Good computer ventilation

I have seen nice computers used at the office or the factory. They are bought maybe because the old computers are not able to perform or degraded and maybe also bought to accommodate new staff. But after a while I do see a similar pattern. When, a person workload gets more and more, by the day. The paperwork piles up on their desk or bottom of their desk, and the papers are stack very close to the computers. Same thing applies for the factory computers, carton of boxes of wood and metal plates are always kept near and close to the computers.

And at times, offices want to look neat and tidy. They build a cabinet box to house the computer unit to hide it. The cabinet that houses those computer is so tightly compact that the computer fit just enough for it to go in, and though they have made holes for air to flow out at the back, the cabinet is pushed very close to the wall. Is it because they want to save space?

Computers need to BREATHE, YES! You heard me right. They need to breathe not like us, computer takes in cooler air, when the cpu fan blows towards the cpu chip that churns out heat from processing data, and the hot air is pushed out. Then there is a fan at the power supply unit which cools down the circuit and heatsink inside. Sometimes, a bigger fan will be installed on the inside casing to draw cooler air into the casing.

You can have a lot of fans installed into the computer, but if the entire intake is blocked by stacking papers or boxes at the side and back of the computer, the fan will find it hard to draw in cool air.

Have you tried going in a small storeroom with the door close and try to arrange stuff inside, It would be save to say within a minute or more you will start to sweat and after a few minutes, stuffy and gets hotter, why?

The hot air is circulation inside the storeroom and not able to get out fast enough, now try to open the door and you will feel fresh cool air rushing in and no more hot air. When you breathe in the air, it is cool and you will find that, you sweat less and your body begins to cool down.

Same thing that is happening to the computer, if cooler air is blocked from going in, the hot air will circulate inside and it and if it gets too hot computer might shutdown as it has a built in thermostat to monitor cpu chip heat, to keep it from overheating. Too much heat might cause other hardware problems to the main board, to the capacitors and hard disk as well in the long run.

Always give enough space, a simple touch of your hand onto the casing top or side of it can tell you if it is warm or hot. If it is hot, then not enough ventilation is provided and you need to do something about it.

It especially needs good ventilation when some are switched on 24/7, all the time. If you have a chance, try to visit a big server room or an IT facility room, the place is not only clean its FREEEEEEZING cold!