Hi guys,there are many myths and legends about computers around. One of those is whether a cooler pc or graphics card would run faster. I understand that a cleaner pc,without dust would run slightly faster and smoother with slightly less issues, from my experience. But would a cooler one do the same? Is it worth spending more to cool for speed?

If a computer gets *REALLY REALLY* hot, it could throttle itself back to protect itself - this is more along the lines of dangerously hot, not just the warmth that a system generates in normal operation. Keeping a computer free of dust and cool is more a protective measure rather than a performance measure. Minimizing cold->hot->cold swings in a computer system has the tendancy to prolong the system's physical life, because cold->hot->cold cycles put stress on the myriad of electrical connectors by expanding and contracting them. Keeping your cooling stable and clear would lessen the high-end "hot" side of the cycle. Now, computers are DESIGNED for this type of thermal stress, but if your computer gets *overly* warm when in operation due to clogged fans or vents, it could put just a little more stress on the junctions than intended. Over long periods of time this could impact the physical lifespan. Keeping the system free of dust is a good step in making sure your system stays within it's designed tolerances for heat, and that means you'll get the most physical life out of your hardware. You shouldn't have to go nuts cleaning every week, because most hardware will outlast the computer's "processing power lifetime" before they physically break down, but take a peek inside once every couple of months. Less dust also means less wear and tear on your systems fans, as they won't get choked by particles or have to work as hard to move air. After giving my PC a cleaning, the hardware literally "sounded" cleaner and smoother because my fans were running clear of obsticles. (Performance remained the same).

For the most part, computers have sufficient cooling to keep the heat in check. Where cooling really starts to play a part is when you decided to overclock and make the system really work. When you start to push it, you will generate more heat.As this heat builds, the system will become unstable, therefore the more cooling and cleaner you keep it, the harder you can make it work before becoming unstable.If you are not overclocking, a periodic cleaning will extend the life of your fans and perhaps cause your system to be a bit quieter.Hard drives need room temperature due to the fact that they have physically moving components. The rest of the system electronics would be incredibly efficient at temperatures as low as absolute zero (-273 degrees Kelvin). At that temp, there would be no resistance to electrical flow and no heat. Wanna see an old PII 300MHz run at 30GHz?:-lol

An overheated CPU will behave just like a human. It'll babble nonsense and eventually pass out. ;)

Computers don't do much work (other than spinning fans or disk drives). Almost all the energy going into the computer is converted to heat energy, due to electrical resistance (I2R) from the power needed to switch transistors and to replace leakage currents. Heat can affect the electrical characteristics of computer components (mainly resistance) and also the chemical characteristics. In the worst case physical breakdown of components (smoke test). As heat is generated during operation, it must be removed or temperature will increase until an equilibrium is achieved (heat lost = heat gained). Heat moves by convection, conduction, and radiation. Reaching back to my old physics, IIRC conduction is a function of "delta T" the temperature gradient, and radiation is a function of T**4. Convection, since it involves mechanical movement, is more difficult to determine.For a given technology, switching speed depends on internal resistence and voltage. reducing resistence (for example, by reducing feature size) also reduces heat generated and reduces signal delays due to signal path length, and resulting problems such as clock skew. Transistors can't switch instantaneously, there is a rise time and fall time associated with voltage or current changes. Increasing voltage unfortunately increases the heat generated.the main problem is to extract as much heat as possible. since we can't play with feature size (at least until the 45nm process moves into the fabs) we need to increase voltage to achieve speed. Our ability to increase voltage is limited either by electric factors (dielectric breakdown for example) or heat build-up factors. I think heat tends to be the biggest factor in our systems. The problem with thermal enigneering is determining the temperature gradient across the components. That's why you see things like heat risers and radiators. dirt acts as an insulator.Note that I am only a system engineer, so I can't design anything myself, I only know what type of engineer to bring in to to the actual work :)scott s..

It's not whether a cooler CPU or graphics card will run faster it's that by providing better cooling they can be clocked higher and therefore run faster.