1. Ensure Proper Ventilation for Your Computer
Ensure your computer is placed in well-ventilated areas, avoiding corners or enclosed spaces that obstruct the airflow of cooling systems. For laptops, refrain from placing them on objects like pillows, blankets, or cushions, as these materials retain heat and hinder proper ventilation, preventing heat dissipation.
2. Install SpeedFan
This is a free software that helps you monitor fan speed, voltage, and temperature in your computer. It also assists in identifying hotspots in your computer caused by the fan, graphics card, or other factors. Furthermore, it offers fan speed adjustment mode, allows you to check clock speed or temperature of the chipset, motherboard, hard drive... and provides alerts indicating whether those temperatures are high or low and if they pose a risk to your computer.
3. Clean Your Computer Regularly
It's essential to regularly clean both the interior and exterior of your computer. The cooling fan and ventilation holes tend to accumulate a lot of dust. Depending on usage and the computer case's location, you should clean your machine every 4 - 6 months or whenever you notice it running hotter than usual. When cleaning, ensure to disconnect the power and remove hardware components such as RAM, hard drives, and graphics cards for a more thorough clean. You don't necessarily need to remove the CPU or cooling fan as they are parts where dust is less likely to enter. When cleaning detached hardware components, use a can of compressed air to blow away dust instead of using your mouth to prevent inhaling dust or saliva from getting onto these parts. You can clean the cooling fan by using cotton swabs to wipe the fan blades and vents.
4. Adding Extra Fans
Additional fans can contribute to improving cooling efficiency, but it's crucial to ensure they don't disrupt the existing airflow. Typically, people use exhaust fans to pull hot air from the front to the back, so you can install an extra exhaust fan alongside the existing one to enhance airflow and expel hot air from the machine.
5. Replacing Thermal Paste for CPU
Applying thermal paste is to fill the gap between the two surfaces of the CPU and the heat sink, increasing the heat transfer efficiency from the CPU to the heat sink. There are three main types of thermal paste still in use: - Metal-containing paste: This type of paste has the best thermal conductivity and is also the most expensive. - Ceramic-containing paste: This type of paste is cheaper than metal-containing paste and has lower thermal conductivity. This type of paste is in the mid-range. - Silicon-containing paste: This type of paste is the lowest quality of the three types, usually sold with pre-existing CPU coolers or used in low-quality heat sinks. Some common thermal paste types: Arctic Cooling MX3/4, Noctua NT-H1, igmatek Freezing Point... Or some premium types of paste such as: Indigo Extreme (100% liquid metal) or IC Diamond (contains diamond crystals) but their prices are too high and they are quite complex to use. When applying thermal paste, make sure to clean off the old paste before applying a new layer with just the right amount (about the size of a pea).
6. Using Cooling Pads for Laptops
Currently, the laptop cooling pad market is diverse and extensive. Therefore, when purchasing a cooling pad, you should pay attention to the following points to choose a good one: - The cooling fan system must be capable of drawing heat away from the laptop rather than blowing air from outside into the machine. - Choose a cooling pad with laptop support on the top to prevent the machine from slipping because almost all types of cooling pads have smooth and inclined surfaces. However, using a cooling pad requires us to use power through the USB port of the computer, which can affect the laptop's battery life when not plugged in.
7. Water Cooling System
The computer water cooling system consists of: water tank, heat processor, pumping device, and conduits. The advantage of this system is that it does not generate noise and is suitable for computers with powerful processors operating at high capacity. When applying this cooling method, you need to purchase a specialized case with a wide design, large fan slots, and outlets for water pipes. The process involves:- First, you need to remove the motherboard from the case and remove the cooling fan and heatsink attached to the chip.- Clean the top surface of the chip with medical alcohol and apply another layer of thermal paste.- Place one end of the heat pipe on the surface of the chip and use screws to fix it in place, but do not tighten too tightly.- Place the motherboard back into position in the case and reconnect the plugs.- If the water reservoir and pump are separate, you should connect the water pipes to reassemble them before connecting to the heat processor.- Connect the pump's power cord to the computer's power source and check for leaks in the system before operating.
8. Cooling Your Graphics Card
The heat emitted from the graphics card when you use your computer for gaming, graphic processing programs, or watching movies can be significant and may increase the internal temperature of the computer case. Therefore, this is also a component that needs effective cooling. Nowadays, almost all new graphics cards come with cooling fans, but if your card doesn't have one, you should install a cooling fan. When installing, place the fan and the heat sink stand that comes with it onto the graphics card, then screw it in place. When installing, you should also be careful not to disrupt the existing airflow of the system.