Jump to content

Blowout


raymac46

Recommended Posts

My main desktop that runs Windows 10 has been making quite a racket when it boots up and my wife started complaining. So it was time for some action.

I took off the side panels and headed out to the front porch with the box. After some inspection I found it pretty dusty - in fact the CPU cooler fins were caked with dust. I tried a can of compressed air and that dusted off the interior but wouldn't touch the CPU cooler.

So I brought out he heavy artillery - a leaf blower. After a blow out with this unit things looked pretty clean. So I reassembled the unit and on boot it seems a lot quieter. Cooler too - the CPU is running around 35 C.

The leaf blower - my latest IT tool.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

V.T. Eric Layton

Heh! I have a compressor in my shop (it belongs to my brother). I used that for cleaning purposes. However, at those rare times when my brother actually takes possession of his compressor, I have been known to use the leaf blower method. Those silly compressed air keyboard cleaners are just a waste of money, in my opinion.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I prefer to vacuum. You never know where the dust will end up with a blower.

Which reminds me, mine is well overdue for a clean inside.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Still getting a bit of graunching and groaning when the beast starts up - then stuff warms up, the power supply fan controller takes over and things quiet down.

I think I'll eventually have to replace the power supply as I've done so in the past in cases like this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You never know where the dust will end up with a blower.
I actually clean the computers outside so the dust isn't in the house.

 

I rescued a computer that was about to be thrown out from a friend who was a chain smoker, had a dog and kept the computer on the floor. I didn't even bring it in the house. It stayed in the garage until I could clean it out. I set it on my husband's Work Mate table in the driveway and worked on it. It was thoroughly disgusting inside.

After replacing the power supply, that computer, Dimension 2400, is still being used off the internet. My husband used it on the internet until XP was no longer patched.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh yeah I didn't bring the leaf blower inside. That was definitely a driveway project.

My brother-in-law had one of those Dimension 2400s. Pretty good machine if I recall. I remember cleaning a lot of crapware off it from time to time. He and his family moved on to Apple and now iPhones.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You never know where the dust will end up with a blower.
I actually clean the computers outside so the dust isn't in the house.

I meant that the blower may push dust into parts of the computer that shouldn't have dust. I do vacuuming outdoors.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well I have replaced my old Cooler Master power supply with a 600 W EVGA BQ model. That seems to have quieted things down a lot.

The BQ is one of EVGA's "value" brands but it has pretty good reviews. I didn't see the point of paying a lot more to fix up a 5 year old desktop.

The BQ is semi modular - the main ATX and cpu cables are hard wired and the SATA and video card connections are modular. Considering the fact that the old PSU had all kinds of unnecessary cables wired in, my case is a lot less cluttered now. A bonus.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My stock Acer Veriton M M6610G desktop is at heart an out and out commercial machine - integrated graphics and all. As such it did not come with any case fans beyond the basic CPU cooler.

When I put in a discrete graphics card I was concerned about heat - especially since the power supply draws its air internally, So I installed an Antec Tri-Cool system fan and hooked it up to the motherboard's fan header. This particular PC case accepts a 92 mm fan and Antec was the only brand I could find that fit.

The Antec Tri-Cool has a control switch that runs the fan at low medium or high speeds but that is only useful when you run the fan off a Molex connector full speed. If you hook it up to the motherboard's system fan controller you need to switch the fan to high. That gives enough voltage to get the fan spinning and then the controller can slow it down as needed.

Well I had the fan set on low so there wasn't enough juice to get the fan started. As a result I haven't been getting any cooling at all from it.

Now that I switched over to high speed the controller took over and is running the fan at low speed anyway. But at least it's running. :oops:

You learn something new every day.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

V.T. Eric Layton

Yup. And that thing really works, too. I game that cpu in heavy way when I play S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games in maximum vid settings. I can't get the temp on that processor higher than about 110F. My other machine with a really nice vertical double fan cooler would run up to 145-155F at times.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

securitybreach

Well something isn't right then. My main rig never goes above 110F no matter what I am doing. I do have a large heatsink with dual 120mm and some 200mm fans in my case though but still. Of course, it has a lot to do with the case that it's in.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

V.T. Eric Layton

I've found that some of the after-market mods that I use when playing STALKER are not necessarily coded too well. They work, but they use excessive cpu cycles at times. The current mod that I'm using, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Chernobyl, which also happens to be the absolute BEST total rework of the vanilla games that I've ever run across (Mod of the Year on moddb - 2015), is extremely well-behaved on my system; low cpu usage, moderate RAM usage, plays well with vid card, etc.

 

Also, my older machine (ericsbane06) was only a quad core processor. This newer machine with the water cooling is a 6-core AMD.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...