Active or passive cooling for my Mini PC?

Active cooling

This variant is the most common cooling solution. Active cooling of a PC is when the hardware is cooled by one or more fans via an airflow. The faster the fan speed, the cooler the hardware. Thanks to "SmartFan", the ventilation adapts to the PC's workload and rotates faster or slower as required.

Advantages of active cooling:

• Even though the air must be able to circulate in the system and therefore requires some space in the interior, actively cooled PCs are generally slimmer than passively cooled ones.
• Good cooling results are achieved even with particularly powerful hardware.
• The more cost-effective solution.

Disadvantages of active cooling:

• As the fans are most likely to be affected by wear and tear, they have a relatively shorter service life, depending on how much they are used.
• The noise level: A fan will always be audible, even at low utilization.
• When the system is heavily loaded, it becomes correspondingly louder.

When does active cooling make sense?

Active cooling usually makes sense for a PC if the surroundings of the place of use allow exhaust air to circulate so that no heat build-up occurs. This is the case, for example, when an embedded PC is installed in racks, cabinets, tables and the like. Active cooling is also useful when resource-hungry applications, such as in the digital signage sector, cause the processor and graphics chips to experience an above-average rise in temperature.

Passive cooling

The most striking difference to active cooling is that a passive solution does not use a fan. Heat sinks built into the system, such as heat-conducting metal, dissipate the heat generated to the outside via fin-like cooling fins on the PC housing.

Advantages of passive cooling:

• Silent operation with simultaneous use of an SSD (see also "HDD or SSD?").
• Robustness thanks to more solid PC housings and more compact designs.
• Long service life of the systems.
• Systems are often completely closed and not susceptible to dust, sawdust, etc.
• Extended temperature range.
• The above points favor both outdoor and vehicle installations.

Disadvantages of passive cooling:

• performance of the systems is limited (compared to actively cooled PCs of the same size), as high performance also requires larger heat sinks.
• environment must allow a certain amount of waste heat, otherwise heat build-up can also occur here.
• The more expensive solution.

When does passive cooling make sense?

There are so many possibilities here that we don't really know where to start. A large area of application is harsh working environments, such as factory halls, production rooms or workshops, as the fanless computers are less susceptible to dust or similar. They can also be installed, for example, in  rooms, walls or in the open air, where it can be a little colder than usual, but the PCs must not let you down. Not to mention in open-plan offices, where  every little noise minimization is a blessing for the employees, the passively cooled PC systems are a welcome sight.

Conclusion

If you value increased durability and robustness of your product, we recommend spending a little more money and opting for a passively cooled solution. However, if you don't want to compromise on the performance and size of your Mini PC, classic active cooling is also the best option.

Actively cooled spo-comm PCs

Passively cooled spo-comm PCs