I am not a tech person, but I cleaned out my secondhand PC today, and it took hours with the sheer amount of dust accumulation. The fans were nearly overloaded with it!!
Does a clean PC run better / faster than one filled with dust? Or is it more a matter of keeping the fans running easily? Or something else…? Idk, maybe I imagined it, but it seemed to boot much faster after cleaning. Could be wishful thinking!
Dust traps heat and blocks airflow, fans run worse etc. More heat means more likely the system will throttle down to keep temperatures manageable
WHOA!
Removing that nearly entire bucket of dust feels justified now! Makes me happy I wasn’t just wasting my time. Thank you!
……bucket???
Oh, it was bad. Real bad.
Got any, photos? For science.
Yeah, I too am morbidly curious
Looking into my trash, it’s more like half a bucket, the other half being crumpled paper towels.
Sadly, I only remembered to take a single one before the process started. You can see an alarming amount of dust on certain parts if you look closely.
Warning for tech-gore, maybe? Again, I’m not a tech person. The back has always been partially open. This was built by someone else, and it’s… probably not standard.
I would suggest to either remove the expansion slot cover or screw it back properly. As it is, it could probably fall and short something.
I was suspicious of that guy!
It’s been removed.👍Thank you!
Wow that is… Magnificent! I’m glad you de-dusted it but I’d be more worried about cables becoming disconnected while you’re trying to clean it.
Glad it worked out for you though! Fingers crossed it continues to work🤗
FYI the PSU box with those black shielded power cables is meant to fit internally in the big hole at the top 🤣
I usually use compressed air to clean the dust out of my cases. If you’re feeling adventurous, you could slide that side panel off and attempt to re-home the PSU inside the case.👌🤣the PSU box
Aye, forget the dust, this whole rig with the PSU hanging out is sketchy af. Also, the barely hanging expansion slot cover, waiting to short something with the slightest bump is also a nice touch.
Oh, I labeled the cords & disconnected them to clean. Slid the side off to give everything a thorough shine!
Problem is: this cables connect to this big ho (which I also had to clean very very heavily).
An old Pentium III an extended family member had burned itself out of disrepair. The computer was used for about a decade before being forgotten, but plugged in for some other 5 years. Then they had the bright idea of using the old computer without cleaning it. It all went well for a while it boot up and otherwise was it old win7 self. Except, a couple of days later they let it on overnight. The house owner was awaken alarmed by the fumes of burning plastic and a faint trail of smoke coming from the case.
The over a decade buildup of dust had been trapping heat so bad that some old shoddy HDD power cable melted partially exposing the conducting wires. Then it short circuited and arced through the dust setting some lint on fire.
The flame was minuscule and it was controlled fast. But I would say that, it is indeed wise to clean your computers, at least once in a while.
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