Spring cleaning (dusting)

[Uppsala9496]

Since it is 65*F today and feels like spring, I decided it would be a good day to shut down my main machine and clean it.

WOW. Instead of dust mice, I had dust elephants. Beyond horrible.
Took the whole machine apart, dusted, performed some cable management, and my temps are now 5*C cooler. I moved the orientation of my hsf, so that may or may not have something to do with the cooler temps.

So, my main rig is back to crunching. Yesterday I installed an antec kuhler 620 which dropped the temps on that machine a good 6*C. With the weather getting warmer I need to drop the temps as much as possible to avoid having to shut some machines down for the summer. That would be sad.

 

[somethingsketchy]

How are those Antec Kuhler 620's? Since you brought up a good topic about dusting the rigs, I'm wondering how bad the dust collection in the radiator gets.

 

[GLeeM]

my temps are now 5*C cooler

If all you got was 5C better it couldn't have been all that dusty

I usually get 8-10C improvement! Yikes

 

[Uppsala9496]

The antec kuhlers are nice. Far less dust accumulation than my 212+`s. The only complaints i have are how the radiator won't fit every case. For the price at $54.99 they are worth it.

 

[VirtualLarry]

With the weather getting warmer I need to drop the temps as much as possible to avoid having to shut some machines down for the summer. That would be sad.

Not to be a pedant, but the actual temp of your components does not matter, when it comes to heating up the room. It's actually the wattage consumed.

Even if you improve case and CPU cooling, so that your CPU runs 5C cooler according to its temp monitors, as long as it's running at the same clocks and voltage, it will draw the same wattage, and heat the room just the same.

The only difference is, with better case/CPU cooling, you are actually heating the room FASTER than it was before.

 

[brownstone]

Thanks for the reminder. I usually have to blow my machines out at least once every two months, and they are due.

 

[PCTC2]

I opened my server the other day and promptly shut it again. I think I'm going to put off cleaning it for another month or so.