does dust on a heatsink severey reduce its effectiveness?

[soulm4tter]

mine was pretty dusty and i was hitting 70C cpu temp according to the BIOS. I cleaned it off and put a new fan. Now its not getting about 50C. I should have done it one step at a time so i would no if the fan or the cleaning helped more. what do you think?

 

[DARRIN]

dust inhibits heat transfer. It act like an insulator. Should probably clean the dust off once every couple of months.

 

[Davegod75]

a thin layer of dust i don't think would do much but don't let it get to the point where there are huge dust balls on the thing

 

[Rand]

A small bit of dust won'tdo much but if it get's any more than that it could start inhibiting heat transfer.

 

[Thyme]

Dust is a conductor of electricity, so be careful having too much inside.

 

[Howard]

Over 80% of dust is dead human skin cells. Granted, most of our cell content is water, but the particles floating around have certainly dried up, don't you think? Without water skin cells shouldn't conduct too well.

 

[Doomer]

Dust inhibits air flow. Some heatsinks attract it like a magnet.

 

[PCResources]

<< Dust is a conductor of electricity, so be careful having too much inside. >>



Not really, however it can be loaded with static electricity, and that is even worse...

Patrick Palm

PC Resources

 

[elasmobreath]

Since dust has no constant assay, we cannot describe its affect on your computer. Obviously metallic dusts pose more of a threat. Corrossive vapors from a pickling process will destroy a pc in hours! The biggest impact from common household dust is clogging up finely spaced radiator fins. This can appreciably reduce the airflow through the radiator causing the deltas to increase. Fine dusts that are abrasive will attack semi open peripherals with moving parts like floppies, zip disks, and compact disc drives. Fine abrasives are VERY destructive to tape devices as well. If your computer is around these kind of contaminants, you should consider relocation! Abrasive dusts are bad for YOU as well.

 

[Passions]

So we have a few people saying dust is a insulator and then someone saying it is a conductor. Lol! So which one is it. lololo

 

[Howard]

HOO HOO.

 

[Hanpan]

I could be a heat insulator and a eletric conductor.