RS Recommends: The Best Heatsinks for PC Gamers and Streamers

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PCs pack a lot of processing power into a small space. It’s part of tech evolution, but with all that power comes lots of heat generation, and if that heat doesn’t have anywhere to go, it can severely damage the product.

Heatsinks are all around a PC’s insides — the CPU, the motherboard, the power supply, and graphics card.

But all heatsinks aren’t the same, and even have different methods of dissipating heat when things get steamy inside.

Heatsink Buying Guide

Whether you’re building your own custom machine for gaming or just want to optimize performance in your current PC, here are the basics of what to know when looking for a heatsink or a part that contains one.

Types of Heatsinks: A heat spreader, usually a long and flat piece of metal, is among the most basic types of heatsinks you’ll find. The metal is able to transfer heat to the surrounding area, but doesn’t increase the area of the surface being used to transfer the heat. It’s one of the more basic heatsinks and will get the job done for common PC tasks, but for heavy gamers, it’s best to level up to something like a finned heatsink. These ones have a series of pins or structures all along their surface and are excellent at spreading the heat out far and wide. The downside, however, is that they’ll often be more expensive, not to mention use up more physical space inside your build. Vapor chambers usually consist of an outer copper wall, with an inside that shifts between liquid and gas, moving heat away from a precise heat source to a bigger array of heatsink fins that can break it up.

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Materials: In general, copper is going to be a better choice for a heatsink than something like aluminum. And no two pieces of metal are ever going to mesh perfectly, leaving little gaps between them. That’s where a thermal interface material is going to be a big help. These fill the gaps in, allowing for better heat conduction between them. Good mounting and pressure comes into play here too, and if your heatsinks aren’t performing at the level they should be, it’s often because of space between parts like an air bubble.

Extras: Adding a fan to go along with a heatsink is strongly recommended here. Not only will this be a huge boost to the ability to break up intense heat buildup, but they’re also very affordable while being extremely efficient. Good airflow is vital to good PC performance. If things inside your PC are getting dangerously hot, crack a window and let some (preferably cool/cold) air inside the room. Lowering the overall room temp can be an almost instant help.

Taking steps like these to swap out the components that PCs commonly come with can have a big impact — often lowering internal temperatures by multiple degrees and keeping your machine running for years to come.