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If we move air away from heat sink, it will take heat energy with it. A fan mounted on heat sink is used to move air. This method of heat transfer is called convection. Eventually all air inside computer case will get hot, so fans are used to blow air out of case of computer.
The heat has moved from CPU, to heat sink, to air inside case, to air in room where you're sitting at your computer desk. The room starts to get hot, and eventually air conditioner turns on.
You can view an air conditioner as a "pipe". A fan blows hot air from your room through fins that transfer heat to a liquid. The liquid is piped to fins outside house. A fan blows cooler outside air past fins to remove heat from liquid.
The air conditioner has an evaporator valve that changes liquid to a gas after heat is removed. In a gas, molecules are further apart than in a liquid. This causes it to cool down quite a bit more. The gas goes through fins inside house, picking up heat. It is then compressed into a liquid to concentrate heat so outside fins can remove heat more efficiently.
Shuttle's I.C.E. (Integrated Cooling Engine) Heat Pipe uses a very similar method to cool a CPU. The CPU has a heat sink with copper heat pipes. The heat of CPU causes liquid coolant inside heat pipe to change to a gas. Convection created by pressure of gas moves coolant to a second heat sink where a fan is used to blow heat out of computer's case. Releasing heat causes coolant to change back to a liquid. Gravity then carries coolant back to CPU heat sink.
One last method of heat transfer we haven't discussed yet is radiation. Some of heat of CPU and heat sink is released as infrared radiation. Similar to light (although invisible to human eyes), radiation strikes insides of computer case, causing it to get warm. Ultimately computer case itself acts as a heat sink conducting heat to outside air.
This article explains three ways - conduction, convection, and radiation - that heat is transported from a computer CPU to air outside computer case. You now understand thermodynamics of a computers and why it is important to maintain its various components.
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To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money on the Web visit bucarotechelp.com To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter visit http://bucarotechelp.com/search/000800.asp