Friday, August 6, 2010

Need for fan control

As modern PCs grow more powerful so do their requirements for electrical power. Computers convert most of this electrical power into heat generated by all major components.
Some early generation PCs did not need active ventilation.
Power supplies eventually needed forced cooling, and soon took up the duty of cooling the rest of the PC with the ATX standard. The byproduct of increased heat generation is that the fan(s) need to move increasing amounts air and thus, need to be more powerful. Since they must move more air through the same area of space, fans will naturally become more noisy.
In fact, if one installs extra fans in a PC case, the noise levels can reach 70
dB. Since fan noise increases exponentially to the fan rotation speed, reducing rotations per minute (RPM) by a small amount potentially means a reduction in fan noise.[citation needed] This must be done cautiously, as excessive reduction in speed may cause components to overheat and be damaged. If done properly fan noise can be drastically reduced.

No comments:

Post a Comment