Computer

Is it a good idea to overclock PC fans?

Do you think your PC is too hot and its cooling system is not doing its job well, but you don’t have money to upgrade it? Then you may have considered overclocking the fans so that they go faster and cool better. Is it a good idea to do so, or is there no apparent advantage to be gained, and what are the consequences?

One of the questions that at first glance may seem absurd is about the speed of the fans that we have in our PC. What happens if we make these to work faster? Is it going to translate into an advantage in the performance of the system and its cooling or, failing that, only in more noise and greater consumption?

Overclock the fans?

PC fan won't start

We can find fans in various places on our PC and not exactly in small quantities. Unless we pull liquid cooling solutions in our system. They are not only in the box that protects all the components of our computer, but also in the heatsink that goes on top of the CPU and even in the graphics card where we usually have several fans.

The work of these is known to most of us, but we repeat it for the newest, what the fans do is create air currents to expel the hot air from inside the system and import the much cooler air that is in the environment. The reason for this is that the semiconductor material with which the processors are built, when they reach certain temperatures, change their electrical properties and stop working properly. Moreover, if they get too hot they can burn, melting the interconnections and the board on which they are mounted, thus rendering the hardware useless.

In reality, the concept of overclocking a fan is wrong, since these do not work for a clock value, but for a specific number of revolutions per minute. So in this case we would be talking about increasing the speed of the air current inside the PC case or graphics card with the theoretical objective of cooling our hardware faster. Although not to gain more performance, since this component only has to do with cooling and not processing.

But it works?

Corsair LL140 best 140mm fans

We have already understood that overclocking a fan is really increasing its RPM in order to increase the speed at which the wind generated by them moves. What happens when we do this? Well, the volume of air that moves increases and there are much better ways to do this, since the first consequence is a considerable increase in decibels. Moreover, graphics card manufacturers when launching their custom graphics cards try different fan diameters before choosing one, due to the fact that they cannot exceed certain noise levels.

What should be clear is that if you need a certain volume of air displaced per minute, then it is much better to opt for larger fans. A 140mm fan, for example, can reach the same amount of displaced air with less revolutions than a 120mm fan at higher resolutions, making less noise. So if your PC does not cool enough or you think it does not, consider changing the fans for larger ones in those parts where the case allows it. We all know that there is nothing more annoying than a PC that makes as much noise as an aircraft carrier.

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