The heat of the summer is pressing very hard, and this can turn out to be quite harmful for the PC, since as you well know the high temperatures they are one of the greatest enemies of electronics. In this article, we are going to give you a series of tips so that you can protect your pc of this heat wave that is hitting us, and that in this way you can preserve, as far as possible, its integrity.
High temperatures are an enemy of hardware, since even in the best of cases it will cause the phenomenon known as Thermal Throttling, where performance is reduced to lower the temperature, and in the worst case you can end up having a failure or breakdown that leaves your PC unusable and forces you to repair it. Is this something that can be avoided? In most cases no, but there are always some things you can do to try and prevent problems.
Can the PC be protected from heat?
Really, unless you turn on the air-conditioning and make it somehow point towards the air intake vents of the PC, there is no method to prevent the heat from the environment from ending up affecting your PC. However, as we have said before, there are some things you can do to try to alleviate this situation and, at least, avoid possible problems.
Whether you have a desktop PC or a laptop, having a good air flow It will be your best ally to beat the heat. Despite the fact that the ambient temperature is high, if the air flow is adequate and is always circulating well inside the equipment, you will be encouraging the heatsinks to do their job and to be able to evacuate the heat effectively. Of course, keep in mind that if you have, for example, 30 degrees in the room, you cannot expect the PC to work at less than that temperature, it is thermodynamically impossible.
To encourage good airflow, it is recommended that you have designed it properly into the PC case, with the front fans drawing outside air into the case, and the rear and top fans (if any) drawing air out. hot air. This will ensure that the air is constantly circulating inside the PC and that, at least, they do not accumulate hot air bags inside, something that can be fatal for the hardware with the heat wave that we have at the moment.
It is also an excellent idea to make a indoor cleaning right now: as we have told you on many occasions, the dust that accumulates inside the PC (something that is inevitable even if your case has anti-dust filters) ends up turning into soot due to the heat, a soot that is solid and that gradually plugs the air inlets and outlets, impairing the air flow and hindering cooling. Take for example the image below, which shows the grille that coincides with the air intake of the power supply… it is quite evident that it will have problems to get fresh air inside, right?
Finally, if you are a laptop user, there is something you can do, and that is to buy a cooler base. Normally, the cooling system of a laptop is usually quite ineffective and in many cases inefficient, especially when there is a heat wave like the one we have now and the ambient temperature is very high. Having an additional external fan that helps fresh air enter the interior of the equipment better will help preserve the temperature much more than you might think, and at this time the difference can be more than 15ºC.
If this is your case, you should know that we have a list of the best laptop cooling pads, where you can find the one that best suits your needs and budget.
In short, if you want to protect your PC from a heat wave, the best thing you can do is make sure that it has good airflow and that nothing is hindering it (such as dirt), and in the event that this is insufficient, you may have to consider changing the heatsink for a better one or redesigning the airflow, something that may include the possibility of changing the case for the PC.
