Keeping it Cool. Your Hardware. Sharing Some Experiance.

I recently upgraded much of the cooling in my system to help maintain lower operational temperatures since I run most of my hardware overclocked. So I decided to share a bit of information on what I did, why, and give a few facts I think many people are not aware of. Having been building systems since the days of the 80486, I figured, I will share some of what experience has taught me. This is all about air cooling. Liquid cooling is another post for different day.

Your CPU

Well obviously, this one is the most common component people spend money on to keep cool, especially when overclocking. However, I think a lot of inexperienced users and overclockers miss a few valuable points when it comes to CPU cooling.

The pre-applied thermal compound can be questionable in some cases. On most every cooler I have ever installed, I have removed the factory compound and applied my own Arctic Silver 5 in its place. The only exception was with my most recent upgrade, seen below, the factory applied compound got very good reviews so I decided to leave it and see how it performed. You may choose to do the same. In this case, the factory compound is performing just as good as the aftermarket AS5.

Applying the compound. The thermal compound should be applied in a VERY thin even layer over the face of the CPU die to contact the entire surface of the cooler being used. No more. No less. Many people apply too much.

So a lot depends on the cooler and CPU being used. The CPU die is the metal part, NOT THE PCB (Printed Circuit Board) the die sits on. In some cases, especially on older processors, the die takes up only a small portion of the face of the CPU. Such as seen here.

In a case like this older Athlon XP model CPU, you only need to apply an incredibly small amount of compound to the die in the center of the PCB, no matter what cooler you are using. You do not want the compound to "spill" out onto the rest of the PCB or the components on it. I have seen people apply so much that it actually ""spilled" off the side of the PCB and made it onto the socket and pins underneath. Not good.

On most modern CPU's however, there is much more die than exposed PCB, as seen here.

Again, you apply the compound in a VERY thin even layer across the entire cooler contact surface of the die. In most cases, this is pretty much the entire surface of the die. Again, you don't want the compound to "spill" off the die and contact the PCB, if it does, you have used too much.

A little known fact is that when you apply too much thermal compound it looses some of its thermal conductivity and does not do its job nearly as well as it does when applied properly. You also need to make sure the surfaces are clean. Foreign contaminants in the compound can also degrade its thermal conductivity. This includes old compound left on the die or mixing two different brands of compound.

Here are a few examples to give you an idea.

The easiest way to apply the compound is to place a small bead of it in the center of the die and spread it around using your finger tip, covered with a small portion of wax paper, plastic, or anything that's smooth and will prevent the compound from getting on your finger.

A popular method to get it as smooth as possible is to use a credit card or other similar ridged plastic item to even it out. No matter how you you do it, you want the end result to look like the "Correct" picture above.

Some people prefer to apply the compound to the cooler rather than the CPU, and that's just fine, all the same "rules" apply no matter if you apply it to the CPU or the cooler. I simply prefer to apply it to the CPU.

The proper application of thermal compound means you will get the best possible heat conductivity from your CPU to your heatsink. The very idea behind the compound is to fill the "gaps" between the two metal surfaces, since neither the CPU die or heatsink surfaces are 100% perfectly smooth, to provide low resistance uninterrupted flow of heat out and away from your hardware. Improper application will do just the opposite.

Now that you got the compound applied correctly. The next thing is to make sure you have the cooler installed properly. Some are easier to install than others, and they all come with instructions, and a lot can depend on if the cooler supports your socket natively or you have to use an adapter plate. Be sure to research the cooler you plan on purchasing and know if it requires an adapter plate or kit, and if it does if it's included in the retail package before you order it. Though most coolers tell you all the sockets they support, adapted and native, some do not include all the parts necessary to support all the sockets and you may be left having to send off for the correct kits from the manufacturer.

In any case, it's far easier to install a new CPU cooler with the motherboard outside of the case. Not only is it easier, but safer, when you have the room to work there is far less chance of you "slipping" when trying to seat the cooler in the socket and possibly causing damage to your hardware or the cooler itself.

The biggest thing to remember here is to make sure the cooler is seated properly in the socket and on the CPU die. Follow the instructions included with the cooler or contact the manufacturer if your unsure about anything.

This is the cooler I upgraded to for my hardware. "ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro 92mm Ceramic CPU Cooler".

This cooler was designed specifically for my socket, so it's not "adapted" to fit like many others, and it was also quite inexpensive. For under $30 on Newegg I was able to get a cooler that allowed me to push my CPU to 4.0GHz on 2 cores and 3.8GHz on 4 cores. Perfectly stable. What more can you ask for?

Your RAM

This is one area of cooling that is overlooked a lot by many people I think, even myself, until recently. As RAM gets faster, it also gets hotter, and with today's performance and gaming series DDR3 hitting overclocked speeds of 1600 to 2000MHz, keeping it cool is fast becoming more important than ever.

DDR3 gaming quality RAM, at 1600MHz, can easily heat up into the 70C range. As it heats up, it slows down, you may even notice performance loss in games or memory intensive applications, perhaps even system stability issues such as crashes, reboots, or blue screens. So if your going to overclock your RAM, you may want to invest in a RAM cooler. A simple rule of thumb is that cooler hardware runs better and longer than hot hardware. Memory is no different.

Most performance RAM these days come with heat spreaders or heatsinks installed on them already. However, you should also invest in a fan to move air over the spreaders or heatsinks, doing so can lower there operational temperatures 10C or more. This is a big deal when running overclocked RAM.

I run A-DATA 1600G DDR3 Gaming Series RAM in my system, and of course, I run it overclocked at 1600MHz. With my recent upgrade to my hardware cooling, I purchased a G.Skill Memory Fan to help keep my RAM as cool as possible. This is it installed in my system.

Upon installing the fan, there was a noticeable increase in my systems performance, especially when gaming. That came in the form of more stable frame rates in the high end games I play as well as an increase in the memory benchmarks under load. You may be amazed at how much a simple little $13 fan can improve your systems performance or perhaps even solve stability issues you may be having when overclocking you RAM, if heat is to blame.

These fans all pretty much install the same way, and its very easy, they simply "clip" over your RAM slots onto the latches that hold your RAM in place. As seen in this image below.

So if your going to be overclocking your RAM, then perhaps you should look into getting one of these fans at some point, your memory will sure be thankful you did. You may even surprise yourself when you notice an increase in your systems performance under load.

Your Motherboard Chipset

Most quality motherboards these days that are designed for performance and gaming come with good chipset heatsinks pre-installed. Such as seen here the popular ASUS M4A77TD Pro motherboard or my higher end ASUS Crosshair Formula IV AM3 board below that. (When I wrote this entry, I was running the M4A77TD Pro, I have since upgraded to the Crosshair Formula IV.)

In both cases, the chipsets have heatsinks to help keep them cool, especially when overclocking. The more overclocking you intend on doing the more cooling you should have, especially if your overclocking your FSB, so you may want to invest in a motherboard with beefier cooling or use aftermarket parts. It all depends on how far your wanting to push it.

Me for example. I am not touching my FSB, I am only running my DDR3 RAM at 1600MHz, and my black edition CPU at between 3.8GHz and 4.0GHz depending on if I am on 2 or 4 cores. So the cooling on my motherboard is more than adequate to handle the heat. I do not have to adjust my voltages to hit 3.6GHz and only have to make a slight adjustment to hit 3.8GHz to 4.0GHz.

If you happen to not want to spend the $200+ on a board like the ASUS Corsair Formula IV for its chipset cooling, yet are still concerned with your boards cooling due to heavy overclocks, you can invest in aftermarket cooling. Many of these fans and heatsinks for your northbridge and such are inexpensive and available on multiple sites online, including Newegg.

Now if you don't plan on overclocking at all, then chipset cooling is not nearly as big a deal, and you can get by with minimal to no real chipset cooling. Though a little extra cooling can never hurt. It will also, in theory, extend the life of your hardware. Just something to keep in mind when buying a new motherboard and/or overclocking.

Your Video Card

Most name brand modern high-end video cards come with cooling that is more than capable of keeping it's hardware within thermal specs when gaming or under mild to moderate overclocks. That is unless you purchase a low-cost card and decide to see how far you can push it and it does not have adequate stock cooling, in that case you may want on invest in aftermarket VGA and memory cooling for the card.

The big things when it comes to most video cards is fan speed and upkeep. Many people leave their fan speeds on automatic control, and that's often fine when not overclocking the card or going into long high end gaming sessions. However, if you do high end gaming, or overclock your card. You may want to take control of the fan speeds yourself.

My video card for example, the HIS ATI Radeon HD 4870 Turbo IceQ4+ 1GB GDDR5 is factory overclocked, and I can push it even further.

It's stock cooling is great, but under auto fan control, fails to keep my hardware temps in the range I want them. Sure the card is designed to handle the heat, however, like I keep saying, cooler hardware runs better and longer than hot hardware. So I keep my fans set at 50% at all times when running at the factory overclock. This simple adjustment lowers my temps to well under the cards thermal specs and within the range I want to keep it in. As a result. This card performs wonderfully and easily out performs any 5000 series up until you get into the 5800 series.

With my fan under auto control, the temps hover in the high 60's at idle and 70's under heavy loads. That simple adjustment to 50% speed significantly lowered my temps and that that speed, the fans lifespan should not be impacted much at all. That is, as long as you keep it clean.

That moves us on to upkeep. Most high end video cards use ducted cooling. That's a fan sucking air from inside the case, blowing over the heatsink, then out the back of the case. This works very well for cooling hardware such as this that produces so much heat. It also works very well at trapping dust, lint, and anything else that may be in the air. This will restrict air flow and reduce the effectiveness of the cooler. So it's very important to blow it out on regular basis, about once a month or so is my personal preference.

Another factor that can compound the problem can be humidity in the air. Humid air can make surfaces and dust particles more "sticky" and thus adhere to the fins or ducts in your cooler easier. Either way its a very good habit to check all your coolers on a regular basis and blow them out with a can of compressed air for electronics.

One more thing on the upkeep has to do with the thermal compound on the GPU and video memory. In most cases, the GPU itself uses standard thermal compound like that used on a CPU, though there are cases when adhesive thermal pads are used. The memory on the other hand almost always uses a thermal strip. No matter the case, if you start to notice your temperatures climbing and cleaning the cooler is just not doing the trick. It may be time to pull off your cooler and replace the compound or thermal tape. Depending on what your card has. The same rules apply to the GPU when applying thermal compound as they do for the CPU.

Your Hard Drives

This is probably the least discussed part of hardware cooling. Though today more and more people are investing in cooling for their hard drives. Also, more mid to high end computer cases came equipped with a fan to move air directly over the hard drive bays as they pull air into the case.

Hard drives, like any other hardware, produce heat. They are also a bit more prone to failure than most other hardware since unlike any of the other hardware in your system, other than your optical drives of course, it's the only other thing with physical moving parts. They are quite delicate when you really think about it.

So keeping them cool is always a good idea. Now if you only have one or 2 drives in your case, and they are not staked on top of one and other, then cooling may not be that big of an issue for you. However if you are running multiple drives, especially in RAID, and/or they are very close together, then keeping them cool will become more important. Especially if you run a RAID 0 configuration since your basically doubling the chances of loosing your data when one of the drives fails. So your going to want to take steps to try and prolong the life of your hard drives.

Keeping them cool is probably the only real thing you can do in that respect. Now if you have a good case where you have cool air being sucked in and blown over the hard drive bays, then you probably wont need much more. However if you don't have that type of setup, then you may want to look into aftermarket hard drive cooling. This often comes in one of the following forms.

1. A fan that mounts to the drive, thus making the drive take up two bays, from within the case.
   
2. A fan that occupies a bay in the case and moves air over the drive from the top or bottom from within the case.
3. A 5 1/4 bay heatsink and/or fan that you mount the hard drive in to keep it cool by pulling air in from outside the case.
   
4. A 5. 1.4 bay fan that simply pulls air in from outside the case and moves it over the drive mounted behind it.

Like all other hardware, the cooler it runs, the better and longer it should last. Though not always the case, especially with hard drives, it can never hurt to take a few extra simple and inexpensive steps to try and prolong the life of the drive, and your data.

Your Case

All the cooling on all the specific hardware we discussed here will be handicapped if you cant get cool air into your case and hot air out of it in a efficient manner. The biggest factor in this is, of course, your cases design. At this point I am assuming that if you have read through all this that you either already have a decent case with adequate cooling potential, or your looking to get one.

No matter what one it may be, the most important thing to keep in mind is fans and vents. The most common and easiest way to move air though your case and keep air moving over all your parts and coolers is to draw air in from the front, bottom, and side, and blow it out the top and back.

So a case with mountable fans in all those locations is a huge benefit. Brands like Antec and Cooler Master make a lot of great cases where air flow is not a problem no matter what hardware you have in them.

Another thing, and perhaps overlooked by novice or new builders, is cable management. You want you route all the wires and cables in your system behind the motherboard mounting plate in the case and/or around all the hardware to keep the space all the hardware, and its coolers, occupies open for an uninterrupted flow of air through the case. Not to mention, cables and wires that are directly in the air flow are magnets for dust. It can easily build up on them and then break free and get sucked into a heatsink.

Here is a great example of good and bad cable management.

You can easily see the difference. In the "Good" example the user has all the cables routed behind the motherboard mounting plate and drive bays, away from the area where all the hardware is located. This leaving this space open for air flow. Where as the "Bad" example shows a rats nest if cables that will do nothing but hinder the air flow, collect dust, and trap heat in the case.

Most all aftermarket computer cases have enough room either behind the motherboard plate, drive bays, or both, to route your cables as seen in the "Good" example above. The bigger your case, the easier this task is of course. Most mid and full tower cases have no problems with cable management at all. Where as smaller cases may take more work and ingenuity. It really does pay off to take the time and get your cables routed correctly from the start.

Now to use my case as an example. My case is over 6 years old, yet, I still use it because I have yet to have a need to replace it. It has great cooling and meets my needs perfectly for the time being. However my cases limitation is that it's design and mid tower size make it impractical for running dual video cards. There is room, however the air flow in the case would not be adequate to meet my standards.

For now however, it's doing it's job very well. There are 5 80mm case fans moving air through the case. That's 3 pulling air in from the front, bottom, and side. With 2 more pulling air out the back and top. My power supply uses a 120mm fan and pulls air out of the case as well and vents it out the back. The fan on the bottom of my case is pulling air in and blowing on my video card. Where its picked up my my cards cooler and blown over the hardware and out the back of my case.

I purchased aftermarket case feet to lift my case higher up off the desk to promote the best possible air floe from the fan mounted on the bottom and the wires and cables that could not be routed behind the plate or bays, was routed flush around the inner sides and bottom of the case.

This combination works very well for maintaining my overclocked hardware temperature specifications, for now. My cases days are numbered since I do plan on running crossfire in the near future.

Closing

I never intended this entry to be a guide, but an example, of what I have learned building many computers over the years. Either on my own or from others. I wanted to just share some of that knowledge and hopefully point a person or two in the right direction if they are planning to build a new system for themselves, or upgrade their current one. Cooling is very important, and when done properly, can improve your systems performance and increase its life span. When done wrong however, can have a negative impact on its performance, operational stability, and even shorten the life of your hardware.

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