Windows 7 Keeping Your Cool

Electronics and certainly PCs do not like heat. It is important that these devices stay cool @ all times and throughout their lifetime. That said, here is one of those "Best Practice" things that I suggest all too often does not even occur to people and that they do not think about or do on any kind of regular, periodic habit.

Spend $5 and keep a can of Dust Off on hand. Shut your machine down, open it up and rid it of dust. Clean fans (CPU, GPU, P/S & case), vent openings be they perforations or grills. Do this, at least, monthly.

We vacuum carpets, dust the surfaces in our houses, mop floors, etc. But, many Folks all too often forget about or neglect consistent cleaning of their computers. DON'T!

As an aside, if this is ignored long enough a layer of dust can accumulate between the CPU fan & its heat-sink. Eventually this can impede the (cooling) airflow to the CPU causing it to overheat past its threshold temperature and cause the machine to shut down. In this state the CPU fan must be removed so the layer of dust can be removed. Do not let things go to being that bad.

I do recommend installing & using Core Temp. This little utility will constantly show the core temps of each CPU core. This avails you easily knowing if your machine is running nice & cool or not 'breathing' as well as it should and becoming a wee bit too warm.

Cheers,
Drew

View attachment 26216
 
Electronics and certainly PCs do not like heat. It is important that these devices stay cool @ all times and throughout their lifetime. That said, here is one of those "Best Practice" things that I suggest all too often does not even occur to people and that they do not think about or do on any kind of regular, periodic habit.

Spend $5 and keep a can of Dust Off on hand. Shut your machine down, open it up and rid it of dust. Clean fans (CPU, GPU, P/S & case), vent openings be they perforations or grills. Do this, at least, monthly.

We vacuum carpets, dust the surfaces in our houses, mop floors, etc. But, many Folks all too often forget about or neglect consistent cleaning of their computers. DON'T!

As an aside, if this is ignored long enough a layer of dust can accumulate between the CPU fan & its heat-sink. Eventually this can impede the (cooling) airflow to the CPU causing it to overheat past its threshold temperature and cause the machine to shut down. In this state the CPU fan must be removed so the layer of dust can be removed. Do not let things go to being that bad.

I do recommend installing & using Core Temp. This little utility will constantly show the core temps of each CPU core. This avails you easily knowing if your machine is running nice & cool or not 'breathing' as well as it should and becoming a wee bit too warm.

Cheers,
Drew

View attachment 26216
 
Great advice and I value Core Temp also. If you have pets, cleaning your computer is a must. I do it quite often. I also like gpu-z for keeping a watchful eye on my video card. Just curious, do the video cards of these days run hotter than ones of say six years ago?
 
The canned air is especially important on my HS/F(s), because one of the two fans is sandwiched between a set of cooling fins, and isn't too easy to remove for cleaning. I buy canned air by the case.

EDIT:
Just curious, do the video cards of these days run hotter than ones of say six years ago?
Can't speak for all video cards, but for me the newer one runs a lot cooler than one I used to use.
 
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