• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Dust in the works

Nyarlathotep

Philosopher
Nyarlathotep
Joined
Mar 26, 2003
Messages
7,503
Over the weekend, my computer began crashing repeatedly. After spending the better part of Saturday monkeying with it, trying to get it to work, running every sort of diagnostic, several different anti-virus scans, spyware scans, etc, and getting nowhere. I opened it up to see if the heat sink had gotten clogged with dust again, since that had happened a few months previously. Lo and Behold, the heat sink on my CPU was indeed clogged with dust. After cleaning it out and blowing what had to be five pounds of dust out of my machine, it is now running like a champ (so far).

Does anyone have any good suggestions for keeping my computer dust-free? Would a stronger fan help? Is there maybe some sort of design of heat sink that is less prone to dust collection? Or is it just the price I pay for having a computer in Nevada? I don't have to open up my work computer and blow it out every three months or so, though
 
Heh, I have similar issues here in New Mexico. We seem to lose a lot of hard drives here as well.

I think just about the only thing you can do is clean it out once a month or so. That or build a clean room for it :)
 
Hagrok said:
Heh, I have similar issues here in New Mexico. We seem to lose a lot of hard drives here as well.

I think just about the only thing you can do is clean it out once a month or so. That or build a clean room for it :)
Click to expand...


Ugh, I was afraid that was going to be the answer I got.

I've had a few hard drive issues as well, I never made the connection until your post. Double ugh.
 
I should keep most of the dirt out but you will still have to clean that filter or you'll begin to have the same problems.

I was looking for a heatsink I saw reviewed that didn't require a fan. I found this, I don't know how it compares to the one I read about but though. If it's the same it would have the same cooling ability as a "regular" CPU fan.
 
Last edited:
don't put it on the floor. Stronger fan won't help, it'll pull more dust in. it might take a bit longer to clog up, but it still will.

Although a stronger fan with a dust filter on the front of it might make cleaning it easier by putting the dust in an easily accessible place.
 
Depending on the level of computer geekhood you have attained, ditching your current heatsink and going to a water-cooled system would solve your problem.

Of course, then you have to worry about a leak turning your entire PC into a paperweight. . . but you won't have to worry about dust in the heatsink anymore!
 
kevin said:
don't put it on the floor. Stronger fan won't help, it'll pull more dust in. it might take a bit longer to clog up, but it still will.

Although a stronger fan with a dust filter on the front of it might make cleaning it easier by putting the dust in an easily accessible place.
Click to expand...

It isn't on the floor. I have the tower sitting right next to the monitor on the desk.

So far, it sounds like my best bet would be to find a way to make the room it is in less dusty, though I have no idea how I would go about that.
 
Genesius said:
Depending on the level of computer geekhood you have attained, ditching your current heatsink and going to a water-cooled system would solve your problem.

Of course, then you have to worry about a leak turning your entire PC into a paperweight. . . but you won't have to worry about dust in the heatsink anymore!
Click to expand...

I haven't attained that level of geekhood. I wouldn't feel comfortable rigging that up. Plus the potential leak problem scares me away from it too.
 
What you want to do is have positive pressure inside the case. With your case slightly overpressurized, the dust won't get in as easily. You can achieve this by having more intake fans than exhaust fans (well, more intake volume than exhaust volume). This also helps because you can filter your intake fans, and the case won't be drawing in unfiltered air (and dust) through cracks in the case.

Another thing you can do is try to streamline the airflow in the case. Remove as many obstructions as possible; get cords and cables out of the way, so the air doesn't have a ready place to stop moving and deposit dust. Bundle up unused cables and shove them somewhere out of the way, switch to SATA drives or rounded parallel cables, route them along the frame rather than being out in the open...

Of course, you can't solve everything. It's simply a design flaw when the CPU fan is blowing little hillsides of dust up against your RAM and power regulation heatsinks.

I have a Lian-Li PCV1000B, with a 120mm intake and a 120mm exhaust fan, and I generally don't have much of a dust problem. It has a fan filter, but it's large-particle (about a millimeter random mesh), but it has holes all over the faceplate, underside, and rear panel.

Of course, to basically eliminate dust as a problem, you could always go the "I have too much money" route and buy one of Zalman's Totally No Noise cases, which use heatpipes and a heavily heatsinked case. No fans, no airflow, no dust buildup. Of course, the cheapest one of those is $900.
 
I've heard of using panty hose stretched over the intake fan. Apparently it makes a good cheap low air restrictive filter.
 
Nyarlathotep said:
I opened it up to see if the heat sink had gotten clogged with dust again, since that had happened a few months previously. Lo and Behold, the heat sink on my CPU was indeed clogged with dust. After cleaning it out and blowing what had to be five pounds of dust out of my machine, it is now running like a champ (so far).
Click to expand...

Nyarlathotep, did you take note of what type of dirt or dust the heatsink was catching? Was it plain old dirt, like sand or soil particles, or was it lint, fibers, animal hair?

Ferd
 
ferd burfle said:
Nyarlathotep, did you take note of what type of dirt or dust the heatsink was catching? Was it plain old dirt, like sand or soil particles, or was it lint, fibers, animal hair?

Ferd
Click to expand...

I didn't look that close. THe stuff I blew out looked to be the same kind of dust one gets on a windowsill if one doesn't dust frequently, but I have no idea what else, if anything, was in there.

I DO have a lot of cats and I have thought that they may be part of the problem,though.
 
Take the side of the case off. Keep it off.

"But it will get even dustier!"

No it won't. The fans are sucking dust in , but don't blow it out.
This way, at least some of it blows out. Every few days, give the fans and boards a blast of compressed air, or run a soft brush vacuum over it. (With the power off). That way the dust never gets a chance to build to such levels.

Evert week
 
Nyarlathotep said:
I didn't look that close. THe stuff I blew out looked to be the same kind of dust one gets on a windowsill if one doesn't dust frequently, but I have no idea what else, if anything, was in there.

I DO have a lot of cats and I have thought that they may be part of the problem,though.
Click to expand...
OK. I thought if it was bigger stuff that was wedging in the heatsink fins you might have the option of swapping it out for a different heatsink/fan set where the fins were spaced wider. So...what Soapy Sam said. WWSSD?;)
 
Soapy Sam said:
Take the side of the case off. Keep it off.

"But it will get even dustier!"

No it won't. The fans are sucking dust in , but don't blow it out.
This way, at least some of it blows out. Every few days, give the fans and boards a blast of compressed air, or run a soft brush vacuum over it. (With the power off). That way the dust never gets a chance to build to such levels.

Evert week
Click to expand...

That can mess with airflow in some cases and may cause the cpu to run hotter than normal - although it probably wouldn't cause it to overheat. Plus it looks ugly.
 
Well, not in my case. Of course it would have to look pretty ugly to stand out from the background in my spare room.
Seriously, the sides have been off mine for years. No overheating problems, though I once stuck my toe in a fan.
 
The problem I have with taking off the panels is that I have teenagers whom I don't trust not to bring a drink next to the computer and then spill it. Otherwise, it would sound like a fine idea.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom