How do Dell, Gateway, Sony, etc. keep cool?

[zap3v]

I was in Best Buy today and thought I'd look at the prices on computers. I noticed they had Sony 1.8 P4s out. Then I noticed I could hear myself think around it and started thinking they have no cooling going on there. Not only do they have any intake airflow in the small case, they have no exhaust I could see and the heatsink and fan combo was average at best as I couldn't hear anything from inside the case. Now with my 1.4 athlon OCed to 1.6, my machine sounds like a jet engine. Theirs was silent. I know they don't have better cooling than me, not even close. A 1.8 P4 has to run really hot and with the cooling they had going, I'd guess at least 60-70C. So are they just ignoring it because no one will buy a loud case or what? Those parts have to get really hot under any kind of load and have to wear out much faster than even OCed parts. I guess faster parts decline means more sales though.

[Gravity Man]

P4s run much cooler than athlons, so they don't need nearly as much cooling. The average user also doesn't know a thing about temperature, but they can be very picky about noise. As for airflow through the case, most low end components do not put out much heat. They are probably using 5400rpm hard drives too, which don't get very hot. The airflow from the PSU exhaust fan is plenty if you aren't going to do any overclocking, or use high performance componentry. Finally there is money-- they don't need to pay for fans, and since your computer breaks more often, it gives them more business.

[Kingslayer]

I dont know about the others but I can speak for Dell.

The biggest way they keep cool is by not running AMD. They also use a grossly oversized heatsink that is usually ducted to the chassis fan.

I have taken off one of these heatsinks on our Dells and find it very interesting. On the bottom of this aluminum heatsink is a raised area that is obviously a different metal. It is soft, and very very shiny. I think its actually silver. I havent taken one totally off to have it checked. It's strange though.

[The Overclocker]

the tempartures are usally between 40 and 60 and get hotter, there are some very good makes such as pancrix which sell their amd systems witha 120mm outake and intake