How to reduce high PC temperature

Last time we saw how to check your PC components temperature so now it's time to learn what you can do to reduce the temperature of your PC. Let's just dive right in to and take a look at what can be done.



Air flow - this is the most important thing in your PC case. When thing like your CPU or GPU heat up, they will also increase the temperature of the air in your case. If the air flow in your case is bad, the hot air has nowhere to escape to and will heat up other components of your PC. In the picture bellow you can see what air flow you should have.

You can achieve it by attaching a fan in the front of your case that draws air inside and another fan at the back of your case that blows the hot air outside of your case. The fans are really cheap, you can get the Cooler Master 80mm Dual Ball Bearing Case Fan for only 4.99$

CPU - now that we took care of the air flow, it's time to look at your CPU. Usually there are two reasons for high temperature. The most common reason is when a lot of dust settles between the CPU fan and the heatsink. When that happens, the air can't get through the dust and reach the heatsink to cool it down and that results in the CPU not getting cooled down either. The best way to clean dust is to buy an air duster like the Stoner GUST Easy Air Duster. I recommend cleaning your whole PC with it, because from my experience i know that dust can often lead to hardware failure.

The second reason for an overheating CPU can be bad thermal grease. If you have no experience in applying thermal grease, i recommend buying the Zalman Super Thermal Grease for the easy applying. To apply the thermal grease, you have to remove the CPU cooler.

If you have an Intel processor, to remove the cooler, you have to look for the 4 plastic screws on it. Turn them 45 degrees clockwise (those screws can only be turned by 45 degrees) and pull them out. After that you can remove the cooler and apply the thermal grease. Just remember to clean off the old grease before applying the new grease. After that's done, turn the 4 plastic screws back anti clockwise and push them back in. Push them one by one until you hear the click and make sure the cooler sits there really tight.

If you have an AMD processor, then you have to look for a lever on one side, pull it up to remove the cooler, clean off the old grease and apply the new one. To put the cooler back on, place it on your CPU and look for a hook on the opposite side of the lever. Put the hook back in it's place and push down the lever. Always remember, before removing something like that, check how it is locked on the motherboard so you don't run in to trouble when you want to place it back on.

Video card - this is basically the same thing as with the processor. Clean off the dust and replace the thermal grease. To apply the thermal grease to a video card, you have to dissemble it. Depending on the video card, it could get complicated to dissemble it so if you are not sure of your skills, take it to a PC store or look for instructions online for your specific video card.

Hard disk drive - if your hard disk drive temperature was too high, then after having dealt with the air flow, CPU and GPU, it should be fine, but if you are still having problems with your HDD temperature, you can buy a Thermaltake TMG HD1 HDD Cooler, but in most cases it's not necessary.

After all this work we can finally enjoy a properly cooled PC which will last for longer, than a overheating PC.