About two months ago, I built myself a new desktop computer. I couldn't afford to spend extra on any extra cooling, so I went with the stock fans. The computer idled at around 26-30c, which was just fine.
Now, the CPU (AMD Phenom II X4 945 @ 3.0 GHz) idles at around 44c, and gets up to 70c; the GPU (GeForce GTX 550 Ti, factory-overclocked somehow) idles at 40c and gets up to 75c while running Minecraft (or any other comparably CPU/GPU-intense process).
I opened the case, only to find a significant layer of dust on everything. As I said, it's only two months old.
Does anyone have any good suggestions for cleaning the thing out without spending a bundle on cans of compressed air? And perhaps on cheap-but-decent (if such a solution exists) cooling ideas that might not stuff my case full of dust? While I know those temps aren't too bad, I'd prefer to keep everything as low-temp as possible to make this thing last as long as possible.
1 can of air should do the trick, and you'll have extra left over if you don't buy a crappy brand.
If you want to do a thourough cleaning, take the gpu out and clean it real good. while its out, you should be able to maneuver the can around the inside a bit easier to get under the heatsink and whatnot.
As for tips on cooling, there are definitely cheap pci-fans available from newegg.
I would suggest keeping the computer OFF the ground, and on your desk if possible, as that reduces the amount of dust floating around the case.
Your stock fans should be fine, as long as you have a good air-flow in your case ( which should be the case if they came installed in the stock tower )
Make sure you have a matched sized exhaust fans to intakes. Negative pressure in the case will attract dust.
As for cleaning, a damp cloth and a steady hand will do. Unless you have access to an air compressor.
The computer is currently sitting on a cinderblock under my desk; it was under another desk at one point, but it was very cramped under there with very little air, which was what I thought was the problem initially. Is there any way to decrease the amount of dust that goes into it? I don't want to buy a can every couple of months...although that might be a futile goal.
EDIT: How do I know whether I have positive/negative pressure in the case? I have one 120mm fan in the front that presumably pulls air into the case over the hard drives, one exhaust fan on the top and one on the back and the PSU sits on the bottom with it's own fan, although I can't tell whether it's exhaust or not.
As far as my experience goes those are fairly standard running temps, although you may want to reapply the thermal paste on the CPU if you're really not comfortable with it.
[editline]26th September 2011[/editline]
You could buy dust filters for the fans, they're fairly inexpensive online.
Dust filters? Never thought of that, that's a cool idea.
Take the fans off the heatsinks and pull the dust wads off.
Put it in a bucket of water, that should cool it off.
[QUOTE=MrPolon;32493736]Take the fans off the heatsinks and pull the dust wads off.[/QUOTE]
I plan on it. Lots of crap on there. Do you guys' computers end up with that much crap caked on after only 2 months?
[QUOTE=The Bee Gees;32494272]Put it in a bucket of water, that should cool it off.[/QUOTE]
Right after I delete System32, stupid pesky government spying on me.
EDIT: Cleaned all the dust off with a toothbrush, which dropped the idling temp from 44 to 37. Not bad. A Google search yielded mention of using old pantyhose as a filter to great effect, so I swung by the dollar store and picked up some 3-year old's pantyhose. I do not feel like a pedo right now. But it appears to be working.
I have a friend that submerged his computer in a bucket of mineral oil for a science project one year to prove that it was possible. The only reason it failed was because some got into the hard drive. Water isn't conductive, only the particulate matter in the water is.
But can it cool a pentium D?
I bet it could; you can also do the submerging thing in deionized water, I hear. The projects I've seen like the one you described generally leave the hard drives outside of the oil because they need air to work properly.
It's not as if the hard drives are overheating or somesuch anyway. And yeah, it's dissolved ions in the water that make it conductive; water molecules themselves are not charged particles.
Water and eletronics simply don't mix, even if it is properly distilled at the time of purchase. Submerging with metal will eventually cause metal particles to dissolve at micro level, which will actually make the water conductive.
Pure metals are not generally soluble over an observable period. They are also not ionic substances, thus meaning that a solution of a pure metal in water would not be conductive. You are several times more likely to sustain damage from dissolution of contaminants falling into the water over time, the production of carbonic acid from the water's reaction with carbon dioxide, other gas-water reactions or even the self-ionisation of water.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
