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Summary
You’re probably aware that preventing electronics from overheating matters both performance and safety-wise. Did you know, though, that there are two ways of doing it? They’re passive and active cooling. Here’s how they differ and which one to choose.
Active Cooling: the Choice for Most Computers
Active cooling is when the heat is taken away from its source with the help of a mechanism—car radiators and air conditioners are good examples. For electronics, this is done with heat sinks, pieces of metal that conduct heat, which are attached tofans(that may blow chill air into the computer or hot air out of it) orcooling fluidsinside tubes. There’s alsoimmersion cooling, but that’s a bit extreme for most people.
This type of cooling is very efficient for large computers that create a considerable amount of heat, and has been the norm for decades. Laptops, which add space and airflow constraints to the problem, also benefit from active cooling.
Some may consider it a bonus that active cooling systems for gaming computers are yet another opportunity to showcaseRGB LEDs. Whether inside the fans or around the cooling fluid tubes, there’s always room to place somestylistic lighting.
Passive Cooling: From Phones to Modern Laptops (and Tiny Desktops)
If the heat exchange happens without any mechanical help, using solely the thermal conductivity difference between materials, you have what’s called passive cooling. Or, simply put, it’s when your device has no fans or cooling liquid flowing through tubes.
That’s what most phones and tablets use—though there are a few models with cooling fans, those are very niche devices. Phones and tablets with passive cooling usually rely on metal plates between the electronic components and the device’s outer body to dissipate the heat. Some more expensive models feature more complex parts, like graphene sheets andvapor chambers.
More recently, laptops (and mini PCs) have been using passive cooling, too. These devices consume way less energy than your usual desktop computer, and, therefore, don’t necessarily require fans or cold liquids to help with the heat.
While few different computers with passive cooling are available yet, they are becoming more common and popular. The better-known model might beApple’s MacBook Air, which features a fanless design that doesn’t necessarily mean low performance. However there are others, likeIntel’s NUC 13 Pro, atiny desktop computer, andMicrosoft’s Surface Pro 9(though only the Snapdragon version), aconvertible laptop.
Pros and Cons of Active and Passive Cooling
As a rule of thumb, computers with active cooling usually have higher performance, while fanless machines consume less power. But there are other benefits and shortcomings to each solution.
Starting with the heat itself,computers that rely on passive coolingmay get considerably hot under intensive workloads. That’s because no air or fluid is flowing away with the warmth.
That also means they’re likely to suffer fromthermal throttlingin such scenarios. The processor slows down to prevent overheating, which lends to a noticeable performance reduction.
Active cooling has its shortcomings as well. One of them is size: machines that use this type of heat dissipation tend to be larger and heavier.
Another is that, unlike fanless computers, they make noise. Heavier workloads mean fans spin faster,getting louder as a consequence.
There’s the need for cleaning, too. From time to time, you—or a professional technician—will have toopen the computer and remove the dustthat active cooling invariably collects.
For laptops, the lower power consumption means fanless machines usually have better battery life. The more powerful internals in computers with active cooling suck up the juice faster. There’s also the energy used by the fans themselves that, while a lot less than what other components require, isn’t negligible.
Active or Passive Cooling, Which Should I Choose?
The answer depends on your priorities. If you need a more portable and silent machine, with a longer battery life, go for a fanless computer. If your requirement is higher performance above anything else, get one with active cooling.
It should be noted that, as of December 2023, the options forWindows computers with passive coolingare quite limited. The ones currently on the market also have a considerably sluggish performance, either because of weak processors or CPUs power-capped to reduce heat production. This may change with the next generation ofArm-based processors for Windows, but it will take some time until they’re widely available.
The most straightforward way to get a high-performance computer with passive cooling, as of late 2023, is to purchase anM1 or M2-powered MacBook Air. If you don’t want to or can’t get a Mac, you’ll likely need to choose between a more powerful machine with active cooling, or a more silent, fanless one.
