On 11 July, I ran speedfan and saw some scary temperatures. I put seti on hold and the temps came down. It took me until today to buy some canned air and clean the processor heat-sink. The heat-sink is shiny again and temps came down 20 degrees C. Seti is running again.

It looks like I lost 6 tasks to "Not started by deadline - canceled".

Others have said it but I'll say it again, open up your machine and clean it out now and then.

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The Universe is not only stranger than you imagine, it's stranger than you can imagine.

SETI@home classic workunits 1,405 CPU time 57,318 hours

I try to clean my machines out every 30 to 45 days. Yes its dull task to do. But it needs to be done, Especially if you have pets.
And for those on a budget canned air is expensive. Ive been toying with the idea of going to Harbour Frieght and just buying a pressure vessel you just fill with compressed air. A foot powerd bicycle pump would fill it up.
Only thing is I dont know if there is any downside to real air versus the canned air which has a some kind of propellent in it.

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[/quote]

Old James

Never used canned air. Once every 90 days I strip mine down completely. I use a photographer's lens brush to dust off much dust as I can then use wipes to clean all fans. Works a treat.

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My case (Armor VA8000BWS) has air filters on the entire front of it. I pull the filters about every 30-90 days (I get lazy or forget quite often) and just run warm water through them backwards and let them dry for a little while and pop them back in. The inside of my case gets almost no dust at all. Dust bunnies: no. Very fine powdery dust: yes. About once a year I take the side panel off and take it outside and blow it out with the air compressor. I notice no temp difference because it was all a fine powdery dust.



But yeah, cleaning the fans and heatsinks is something that you should definitely keep up with. I finally powered-off my really old rig (Athlon XP 3200+) about a year ago and I fired it up the other day and after a few minutes, the temperature alarm was going off (65C) at idle sitting in BIOS. Took the side cover off and took the 92mm fan off of the CPU heatsink and it looked like the lint trap for the clothes drier. Pulled that mat of dust off and blew the heatsink out, and decided to Arctic Silver 5 it and put it all back together.. idles at 31C now. Full loads at 45. That's more like it.

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Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)

I try to clean my machines out every 30 to 45 days. Yes its dull task to do. But it needs to be done, Especially if you have pets.
And for those on a budget canned air is expensive. Ive been toying with the idea of going to Harbour Frieght and just buying a pressure vessel you just fill with compressed air. A foot powerd bicycle pump would fill it up.
Only thing is I dont know if there is any downside to real air versus the canned air which has a some kind of propellent in it.

No downside, but it's best if you have a regulator and pressure gauge so you can limit the pressure you are blasting things with.
I bought a cheap 2 gallon compressor that I use sometimes. Have to wait for it to pump back up after cleaning a GPU or two.
Not as convenient at just grabbing a can of air, but less expensive.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

I have a BIG two horse compressor with a BIG tank. The compressor was used for a high air volume application but isn't any more. With a stock Apple G5 I need to open it up about once a year and clean it out. Over a year the fan speeds go up about 100 rpm however before I figured it out, they went up over 200 rpm. I also had an issue where I started to hear a funny sound. It turned out Apple put the power supply in the very base of the computer and the lint was getting in the fan causing the sound. A big shot of air in the crack produced a cloud of dust and resolved the problem. Because I am stock, I can go a long time without blowing the dust out but those of you with the hopped up rigs might be a bit more sensitive and need cleaning more often.
I would never use canned air because there just isn't enough volume to clean my system out. I run the air hose at 100 psi and let the air tank refill for a second round of dusting.

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Never used canned air. Once every 90 days I strip mine down completely. I use a photographer's lens brush to dust off much dust as I can then use wipes to clean all fans. Works a treat.

Why not use canned air? (aside from the cost as others have mentioned)

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The Universe is not only stranger than you imagine, it's stranger than you can imagine.

SETI@home classic workunits 1,405 CPU time 57,318 hours

I use my air compressor.

Cheers.

I use my air compressor.

Canned air is expensive and slow. The can freezes up and pressure drops at high flow rates required to do a good job.

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Dave

I also stick something in the fans or hold onto them when blasting with the compressor. You can actually damage a fan by making it spin 5x faster than it is designed to.

And I can't tell you how many of my fans I've peeled the sticker off the back-side and added another drop of 10w-40 motor oil in the bearings. Gets rid of the noises and the rattle and adds another 6 months to several years to the fan's life. The big 120mm fan in the back of my case has been re-oiled 4 times in the past 6 years. Another fan in another machine got oiled about 3 years ago and is still silent and smooth.

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Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)

I use my air compressor.

Canned air is expensive and slow. The can freezes up and pressure drops at high flow rates required to do a good job.

I found it on sale. The single heat-sink I was cleaning was finished by the time the can got cold and slowed down. If I had a compressor I might use it instead.

I'm still waiting for an answer to why "Never use canned air"?

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The Universe is not only stranger than you imagine, it's stranger than you can imagine.

SETI@home classic workunits 1,405 CPU time 57,318 hours

I use my air compressor.

Canned air is expensive and slow. The can freezes up and pressure drops at high flow rates required to do a good job.

I found it on sale. The single heat-sink I was cleaning was finished by the time the can got cold and slowed down. If I had a compressor I might use it instead.

I'm still waiting for an answer to why "Never use canned air"?

I am not sure why others say that, but I would look at the contents of the can. Old can air used to be freon which some would argue is bad for the freon. Newer spray cans use propane as a propellent but I suspect it's not used in canned air because of the danger factor. Some of the things they use in the cans now, kids use to get high so they put a bitterant in the can to discourage kids from using it. I would be interested to know what they do put in the cans now because I am in love with compressors and wouldn't buy canned air. I can not only blow out the computer but I can fill my tires and have even used it to blow the dust out of the refrigerator (wrap a sheet around the base or it will mess up the kitchen).

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I use my air compressor.

Canned air is expensive and slow. The can freezes up and pressure drops at high flow rates required to do a good job.

I found it on sale. The single heat-sink I was cleaning was finished by the time the can got cold and slowed down. If I had a compressor I might use it instead.

I'm still waiting for an answer to why "Never use canned air"?

They said it in their post.

I would never use canned air because there just isn't enough volume to clean my system out.

Sometimes when I am cleaning a system out that I let go for to long. I'll remove the heatsinks and then rinse them off with the sprayer from the kitchen sink. Then let them air dry while I am doing the rest of the system.
I don't get as much build up in my systems as some people seems to. So just wiping down the ventilation surfaces & fan blades gets the job done for me.

A balloon with a straw to direct the air can be a quick and dirty replacement canned air.
Canned air has the benefit of being "dry air". By having little to no moisture in it. Compressors sometimes have a water trap to prevent the moisture in the air from getting in the system. Which would just get blown out the end with the compressed air otherwise.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
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I'm still waiting for an answer to why "Never use canned air"?

I would never use canned air because there just isn't enough volume to clean my system out.

My thoughts, too. Canned air is great..for about the first 5 total seconds of use, and then it runs out of pressure and you're better off just blowing it out with your lungs. An air compressor is rechargeable and higher pressure and more flow/volume, too.

Not that I put 120psi a quarter inch away from things, but a compressor just works way better for cleaning computers out.

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Linux laptop:
record uptime: 1511d 20h 19m (ended due to the power brick giving-up)

I don't know how much press ones of these could take, but ti might be a workable solution to those without air compressors.
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?sku=180301&gclid=CKvk4ajngcACFSdk7AoduloA-A

Perhaps one of those larger pump up garden sprayers might be a better option.

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SETI@home classic workunits: 93,865 CPU time: 863,447 hours
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I had my system for two and a half years and hadn't cleaned it out. Was seeing temps hit 80 recently which I knew was bad. We just bought one of these recently.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001J4ZOAW/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3OSOFBM5WFGM3&coliid=I1CK5I7EGY3Y9M&psc=1
Much stronger than canned air and will obviously last longer too. System is running super cool now.

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That's a little expensive. It looks like it has enough of a nozzle to get past the fan to the heat-sink. I liked how the canned air had the extension tube. I guess I'll see how long the canned air I bought lasts me.

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The Universe is not only stranger than you imagine, it's stranger than you can imagine.

SETI@home classic workunits 1,405 CPU time 57,318 hours

I buy canned air in bulk & when on sale, usually 5-6 16oz. cans at a time when I'm able. I can clean 2 120mm radiators, plus 2 PSUs & 3 GPUs and the cases on a can of air for a couple of months. The secret is to use short bursts rather than long pulls on the trigger. Fan blades I wipe down with cotton balls and alcohol. Last time I bought some was Labor Day and I still have 1 full can left. I had the 4770K online for 5 months now and only had to blow out the radiator once. With the GTX750Ti FTW w/ACX cooling, I don't have to worry so much of lint/dirt balls forming under the case like I had to do with the GTX660SC, so that will reduce the amount of air I use, especially now that I'm down to one machine.

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I don't buy computers, I build them!!

Why is Canned Air sooooo expensive?

Because the old freon gasses that used to be really cheap to use as canned air were banned due to their ozone depletion factor and the replacement gasses are more expensive.
Either because they are really more expensive to manufacture, or because it gave the chemical companies an excuse to charge more.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster