Heat dissipation has always been a major obstacle to limiting PC performance. The stronger the PC performance, the more serious the heat dissipation problem caused by data computing. In order to solve the problem that affects the performance, various heat dissipation methods are needed.

After years of scientific and technological development, based on practicality and reliability, air cooling, water cooling and some minority special heat dissipation techniques have become the most mainstream heat dissipation methods. What are the differences between these heat dissipation methods? Which one is more suitable for you? Today, let's open the PC device to understand the hidden "Song of Ice and Fire, Legend of Heat Dissipation".

Air cooling heat dissipation technology

Air cooling technology can be regarded as the earliest traditional heat dissipation method. It uses the characteristics of heat convection and diffusion to take away the heat generated by PC hardware by taking air as the conductor to conform to the flow of wind speed.

The advantage of this technology is that it is practical. Any hardware can be cooled by air cooling. At the same time, the installation is relatively simple, just place the fan on the corresponding hardware. And it also has three characteristics: high security, easy maintenance, and not easy to damage, which can be regarded as one of the basic technologies of heat dissipation.

With the improvement of air cooling and heat dissipation technology, the volume of fans for heat dissipation is becoming smaller and smaller, the blades are developing more and more, and the power of fans is becoming stronger and stronger. Taking ALIENWARE m15 version 2020 as an example, the fan diameter of the CPU has been expanded by 9 mm on the basis of the previous generation, the number of fan blades has been increased to 132, which supports three-stage wind speed control, and the Kevlar type liquid crystal polymer is used to create a fan with high temperature resistance, which effectively improves the heat dissipation performance.

With its unique adaptability and practicality, air-cooled heat dissipation is more suitable for those who like to work, learn and play with PCs. Whether using office software, learning software or running games, air cooling and heat dissipation can solve the heat dissipation problem well, so that players can easily face different fields such as work, learning and games.    

Liquid cooling heat dissipation technology

Conventional air cooling meets the needs of the vast majority of people, but many hard core players require top performance rather than practicality. Therefore, the extreme performance limitations faced by air cooling cannot better meet the needs of these hard core players. In order to obtain more powerful performance, these hard core players chose another more efficient heat dissipation conductor - water.

Water cooling is generally composed of heat exchanger, circulating system, water tank, water pump and key water. Generally speaking, the thermal conductivity of water itself is not as good as that of air cooling, but the heat transfer efficiency brought by the flow characteristics of water should exceed the speed of air cooling, thus creating a faster heat dissipation effect. In combination with the refrigerant and high-power refrigeration system, water with greater heat capacity will bring higher heat dissipation efficiency. At the same time, the heat dissipation characteristics of the water cooling system are more stable, and there will be no heat dissipation bottleneck period due to long operation.

With the popularization of water cooling technology, this kind of play method originally belonging to hard core players has gradually become a regular customer in PC devices. Of course, many PCs have created more "playing methods" for the water cooling system in order to achieve a more powerful heat dissipation effect.

For example, ALIENWARE AURORA R11 is equipped with the dual condensation technology of CPU and GPU for the PC. The integrated sophisticated water-cooling heat dissipation on the CPU and GPU creates a more powerful heat dissipation system for hard core players by virtue of smaller volume and faster heat dissipation effect. Even if the PC is used for a long time, it can keep its peak performance.

Water cooling has become the favorite of many hardcore players with its more powerful heat dissipation performance. The 3A top masterpiece that likes to play more "eat configuration" with PC devices, and water cooling has become the only choice for a long and stable fight.

Heat dissipation technology of VC temperature equalizing plate

In addition to the most mainstream air cooling and water cooling, there are also many players who prefer more sophisticated playing methods. For example, the liquid nitrogen cooling and refrigeration overclocking has played a high-profile role in some overclocking competitions. The physical characteristics of liquid nitrogen enable it to rapidly reduce the temperature to about - 100 ° C, allowing the PC to achieve rapid heat dissipation.

However, the heat dissipation effect brought by this technology is not as stable as that of air cooling and water cooling. At the same time, in order to eliminate a large number of side effects caused by liquid nitrogen, it is necessary to install a large number of protective measures for the PC. And there are few PC scenarios that can use liquid nitrogen for heat dissipation, so this technology is only the ultimate challenge for a minority.

But in fact, efficient heat dissipation methods are far more than air cooling and water cooling. In PC devices, air cooling and water cooling are often the main methods, supplemented by some metal heat dissipation hardware such as heat transfer tubes, to further improve the heat dissipation effect.

For example, the C-shaped CPU soaking plate of ALIENWARE AREA-51M 2020 version is located between the CPU and the copper heat pipe. It is a large-area VC vacuum cavity soaking plate. Compared with the metal conduction heat dissipation brought by solid metal or traditional copper heat pipe, it covers a larger heat dissipation area, allowing more uniform heat export.

The mystery is that the soaking plate in the vacuum chamber expands the heat exchange area through the heat conduction texture in the chamber, so that the heat in the high-temperature area can be rapidly and evenly exported in the form of steam.

A variety of heat dissipation methods are designed to solve the problems caused by heat loss, so that players can enjoy using PCs to create their own miracles. ALIENWARE focuses on the use needs of different players, integrates various corresponding heat dissipation technologies, and finally realizes the upgraded CRYO-TECH V3.0 alien super heat dissipation architecture by taking air cooling or water cooling as the main heat dissipation technology, supplemented by a number of heat dissipation black technologies, which can awaken more powerful hardware performance.

---This article is selected from ALIENWARE technical literature.