Thermal Management

Cooling is required to remove the waste heat produced by the computer and other electronic components, to keep all devices within a permissible operating temperature range. Heat generated by electronic devices and circuitry must be dissipated to improve reliability and prevent premature failure. Components are often designed to generate as little heat as possible. Computers and operating systems can be designed to reduce power consumption and consequent heating according to current workload; however, more heat may still be generated than can be removed without attention to cooling. In conjunction with a computerized monitoring system, the temperature is carefully monitored in various areas, and the cooling methods are turned on or off to maintain proper operating temperature.

Techniques for heat dissipation can include heatsinks and fans for air-cooling, and other forms of computer cooling such as liquid cooling. Fans are utilized when natural convection is insufficient to remove heat and may be fitted to an external case, attached to processing units, hard drive, or plugged into expansion slots. Heat sinks consist of metal structures with a flat surface that ensures proper thermal conductivity with the component to be cooled, and a group of fins to increase the surface area with the air. The larger the surface area you have to work with, the quicker the rate of heat dissipation.