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Dust-busting for fun and profit: Your computer will thank you!

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I was just reading Raymond's latest post, partially relating to computer heat (and how the symptoms it typically presents might not be heat-related after all).

I was going to comment with my own anecdote, but it's more of an aside, so I decided to post it here instead of spam Raymond's comment stream. Regardless, if you can't remember the last time you gave your computer an "air bath", this may help encourage you to give it some much-needed TLC.

My wife blasted a couple months' worth of accumulated dust out of her machine the other day - CPU temperature under load dropped six degrees, and case interior temperature by five (degrees Farenheit - sorry, I know, a number without units is a like a day without sunshine). Your results may not be this dramatic - it was so bad she had to remove the CPU fan to get all of the caked dust out of the heat sink - but if you have *any* pets, or (as Raymond said) you keep your computer in a less-than-ideal location, you should definitely pop the cover periodically and clean as necessary.

This stopped an intermittent application crash problem (if "EverQuest2.exe" counts as an application...), and let her turn the fans' RPMs down - the office sounds like an office (instead of a wind tunnel) again.

Now if someone would just get some foolproof water-cooling systems designed, we could seal (or at least more heavily filter) cases and really put this problem out to pasture...

It probably doesn't need to be said, but don't do this unless you know what you're doing (stick with compressed air, always hold the can upright, etc., and do not shake it first unless the can instructs you to do so).

Comments

  • Anonymous
    April 21, 2006
    Water in a watercooled system still needs to be aircooled!
    It generally involves a bigger radiator so it is more easily cooled and you gain silence, but air has to flow!

    Now I have recently seen passive radiators for watercooled computers, but they are even bigger and need to be fully external to the computer, which is not practical...
  • Anonymous
    April 21, 2006
    Ah and some cases have air filters!
  • Anonymous
    April 21, 2006
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    May 31, 2009
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