7 terms
An air cooler is a CPU cooling device that moves processor heat through a metal base and heat pipes into a finned heat sink cooled by…
A heat sink is a passive metal component that draws heat away from a processor or other chip and releases it into the surrounding air.
Liquid cooling moves heat from computer components through a pumped coolant loop to a radiator, allowing higher sustained power at lower noise than air.
A PSU (power supply unit) converts AC mains power into the regulated low-voltage DC rails that a computer's motherboard, CPU, GPU and drives require.
TDP (thermal design power) is the sustained heat output a cooling system must dissipate for a processor, a design target rather than a measured power draw.
Thermal throttling is the automatic reduction of a chip's clock speed and power when it nears its temperature limit, protecting hardware at a performance cost.
A UPS, or uninterruptible power supply, keeps computers and network gear running on battery during outages and shields them from power disturbances.