Why do computers need to be cooled?
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The average electric space heater works by passing electricity through a resistive circuit. If the resistive circuit is in a little box, you probably have a fan blowing through that circuit, which cools it down by spreading the heat into the room using convection. You may have a heater where the fan keeps running a bit after you turn it off, which is meant to cool the circuit down to a safe temperature.
Why all this? Because a CPU is just an electric space heater that also does useful work. Heat is created due to resistance in the circuit just as above, conduction is used to move the heat to the heat sink, and convection is used to move it into the room. The only difference is that we tend to think of this heat as waste instead of the desired result. But you can heat your room in the Winter using a powerful computer, or several of them.
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