Learn how your computer figures out how fast to spin each cooling fan.
Episode #11-20 released on January 12, 2021
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Here is a typical scenario, you are gaming on your computer, you enter into a really intense fire fight in game and then your fans kick in spinning really fast. Heat is pouring out of your computer or laptop, but your computer does not skip a beat. What just happened?
Each processor in your computer is full of transistors. When your processor is given information and instructions, these transistors are flooded with electrons that are guided on a path of opened and closed transistor gates. The more instructions are sent to your processor, the more electrons will be present, the more heat will be created.
The temperate sensor reacts to the increase heat, expanding and this change in electrical characteristics indicates to the computer that there is an increase in heat.
The computer uses software with a table that tells it how fast to spin each fan in response to localized temperature increases. This table is known as a fan curve. The speed of each fan correlates to really small changes in power for each fan. Essentially, the more power applied to a fan, the faster it will spin.
The airflow forces cooler air to pass over each heatsink, allowing for heat to be transferred from the heatsink to the air. Heat is pulled away from the component. This allows for the temperature to be controlled or even cooled. When the components cool down, the fans slow down in response, as indicated by the fan curve.
This allows your computer to spin the fans whenever your computer needs more cooling. And, using a fan curve is far less noisy overall, especially in comparison to spinning the fans at high speed, all the time, which would, also, consume more power, too.
Host : Steve Smith | Music : | Editor : Steve Smith | Producer : Zed Axis Dot Net