WOW, removing a dust filter made temps go down about 6 C!

[drpootums]

I have a TT Tsunami with the 90mm side fan. I put a dust filter on that a while back to (what I thought) reduce my temps. Well, today I took it out of of curiousity, and I noticed that my max temps went from around 57 C or so (very high) to around 52 C (not so high).

I know that my temp monitoring software is off (when I start up my comp right away it reads about 7 C above ambient...). Do you guys think that being that is off by a lot the rest of the readings may be off by some too? I've used speedfan and ITE Smartguardian (came with mobo) and they give me the same readings. This is the origional driver from the mobo because I cant find the new one... If you could point me to something else to use that may help please feel free to! And if there's a way to take a hardware reading myself I would like to know how.

Also, do you think that the Zalman really does cool better than the stock fan? I've thought about this before, and if the stock is better, i really dont want to go the trouble of pulling everything out and putting the origional bracket on...

I just want this comp to last a long time and be stable (maybe get a few extra mhz out of the processor while i'm at it ). So if you have any other suggestions, please feel free to tell me!!!


CPU
My idle temps were: 44-45C now: 42-43C
My max temps were around: 55-58C now: 52-53C

System (has to be off...)
were:40C
now:38C

ambient is usually around 22C

All temps are after about a half hour or so, or after it's been warmed up with a game or something for at least 10 minutes (usually about an hour)

Thanks!!!

 

[drpootums]

my video card reads the system as 3 C lower than the mobo does, and the air around the video card is probably warmer too (i'm thinking).

hope that helps...

 

[StrangerGuy]

Are you you want a lot more dust in your PC just for a few MHz increase in overclock?

 

[Elcs]

Originally posted by: StrangerGuy
Are you you want a lot more dust in your PC just for a few MHz increase in overclock?

I agree.

Cleaning a filter is much easier than cleaning a heatsink out.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

At great effort and high cost, go to your local hardware store and buy a large/cheap home AC/heating filter. Cost? About $1.49US. Now find the scissers. I can never find them when they are needed Remove the cardboard boarder and cut as many replacement filters out of it as possible. Change out the filters as necessary.

Since the filtering medium is spun fiberglass, it would be best to do the cutting over waste newspaper. When done roll up the newspaper and put it in the dust bin (trash can)

You might consider wasting some canned air on the inside of the case


...Galvanized

 

[drpootums]

When I said a "few mhz" i didnt mean that, I ment I could actually overclock if I wasnt so concerned about the temps (maybe around 2600mhz or so I was thinking).

I know that cleaning a heatsink out is a pain, but I thought it would be worth it if i got so much lower temps. And I have canned air, so it's not a huge deal to do it (although i'm not sure if just canned air gets all the crap out of all the fins...)


And by the way, I do have 1 dust filter by a 120mm fan, just not by the other 90mm fan on the side of my case.

 

[deadken]

I feel that having dust filters on 'Half' of your intake fans is useless. You are still introducing a lot of dust into your system. I have dust filters on all of my intake fans. I find that THESE are great for the 2x120's that I mounted on my side panels. I use pieces of Air Conditioner filter (as mentioned earlier) in front of my 'front' 120MM intake fan.

The ones I linked to are cheap and very easy to clean. I blow them off every now and again, and I wash them every few months.

 

[lopri]

How do you guys remove dust between heatsink fins? My Zalman 7000 has lots of dust on fins and I'm clueless how to get rid of it. I tried canned air but it was useless.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Originally posted by: lopri
How do you guys remove dust between heatsink fins? My Zalman 7000 has lots of dust on fins and I'm clueless how to get rid of it. I tried canned air but it was useless.

Take the whole HSF out, remove the fan and other electronics, and wash the heatsink with water. Let it dry completely and put the whole thing back.

 

[Doctorweir]

Originally posted by: lopri
How do you guys remove dust between heatsink fins? My Zalman 7000 has lots of dust on fins and I'm clueless how to get rid of it. I tried canned air but it was useless.

Vacuum cleaner. Take care inside the case

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Originally posted by: StrangerGuy

Originally posted by: lopri
How do you guys remove dust between heatsink fins? My Zalman 7000 has lots of dust on fins and I'm clueless how to get rid of it. I tried canned air but it was useless.

Take the whole HSF out, remove the fan and other electronics, and wash the heatsink with water. Let it dry completely and put the whole thing back.

Washing with mild soap and water using a brush would do it if it's really nasty dirty.

But having lapped a Zalman (not reccomended for a Zalman btw) I can tell you that getting it dry again will not be a short order process. I placed mine (a 7000) in front of a small space heater to warm it up real good to drive the moisture out of all the compressed fins. Even 100PSI air would not get it all out. Your going to have to warm it up for an hour. Nothing extream mind you, just to about 150F.
That's my experiance.

You could unplug the PSU from the wall. Then use a new paint/tooth brush, canned air and vacuum cleaner. That's what i do.

Do not spin the fans up with a blast of air, it's rough treatment for the bearings.
Do not blow air on the underside of the fan as this can/will drive grit into the bushing or shielded ball bearing.


...Galvanized

 

[kamranziadar]

Filters are good it does not worth taking them off for just few more megahertz.

 

[lopri]

Voices of wisdom, thank you very much!

 

[drpootums]

alright, i'm not just talking about "a few" more mhz, I didnt mean that literatly, I ment to either get it running cooler, or get maybe around 2600-2700 mhz out of it.

Anyways, I just figured that putting a filter on that restricted almost all of the airflow that fan had to offer (about 1/8 in think foam from SVC made specially for a 90mm fan) and made my comp run so much hotter wasnt worth not having to clean it out so much (I still have to clean it out quite a bit, our house was made during the Civil War, not exactly new and dust free...).


Thanks for the opinions anyway.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

OP, my rig is set-up in a semi-enclosed office in the back of a deep four car garage.

It's dusty, so i vacuum once a week but grit is still an issue. Running low flow fan with a filter does not work. Controlled higher output fans with a filter do work. A good filter will load-up a 100cfm fan so that it's real cfm is around 80. The loading up on the suction side of the fan plus using a fan controller gives me quiet operation and decent air flow.

For those that have their rig in an ACed clean room, low flow fans and no filtering works.


...Galvanized

 

[Phantom1983]

Originally posted by: lopri
How do you guys remove dust between heatsink fins? My Zalman 7000 has lots of dust on fins and I'm clueless how to get rid of it. I tried canned air but it was useless.

Compressed air (by which I mean from a tool compressor; the canned stuff is totally pointless) is by far the best way, as there's no danger of dislodging anything by accidentally smacking it with a hoover attachment. Have a hoover waiting, though, to suck all the dust up.

 

[0roo0roo]

cooler now. once dust builds up on the hs it'll suck
theres no free lunch
well.. u could get a room air filter but electricity isn't exactly free either

 

[Phantom1983]

Is there anyone out there who actually knows what sort of airflow reduction (proportionallly speaking) a filter would cause?

Personally, I would compensate by just using a slightly larger fan (I'd guess a filtered 120 would give about the same airflow as a free 92), since cleaning dust out of a case is horrendous unless you happen to have a compressor.

 

[0roo0roo]

no idea, but fans aren't good at forcing air through very restrictive fans like paper ones. but..any fine dust powder that makes it through a foam/mesh fan takes longer to block up a heatsink. fluffy dust just clogs heatsinks quick.

 

[hipgnosis]

I don't worry about the dust. I used to use fiberglass filters on my intakes but found that the reduced airflow caused slightly higher temps and some dust still got inside. Now I just unhook my system, take it outside about every 2 or 3 months and blow it out with an air compressor. It only takes about 30 minutes to unhook, blow out the dust and hook it back up. My temps are the same before and after cleaning.