# Workstation Thermals: Why We Over-Spec Cooling by Design
Every Apogean workstation ships with more cooling than its peak wattage suggests it needs. Here is why.
## Peak vs sustained
Most reviews benchmark workstations on single-digit-second bursts. Real professional workloads — rendering, simulation, training, transcoding — run for hours. That is where thermal throttling hides.
## The 80% rule
We size cooling for 80% of sustained TDP, not peak boost. A 350W CPU running flat-out for 12 hours needs 450W of cooling headroom to stay out of thermal limits during a warm afternoon. Pushing the thermal budget to the edge saves ₹5,000 on a fan and costs the customer 15% of their throughput.
## What this looks like in practice
- Custom 360mm AIO on every Threadripper build - Positive pressure case airflow - Dust filters on every intake - Fan curves tuned for Mumbai ambient (peaks at 32°C)
It is unglamorous engineering. It is also the difference between a workstation that feels fast in the store and one that stays fast in production.