A radiator only cares about the temperature of incoming air

This article details a personal tech troubleshooting journey where the author, after building a mini-ITX liquid-cooled PC in 2022, faces persistent noise and thermal throttling issues. Through data collection using sensors and tools like turbostat, they identify that the radiator cannot cool coolant fast enough, leading to CPU temperature spikes near 100°C and power throttling. After consulting an LLM and discussing with their dad, they flip the fan direction to pull fresh air through the radiator into the case, prioritizing radiator cooling over internal air temperature. The fix yields dramatic improvements. The content is directly related to IT/technology, focusing on hardware cooling, PC building, and thermal management.