Legion Hardware founder, editor and all-round fan of high-end hardware has popped in as a guest writer once again, coming good with part 2 of the Optimizing PC Hardware for Gaming guide. This chapter discusses the necessity for keeping your gaming rig relatively cool and the various steps you can take to make it so. With no real cooling setup, an ATX case will turn the computer into a desktop oven within minutes of operation. Those generic ATX power supplies do not help either, as they too bottle up quite a lot of heat. Despite the fact that you may have a quality Intel Pentium 4 processor and an exceptional NVIDIA graphics card, without sufficient cooling these components will simply fail. A well ventilated computer case will probably be around 30~40 degrees inside. The problem occurs when there is little ventilation, as the hot air is being used to cool the heatsinks found on all the critical chips within the case. Without the right air flow, this 40 degree temperature can quickly rise to 60 degrees or higher.

VIA Gamers Arena