How To Reduce the Temperature Level of your Computer’s Components

All electronic devices can only operate properly if they stay within temperature limits. Exceeding those limits can lead to data loss, crashes, other stability issues as well as permanent hardware damage. Overheating of PC components is what PC users often experience, especially in summer.

Some computer components are more likely to overheat than others, which can be attributed to the way they work. Most users experience processor, graphics processing unit and hard drive overheating issues. It can happen that other components, like those on the computer motherboard, overheat as well.
This article acts as a guide. It will teach the reader how to assess the temperature levels of a PC before suggesting how to reduce the levels to make the temps stay in the recommended temperature limits.

Step 1: Assessing a computers temperature levels

There are two non-mechanical ways to check the temperature level of PC components. The computer BIOS displays the temperature level of the CPU and the overall temperature inside the case. Third party software is available for all operating systems to check the cpu, video card and hard drive temperatures.
But device temps can only be displayed if the devices contain the right sensors, which most motherboards, video cards and hard drives do.

The BIOS
Consult the motherboard manual to find the key that needs to be pressed to enter the BIOS options. This is usually F1 or ESC. The key is also displayed during system boot, just look for a key reference to enter the BIOS.

The temperatures and fan speeds are usually displayed in a PC Health Status menu in the BIOS. Consult your manual to find the appropriate section in the options. The CPU and Motherboard temperature should be displayed in the menu. This gives a first indication of the actual temperature levels of the PC.

Software
Software like Speedfan or Realtemp display device temperatures as well. They often include video card and hard drive temperatures next to processor and overall system temps, and are usually the better choice when it comes to assessing a computer’s temperature level.

Speedfan for instance displays the temperatures in the main interface, with icons indicating problematic and good levels.

Step 2: Analyzing the temperatures

It is now important to analyse the temperatures. The exact hardware needs to be known for this, especially the cpu, motherboard, hard drive and video card models.

A software that can display those information is PC Wizard, among others.
The models are needed to look up the temperature range the component is recommended to run in. The manual sometimes offers this information, a search on Google for the model plus temperature yields the desired information most of the time as well. A rule of thumb is that temperatures over 50-60 degrees Celsius should be cause for concerns, especially if they are permanently that high. It happens in high load situations that temps rise to those levels and above, they should however drop again after the high load situation (like PC gaming)

Some components have a higher critical temperature, it is still better to make sure the temperature stays as low as possible.

Step 3: Reducing the temperature

Here is a list with tips to reduce the temperature of single components or the system as a whole.

1. If your system uses the default cooling unit, think about getting a better one. This will not only reduce the temperature of the processor but also the noise of the PC

2. Clean the fans regularly. Make sure the fans are cleaned regularly, this is especially important if smokers are using the PC or near it, and if the PC case is open most of the time.

3. If things are getting critical do the following. Open the PC case, and use a normal fan to cool it. This is only a temporary solution but a working one.

4. System fans can help reduce the temperature of the air in the case. Best are bigger fans, 120mm for instance or even bigger. Make sure they fit in the case before ordering them

5. Cable management. Make sure cables are not hindering the air flow in the case. Use cable clips, and move them in a position where they do not block the air flow of the system.

6. The room temperature has an influence on the PC temperature, reducing it can have a positive effect on the PC temp as well.

7. Specialized cooling solutions for hard drives, video cards and computer memory are available. Purchasing those makes only sense if the devices have reached their critical temperature levels.