Overheating PCs, which can lead to a burnt out hard drive and potential data loss, are always a danger. In the summer, PCs and servers may overheat from outside or indoor temperatures. But in the winter, hard disk drives may also overheat if a home or business is kept too warm, with the heat turned up too high. PCs give off their own heat when they run, so they need to be kept cool in order to perform optimally. 

In most cases, the included fans or heat sinks should be enough to keep an “off-the-shelf” PC, server or hard disk drive cool. But if you overclock your electronics equipment, you may need to add additional cooling mechanisms. Processors work overtime when you overclock, and they begin to run hotter, which can lead to a burnt out hard disk drive and data loss emergency. 

Let’s look at some of the different cooling methods you can use to keep a desktop PC unit or server cool. 

Fans – Fans are by far the most common methods to keep a PC cool. CPU fans will blow air away from the processor, one of the hottest-running parts of your PC. A case fan is typically an aftermarket part you can add to your PC, to blow air out of the vents of your PC case to keep all the internal parts cooler. 

Heat sink – PC fans work inside your computer in conjunction with a heat sink. A heat sink is a piece of metal, usually aluminum or copper, which draws heat away from the CPU chip. A fan near the heat sink pushes the hot air away from the chip and out of the computer. In active heat sinks, a second fan is located directly above the processor to help it cool properly. 

Water Cooling Systems – While the term “heat sink,” may imply using water to cool your PC, that’s not the case. A water cooling system is very different from a heat sink. A water cooling system pumps cool liquid (within tubes, so the components of your PC don’t get wet) down to the CPU. The liquid absorbs the heat, and then the liquid is pumped out of the PC and cooled down to begin another cycle. 

If you want to take your PC cooling to the next level, a water cooling system could be a good investment. 

Choosing a PC Cooling System

In most cases, the cooling system installed by the manufacturer, usually a heat sink and fans, is enough to keep your PC cool. 

If your PC is overheating, you could risk data loss. Turn your PC off and move it to a cooler room to cool down. If your computer won’t boot up or you can’t access your data after your PC has overheated, you could be facing a data recovery emergency. 

Don’t attempt do-it-yourself data recovery; call the data recovery specialists at 24 Hour Data to help.