Earlier processors which had less transistors and were slower i.e. 386 chip didn't require any additional cooling the system power supply fan in itself was often enough . Additional processor cooling was required when new processors such as the 486 DX 66 with it double clock speed started to produce more heat.
A processor is designed to operate within a set temperature range .All processors don't run at the same normal operating temperature , it normally depending on what processor is used i.e. a AMD processors tend to run at hotter temperatures than their Intel equivalents.
Modern high speed processors generate a lot more heat than there earlier counter parts and new processors can be over clocked as well . A over heating processor will cause a variety of pc problems which include the following
Because often the fault appears to be something else the problem is not always diagnosed.
As heat of the processor is more important now ,most system motherboards have built in system monitoring of temperatures as well as system voltages and can even shut down your pc in the event of system or processor overheat , thus preventing damage to your processor.
Revised: April 07, 2007