The fan is placed on top of the heat sink, ensuring the hot air is blown away from the heat sink and CPU. The CPU itself often has a fan on top - so the CPU is inserted into the socket on the motherboard, thermal paste is applied to the top of the CPU, and the heat sink is attached to the CPU.
Fans are an active cooling solution - they require power to run.Ī typical desktop PC may contain multiple fans. Fans typically blow hot air outward, but you could set up a system of fans to suck cool air inward on the front and blow out air out the back. If your CPU is generating more heat than normal and you’ve dusted out your heat sinks and fans, you may sometimes need to reapply fresh thermal compound.įans force air to move, so the hot air is blown away from heat-generating components and expelled from the desktop or laptop PC‘s case. Thermal compound can deteriorate over time. An included thermal pad may be good enough for running a CPU at its stock speeds, but isn’t ideal for overclocking. This makes them easier to install, but the pads are less effective at conducting heat than typical paste.
Some heat sinks ship with thermal pads on their undersides. Be careful when applying this stuff, as you don’t want to use too much - you just want enough to fill in the air gaps between the CPU and heat sink, not so much that it will ooze out the sides and make a mess.
The thermal compound fills any air gaps between the heat-producing component and the heat sink allowing more efficient transfer of heat. This material is smeared on top of the CPU, and then the heat sink is pressed down on top.
This may be called thermal grease, thermal gel, thermal paste, heat sink paste, or many other things. The heat sink is designed with a large surface area, exposing a large amount of its surface to the air to dissipate heat more efficiently.ĬPUs and GPUs generally have a thermal compound between them and the heat sink. Heat moves from the heat-generating component to the heat sink pressed against it. Other components on your motherboard may have their own heat sinks, too. For example, your CPU probably has a heat sink on top of it - that’s the large, metal object.ĬPUs don’t just have heat sinks - if you have a dedicated graphics card, your GPU probably has a heat sink as well. RELATED: Don't Be Intimidated: Building Your Own Computer is Easier Than You'd ThinkĪ heat sink is a passive cooling system that cools a component by dissipating heat.