At the time that this article was first written, during July 2009; the UK was experiencing a heatwave, with, in a few places, record or near-record high temperatures. A heatwave might have the effect of causing overheating if your system is poorly ventilated or, perhaps, is an older box that generates as much heat as anything else – although why oh why you’d want to use an antique system that heats the room and doubles your electricity bill but can hardly run XP is anyone’s guess.

Whilst newer processors have negated energy conversion from wattage to heat to some extent by using smaller transistors; as small as or even smaller than 35nm, etched onto their wafer, there are still boxes around that run P2s and similar colossal-heat-producing processors, in addition to the heat produced by other components and peripherals too. – Such as, particularly, UPSs.

When this article was originally drafted I had 2 UPSs running, and they appeared to be making the effects of the heatwave even more unpleasant. Whilst they protected my system from at least 2 voltage-spikes during the roasting weather of the time, they nevertheless still produced a substantial amount of heat. Add to that just a single box, running XP on a dual-cored AMD Athlon 64 x 2 processor, and believe me it did get rather warm in my office at the time, even though I didn’t dare to switch on my CRT monitor and/or run the Phenom box for fear of roasting, despite having a large office fan moving air around.

That heatwave ended on the 3rd July 2009 for the UK. – Although the main body of Europe took a little longer to cool down where it went up in the 90s Farenheit, until a cold front moved slowly through from the west, triggering intense thunderstorms in places and heralding a return to average temperatures for the time of year. – but whatever the room temperature or the weather conditions outside, there’s still one thing that one must always ensure within a technical environment where a computer or computers dwell: Adequate ventilation. With Summer 2011 coming up after the 2nd edition of this article is published, it’s necessary, once again, to think about keeping the heat down and the air moving.

It’s well known that typically a computer draws air in at room temperature from its front and/or side(s) and/or base, and adds excess heat from its components to the airstream before blowing it out the back; warmer than it was before it was drawn in.

If there’s no air-circulation within the room then the computer still attempts to draw air in, but finds it harder to do so, reducing the air pressure a tiny bit as it struggles to find air from somewhere. What it blows out the back will stay at or near the back of the computer if there’s no proper air-circulation; causing a hot-spot in that particular location. Eventually that hot-spot will find its way back into the computer, having lost some but not all of its heat energy, and as a result the computer will slowly get hotter and hotter inside as it recycles the same air. If it gets too warm then things inside will start to cook and/or shutdown automatically as a result of the build-up of heat.

Assuming that your computer’s fans are working optimally as they should always be doing, they still need a source of moving air to move around as they are designed to do.

If the room where your computer sits is poorly-ventilated then I do suggest having a fan independent of the computer with which to keep the air circulating around the room. Moving air loses heat more than still-air generally; so it’ll help keep things cool outside as well as inside the box.

If you live in the UK then chances are that you have uPVC double-glazed windows and doors, which have sealed-units with an optimal air-gap. Whilst these are excellent at keeping heat indoors in the winter; they don’t do a lot for air-circulation, even in the summer; so whenever you can – do try to open a ventilator or a window: Most modern uPVC profiles allow a transom or vent to be security-locked in a slightly-open position for ventilation, whilst maintaining a good degree of security from intruders who might attempt to get into your property by such means as an open window. Alternatively, on some older profiles there may be security locks on the restrictor-stays themselves, which do much the same thing. (I once worked in sales in that industry, so I have a reasonable knowledge of the subject.)

Keep your box aerated: That’s the slogan of this article. Heatwave or not; your computer needs moving air to keep it cool. – Even if you use water-cooling, although to a lesser extent.