OT: PC Maintanence

[Guest ront1]

Hi Guys, hope you don't mind this question here. I am just wondering what things you may do to keep dust and junk out of your PC cases? We don't have a dirty house at all, but when I remove the side panel on my PC, it sure is dusty in there. I have two fan openings in the back and only 1 has a fan in it. Should I cover the other one? I have a fan in the front, blowing on my 2 hard drives. Just wondering what you all do. Thanks for any suggestions.Ron

[CraigC 0]

Ron, the problem Ive seen and dealt with first hand is more fans=more dust. It really depends on how important cooling is to you. A 2400+ can probably run quite well with a basic fan and one intake case fan. There are some websites with tips for filtering air flow, but that also restricts the flow by up to 50%. I think it basically comes down to the lesser of two evils. Either deal with your CPU running at temps near 60C or install more fans and open up your case on a regular basis and bust out the vacuum. Dust isnt good for pc parts either, but I think for the most part the critical components are covered to protect them from extreme dust exposure.Craig

[Guest]

There's not much you can do Ron. You have to keep the airflow through the case and power supply to keep a proper cooling level. Just take the covers off periodically and blow all the junk out. The fan blades generate a bit of a static charge as they rotate and that really adds to the dust collection problem. The fan you have in the back now is the power supply fan and it's very important to keep that one, especially, cleaned out. The other hole is for a case fan and covering it won't help anything. But, why not buy another fan to use in that opening? You can never have too much airflow.Trip

[Guest JonP01]

I have a micro-vacuum cleaner attachment that fits my standard house vacuum cleaner. Every six months I vacuum the inside of the computer casing and carefully clean the fans. Doing this on a regular basis pretty much ensures the machine never gets the chance to be caked in too much dust.

[Guest]

Yeah, I left my AMD system closed up for 12mths until it started crashing and CPU temps were heading towards 60C. Took off the cover and saw a dust ball that would choke a donkey between the CPU fan and heat sink. Removed it and everything returned to normal. I'll be cracking my case(s) every 6 months to go hunting dust balls from now on!

[Guest ront1]

Thanks guys, sounds like just a good regular cleaning is the answer.Ron

[Guest]

Ron,I just bought an Antec case for a new machine I'm building for a friend. It has a removable filter at the front intake. Perhaps you could make one to match yours. Here's the link to the case here][/b. I would be careful about being too restrictive to the airflow.

[Guest ront1]

Hi Dennis, I also have an Antec case. the model is a SX1040BII (http://www.antec-inc.com/pro_details_enclosure.php?ProdID=81046#). It does have a removable filter in the front. The back of the case had room for 2 case fans. I moved one of them to the front to blow over my 2 HD's. That leaves basically 1 hole in the back panel. I was just wondering if I should cover that hole? There is still the PS fan in the back of the case blowing out as well as 1 other case fan blowing out.Ron