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The Importance of CPU Cooling
Consider heating a pin until it’s
red hot and dropping it onto your hand (Don’t do this!). It will
hurt. But, imagine if the same amount of heat had been added to a much
larger metal object, such as an iron bar. The temperature of the larger
object will increase far less, and you could comfortably hold it. The
installation of the heatsink will allow the CPU die to dissipate heat
by providing thermal contact between the CPU and the heatsink. Heat
will be conducted from the die to the heatsink.
Cooling of the CPU is absolutely
crucial, especially for the Athlon CPUs which aren’t designed to
shut off if they overheat. They’ll just fry. This isn’t
a criticism of the Athlon. Dollar for dollar, I think it’s one
of the best choices for a CPU.
It’s considered almost impossible
to fry a Pentium 4 processor, because they’re designed to shut
down if uncooled. I’ve been told that you can even remove the heatsink
from a Pentium 4 while it’s running and it will shut down in time
to prevent damage to the chip. Don’t try this yourself! Even
short periods of excess temperature greatly reduce the length of a CPU’s
life. More effective case cooling can significantly increase the life
of your CPU.
Ideally, it’s good if a CPU
can run at 100F or less. Higher temperatures shorten the CPU’s
life. If you install the heatsink properly, your PC will probably be
fine. But, if you’re interested, there are PC monitoring programs
that will tell you the actual temperature of your CPU when it’s
running. For example, a utility, called PC probe, which provides a temperature
monitor, came with the Asus mainboard (see Figure 30).
Similar programs are available from download.com.
Figure 30: Asus PC Probe The program Asus PC Probe came with the mainboard. It allows you to monitor your CPU’s temperature and other conditions. It’s useful to have such a program if you plan to install extra case fans, so you can see if the extra case fans are actually helping.
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How to Build Your Own PC (http://www.PCGuide.com/byop/) on PCGuide.com
Version 1.0 - Version Date: May 4, 2005
Adapted with permission from a work created by Charlie Palmer.
PCGuide.com Version © Copyright 2005 Charles M. Kozierok. All Rights Reserved.
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