Cooling vs Performance - The BIG Debate

[pageheaven]

Evening Overclockers!

I'm here to seek a definitive answer from a 5 year old debate of mine - Whilst studying for my BTEC National Diploma in Computing for IT Practitioners college course 5 years ago, I was asked as part of an unofficial test to answer the question: Name 3 things one can do to improve the performance of a computer. I decided to answer the first 2 legitimately, but then in an outlandish move I stated one way to increase performance could be to enhance the cooling process. This was stated as incorrect during marking.

In the 5 years passing since then, and studying Advertising and Brand Communications at university, I got wrapped back into this debate, and I ask you the same question:

Can by enhancing the cooling process of a computer increase its performance?

Obviously this depends on the form factor of the computer, but as this wasn't stated in the question in hand I can only leave this to be discussed...


Regards,
Nathan

 

[Happy]

Not on it's own, but as a result of improved cooling you would be able to overclock components further - increasing the system's performance.

 

[deusexlumina]

if the cooling is absolutely dire the system will throttle, not so much of an issue in this country but when using comps abroad (especially those toasty p4's) it was common for them to *have* to throttle down...

 

[pageheaven]

Would it be a valid point to state that when a computer overheats its performance is compromised due to the data channels within the Mainboard and RAM becoming difficult to pass? Would this answer why servers and external telephony equipment such as routers and repeaters come to be slow or even freeze up/crash?

 

[neo-omega]

It's really only important if the initial cooling is not up to scratch, otherwise it's like adding a sachet of salt into the sea to affect the saltiness of it. Yes there will be a marginal difference, but so marginal it would be almost non-existent.