Cooling your Media PC
The standard Heatsink cooling fan that comes with the intel processor is actually quite good and considerably quiet, we don't see any reason for changing out this CPU cooling fan if noise is not a factor in building a Home theater PC (HTPC).
However for those wanting to experiment pushing the CPU to run at a higher clock speed (overclocking) or the ones that just cannot stand noisy computer, few technologies are available in CPU cooling which are listed below.
Fan & Heatsink Combos
Description: This is the most primitive and basic way to cool a CPU, a fan is generally screwed or clip onto the heatsink blowing air (at temperature of air in the computer case)into the heatsink which mounts on top of the CPU.
Advantages: Simple, works well, easy to install.
Disadvantages: Cooling Fan can get dusty, depends on the fan in order to work properly.
Liquid, Water Cooling Systems
Description: Water cooling generally consists of a waterblock, a water pump and a heat exchanger (usually a radiator with a fan attached), transporting heat away from source to a secondary cooling surface (a radiator).
Advantages: more effective cooling controlling water temperature instead of air, able to overclock
Disadvantages:costly, consist of more parts, separate enclosure for radiator
Fanless Cooling
Description:Heat is transfered to a bigger than normal heatsink, sometimes the wall of a computer chassis acts as a heatsink with the use of heatpipes.
Advantages: no moving parts, nothing to break down, no noise
Disadvantages: runs
Thermoelectric Cooling System
Description: Thermoelectric cooling involves a peltier element -one side of the peltier absorbs heat becomes cold and the side that releases heat becomes hot.
The cold side is attached to the CPU and a heatsink is attached to the hot side of the Peltier. A fan is connected to cool the heatsink to further dissipate the heat.
Advantages: allows cooling below room temperature, has no moving parts, require no maintenance.
Disadvantages:expensive, high power usage, can cause major damage to system if it fails, condensation may occur.
LINKS: Media Center PC Cooling
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Heatsink Fan (3 links total)
There are tons of Heatsink fans on the market, here we try to list those that will do good in a HTPC environment offering quiet operation.
Thermoelectric (1 links total)
Peltier cooling solution that can cool the CPU to below ambient temperature but do have some drawback.