Disclaimer: This is an archived article and may contain outdated information or bad links. 

Introduction

We here at Tweak3D are always looking for new ways to get the most out of our machines. And if we can’t do it one way, we’re going to look for another. We always feel that our machines can run a little faster without actually buying anything extra. Whether it’s a hardware tweak or a software tweak, any sort of tweak will surely speed up your machine just a bit.

But let’s say you have a brand new gigahertz machine fresh out-of-the-box, why would you even bother tweaking it? The answer is that every machine has a latent potential to go further and run faster. Think of tweaking and souping up your machine like a hot rodder souping up a car. Even though it may be fast, there is always that feeling that it can go even faster.

The pride and joy of tweaking and modifying your computer is a feeling you wouldn’t know unless you tried it.

That said, today I’m going to touch down on a hot subject -- heatsinks and fans -- and how they affect your computer.

In the early days of speedy 486 computing, big heatsink and fan combos weren’t necessary, and neither was a bare heatsink. Things just weren’t hot enough for anyone or any company to put extra cooling measures inside a computer. But things have changed. Now we’re in the hundreds of megahertz and gigahertz range, and there’s nothing more important than cooling your computer. Sure, a component may be tested to withstand extreme temperatures that your bedroom may never reach, but common sense says constant operation at extreme temperatures isn’t such a wonderful idea.

In fact, electricity flows better in a cool environment. So if you’re thinking of tweaking your machine, make sure it starts off chilled. There is no point tweaking other things if your computer is crashing and BSODing all over the place, spilling its guts in the form of Illegal Operations and Page Faults. You must always start at the root, the most basic tweaking measure, even before overclocking. You must ventilate your machine.

Heat

Everything inside your computer generates heat. Whether it’s the motherboard, hard drive, RAM modules, or your processor -- it just depends on the degree. The most effective way to make sure your machine is running cool is to make sure the ambient temperature is cooler than its internal temperature. This means making sure the air in and around your computer is at room temperature or cooler.

Overheating is the worst cause of electronic component death. You may also want to keep in mind that repeated cooling and heating of any component is bad. When something heats up it expands, and it will contract when it cools down. If this process is always repeated, you risk cracking the device. This is why I personally always keep my computer running. All the components are in a constant, and don’t go through temperature changes often. However, I do let the hard drives spin down after a certain amount of time.

Case Ventilation

The first step in tweaking you system is to make sure you have sufficient airflow through your case. This means having a power supply with a working fan. Some people don’t even know that the fan inside their power supply is cooked until it’s too late.

However, don’t fall into the misconception that having more fans is better. Sometimes having just 2 fans is better than having 10 fans blowing and sucking all over the place -- please, let’s stay technical here huh? :) The best setup for a case is having cool air come in from the front and hot air expel from the back.

I drew some diagrams to show you some conventional and good case designs.

Sometimes Conventions Needs Innovation

Above is a diagram of a typically ventilated case enclosure. There are two fans in this system -- one at the front that draws cool air into the system and one at the back (inside the power supply) that expels hot air out. This system works best if there aren’t any dangling cables and wires inside the system. The worst cause of bad airflow is poorly laid out ribbon cables. If you’re going to use this layout, you have to make sure that your ribbons are either neatly folded along the case or spliced. If you’re using standard 40wire IDE cables or a 50wire SCSI-2 cable, then you can go ahead and splice your cable.

To splice your cables, you’ll need a sharp blade, an X-acto knife of some sort. Then you carefully cut the wires. Make sure you don’t start sliding into the wires themselves or you’ll destroy your cable. Once you’re done, you should have a nice cable that can be twist tied or taped into a tubular wire.

Once you’ve done that, the cables will no longer block airflow like they did before and you can rest assured that you’ve tweaked your cables nicely. Even the Tweak3D staff would be proud!

The 2 Fan design, while common, doesn’t always give the best airflow. The red circles in the diagram above indicate areas where there air isn’t circulating properly. The lower circle is where all your expansion cards lie. They interrupt the airflow because there aren’t any fans actually blowing onto the cards and the cards themselves are obstacles. Let’s take a look at another design.