Computer Cooling Units
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Many components in a computer system unit produce large amout of heat during operation, including, but not limited to: the CPU, chipset, graphics card, and hard drives. This heat must be dissipated in order to keep these components within their safe operating temperatures. Overheated parts have a shorter life and may give sporadic problems resulting in system freezes or crashes. This is done mainly using heatsinks (to increase surface area) and fans (to move air).
System Cooling
This refers to cooling the entire system unit (as opposed to cooling individual parts - spot cooling), by ensuring good airflow throughout using fans. Typically, at the front of a 'tower' type system unit, there is a fan in the lower part drawing cool air from vents into the system. There may be a matching fan at the upper rear of the unit that forces the hot air out. This creates an 's' shaped path that must be clear of obstacles for it to work best.
If there is more air being forced into the system than being pumped out (due to an imbalance in the number of fans), this is referred to as a 'positive' airflow, as the pressure inside the unit would be higher than outside. A balanced or neutral airflow is the most efficient, although a slightly positive airflow results in less dust build up.