Introduction to CPU Coooling
Why Do I Need to Worry About This?
You don't need to worry about cooling but you should at least think about it. Very few applications run your CPU full speed for hours and days on end but crunching does. CPUs can run at full speed forever with no damage as long as they are kept at a reasonable temperature. At the very least you should make an effort to get some idea of the CPU's temperature while crunching. If you find it's running at a reasonable temperature while crunching and you're sure the room temperature will not rise more than 3 or 4 degrees Celsius (and that's a fair amount) then you're done, sleep peacefully. We will discuss "reasonable temperature" later on.
Remember, the average computer sold in your average computer store is built to meet the average user's needs at the lowest possible cost. Crunching is not your average use for a computer. This is not to say your warranty is void if you crunch, it is not. It's just that all manufacturers need to reduce costs because the industry is very competitive. Your computer's manufacturer may have taken shortcuts on cooling or they may not have. How can you be sure? The only way to be sure is to do a little investigating as we will show you here.
But I Have Automatic Protection Against Overheating
If you have an older computer then you may not have any protection at all. In that case your CPU might overheat to the point where it no longer functions properly and then your computer will crash or hang. At that point the CPU may be in an infinte loop which will cause it to work even harder and overheat further or it may halt all computing operations and cool off, if you're lucky. These older machines do not warn you when the CPU overheats and they do not turn themselves off.
More modern computers have features that offer better protection but that protection doesn't always work properly. They have features that allow the mainboard to monitor the CPU temperature and react intelligently to overheating. Their first reaction is to speed up the cooling fans. If that doesn't keep the CPU below a preset limit then the computer either issues you a warning or automatically goes into shutdown. One of the problems with this scheme is that defects on some (not many) mainboards and other problems sometimes prevents the protection scheme from working properly. Another problem is that the computer turns off abruptly without allowing the operating system time to shutdown properly which has the potential for many disasterous side effects. The point is, although your computer may have good protection against overheating you don't want to rely on that protection. It's better to ensure that your CPU never overheats.
Newer AMD CPUs have innovative protection against overheating but unfortunately their protection scheme has some undesirable side effects. Newer AMD CPUs installed on AMD recommended mainboards automatically slow down when they start to overheat. This is excellent protection for you because it avoids problems with abrupt shutdown but perhaps you would rather have your CPU run at full speed at all times. In that case you may have to add extra cooling capacity.
In this series of documents we will show you easy ways to know your CPU's temperature. We will discuss simple ways to keep it cool by sacrificing a little crunching speed (your other applications will not slow down with this method, just the crunching). We will also discuss ways to keep it cool without sacrificing crunching speed. Methods range from very simple and economical to more complex and more expensive. There is a solution for everybody's needs and every budget.
