Active heat sinks use a fan to draw hot air away from the hardware, making them more compact than passive heat sinks. They are easy to install and remove, but require space for air circulation. Passive heat sinks have a more predictable method of heat transfer but are often too large for standard computer cases. Active coolers are also used in solar heating systems.
An active heat sink refers to a heat sink with a means for moving air, usually a fan. This type of heat sink usually has a metal component that contacts the hardware that needs to be cooled. The metal unit is connected to a fan which draws hot air away from the unit. Most often seen on computer processing unit (CPU) chips, the active heat sink is the most commonly used type of heat sink in personal computers.
One advantage of active coolers is that they tend to be more compact than passive coolers. Since passive heatsinks don’t have a fan or other means to draw hot air away from the heatsink, they are physically larger to draw heat away from the hardware. Some engineers prefer passive heat sinks because they have a more uniform and predictable method of heat transfer than an active heat sink.
The size of passive heatsinks often makes them impossible to use in a standard computer case configuration. In narrow cases, an active heat sink is often the only feasible method for adequate CPU cooling. Active heatsinks are generally lighter than passive heatsinks, which have been known to occasionally collapse in a user’s computer case when the weight of the passive heatsink pulls the screws out of its base. Although they are smaller in size, active heat sinks still require some space around them for air to circulate.
Active coolers are generally easy to install and remove. An active heat sink attaches to cool a CPU chip by attaching to a screw-on hardware bed that allows the heat sink to be snapped on and off for easy hardware maintenance. When installing any heat sink, an important step is the application of thermal paste to facilitate heat conduction between the parts of the CPU chip and the metal parts of the heat sink that they come into contact with. Thermal paste can be purchased in tubes for single install applications.
The terms “active” and “passive” are frequently used when referring to the storage and circulation of heat. In solar heating, an active solar heating system is a system with a fan, while a passive solar heating system relies on the movement of heat without the aid of a fan. An example of an active solar heating system would be an array of solar panels on the outside of the house with a fan to blow warm air into the house. A passive solar heating system would include tiles or windows designed to absorb and retain heat, which it conducts into the home through physical contact.
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