To keep your PC cool, keep it at aslightly elevatedposition and maintainneutral-to-slightly-positive pressureinside the case.
While this helps maintain a balanced airflow, it comes with the challenge of dust accumulation which requiresfrequent cleaning.
Increasingfan speed, setting an ‘Active’cooling policy,underclocking, andundervoltingare other effective techniques to help maintain the temperature.
Let’s get into each of these solutions in detail below.
Place Your PC at the Right Spot
When you place a PC on the floor (usually in closed compartments), fans find it difficult to intake cool air and exhaust hot air due to lack of space. This often leads toincreased temperatureand areduction in performance.
To improve cooling, thebest location for your PC toweris ontop of the desk. If that’s not feasible, utilize a separate stand or shelf. This doesn’t just improve airflow but also prevents dust buildup.
Just don’t place your PCnear the windowor you’ll end up with more dust!
Improve Airflow and Ventilation
Certain factors, like thenumber of case fans,their orientation, size,positive/negative pressurecan still restrict the airflow.
Keep Your Environment Cool
First things first,avoid direct sunlightat all costs. It overheats your internal parts even when turned off.
The second thing is to place your PC in acool room – an air-conditionedonewould be the ideal choice.
A popular choice among users from hot regions isreplacing the side panel with a large-sized fan. Take a peek at howJaytwocents has come up with this brilliant idea.
Even if you do not want to invest extra bucks,placing a room fan near the rigcan help to some extent.
Since this can affect airflow, I suggestexperimenting with different fan positionsbefore finalizing your setup for optimal cooling.
Clean Your Rig Often
If you do not maintain your rig for a long period,dust may clogthecase fansand theinternal CPU cooler. The ultimate result is overheating!
To ensure your PC remains cool all the time, inspect the components once in a while. Clean immediately if you spot any dust.
Modern PC cases come withgood-quality dust filterswhich somewhat prevent the buildup. Don’t lose them or thegaps might attract more dust(mostly wherenegative pressureis implied).
Recently, one of our low-endPSUs made a buzzing noiseand showedsigns of overheating.
When we took it out for inspection, we were surprised to see that thefan’s bearing was damageddue to excessive dust accumulation.So, never neglect this!
Configure Fan Speed
If yourCPU/GPU is overheatingfor no reason, there might be something wrong with the fans!
The idea is definitely toincrease the fan speedbut that canlead to more noise. So, the right technique is to adjust theduty cycle based on theCPU/GPU temperature.
you may plot your ownfan speed curvefrom BIOS or using a reliable third-party utility.
Note that this varies on every PC setup. So, experiment with different curves and finalize the one where your rig’s temperature stays ideal.
Tweak System Cooling Policy
Setting theWindows System Cooling Policyto Activeincreases the fan speed without affectingtheprocessor performance, exactly the opposite of what Passive does.
VisitControl Panel>System and Security>Power Options. select ‘Change plan settings’ next to the chosen power plan and pickChange advanced power options.
In thePower Optionsdialogue box, expandProcessor Power Management>System cooling policy>Setting>Active.
Underclock or Undervolt the Components
When youpush your CPU/GPU/RAMover the limits, it draws more voltage, and this alsoleads to more heat generation.
So, it’s not good for theoverall health of your rig. To ensure the PC remains cool, finding theright balance between the components’ frequencies and temperatureis essential.
Never settle for automatic OC settings. These values might make the system stable but the temperature may remain constantly high.
Instead, experiment andstress testdifferent clock speeds at distinct voltages.
While underclocking is one option, you could opt for undervolting your components as well. The idea is toreduce the CPU/ GPU / RAM voltage whilst having a high clock frequency.
Replace Thermal Paste/Pads
If the thermal paste doesn’t spread properly, heat transfer from the CPU/GPU to the heatsinkwon’t be efficient.
The same is the case if you haven’t replaced thermal paste for a long period.Dried pasteleads topoor heat conductionand theCPU/GPU temperature goes high.
So, applying theright amount of thermal pasteis important!
In most boards,both the chipset and VRM heatsinksutilizethermal pads. Unlike the thermal paste, these tend to last longer. But if yourPC is too old,prioritize replacing them(keep in mind about the right thickness).
Upgrade Your Cooling Unit
If none of the solutions helped cool down yourcomputer temperature, this calls for upgrading the components.
Upgrade to a Better PC Case
This isn’t a compulsion, butreplacing a CPU cooleroften calls for upgrading to a compatible PC case.
There are alot of factors to considerwhenchoosing a computer case. Above everything, ensure youget one that’s best for airflowand comes with high-quality dust filters.
Some even havemesh front/top panelsbehind the main one such that the intake fans have no airflow obstruction.Remove the top paneland let the fans take in enough air.
Abigger case is always betterfor optimal cooling, but you may still opt for a smaller one depending on yourmotherboard’s form factor. Just adopt every technique I’ve mentioned in this article.
