sure that you have at least one at the front taking air in and one at the rear exhausting air away from the CPU. Also, make sure that the intake fan isn’t blocked by hard drives. If it is, see if you have a fan mount lower on the case.
If the location of your fans seems to be fine, then you may want to add more. Take a look at what fans your case will support. The two most common types are 80mm and 120mm, although various other formats such as 60mm, 92mm, and 140mm do exist. You can determine which type your case needs with a tape measure, by reading the case literature, or going to the website of your case’s manufacturer.
Once you’ve discovered what kind of fan your case needs, pick some up at your local computer retailer or from Newegg. Keep in mind that these fans will need power connections to run, so don’t buy more fans than your power supply has connectors – and of course, don’t buy more fans than your case has fan mounts!
Installing the fans is simple. Most cases only require that you place the fan in line with the mount’s screw holes and attach the fan with the screws provided with it. Some cases make it even easier by providing removable plastic fan cases which snap in and out.
When installing fans, make sure that they are blowing in the correct direction. Most have some sort of arrow on them to indicate this, but if the fan does not, you can simply turn the computer on briefly with the fan connected to power to discover which way it intake and which way is exhaust.
Step 3: Checking or Replacing a Heat-sink
If you’ve added additional case cooling and you’re still having heat issues, you need to think about a more extreme solution, such as a third-party cooler that attaches to specific parts of your computer.
It is best to try and identify what is overheating before buy a cooler. This is usually easy to do. The most common overheating culprits are the video card, the CPU, and the north-bridge on the motherboard, and most computers will have sensors that monitor these temperatures. A program like Speedfan should be able to report these temperatures.
Once you’ve determined what is running the warmest, remove the heat-sink from that component. How you’ll need to do this depends on what component you’re dealing with; refer to the manual for that component. Take a look the heat-sink to make sure it appears to have been manufactured correctly, and it doesn’t have any scratches or defects. Also make sure that there is a layer of cooling material on the heat-sink. If you only see bare metal, of if the cooling material appears extremely cracked, dry, or brittle, you’ve probably found your problem. Buy some thermal compound from a retailer and apply a dab of it to the component in question, then re-attach the heat-sink. Make sure that the heat-sink is attached securely – there should be no wiggle to the heat-sink, and you shouldn’t be able to press it further down without bending the component it is attached to.
If there is thermal compound, and it appears to be in good shape, than it is time to start researching a third party cooling solution. Again, what you will need depends on the component in question. You can find heat-sinks and fans by going to an online computer parts retailer and searching in their cooling section. Once you’ve found a heat-sink and/or fan that you like, I suggest running it through Google and reading a few reviews before you buy, just to make sure the part is quality.
Step 4: If All Has Failed
If you’ve completed all three above steps and still seem to be having heat issues, than you’ve unfortunately run into a serious issue. The steps above should cover all overheating situations that are caused by an inadequate cooling solution, and if a component or components are still running hot enough to cause your PC to crash, than you probably have some defective hardware. If that is the case, I suggest you contact the manufacture of your PC, or if you’re build your computer yourself, contact the manufacture of the component you believe is overheating. The manufacture may be able to replace or repair their product under warranty; both Intel and AMD, for example, have a three-year warranty on of their microprocessors.
Good luck, and happy computing!
