Dusting my PC: A Project

[BeardyHat]

Started playing Yakuza: Like a Dragon yesterday and after about 30 minutes of playing, my PC would just shut itself down. At first I thought it might be a fluke, but then it happened again after about the same amount of time, so I figured I'd better try and solve the problem. Thinking the most likely culprit was dust and clogged fans, I decided to have a go this afternoon, as well as solve a little issue of it sitting on the carpet, which I've been meaning to do for awhile.

Here's a little Imgur album of the fun.

https://imgur.com/a/dqbLEqF

View: https://imgur.com/a/dqbLEqF

 

[Brian Boru]

Hey, I like the decorative stippling on your fans!

Is that a ghost…

Nice job, I assume there are no vents on top or bottom or sides or back… hang on a tick, how's air getting in?
PS: and out.

 

[BeardyHat]

Hey, I like the decorative stippling on your fans!

Is that a ghost…

Nice job, I assume there are no vents on top or bottom or sides or back… hang on a tick, how's air getting in?
PS: and out.

PSU has its own little air channel, sucking air in from the bottom and pushing it out the back.

The big fan in front sucks in from the front (the cover in front of the fan has gaps on both sides, top and bottom) and pushes it directly out the back. There's a vent right there next to the CPU.

I'd considered adding another fan at that rear vent, to potentially increase airflow (first time in the 10ish years I've actually had this issue. Probably due to the new video card, since the CPU isn't drawing anymore wattage, I believe), but my mobo is an micro ATX and doesn't have any additional fan headers.

I'll apparently just have to remember to clean it once every 8 months with the new processor and GPU.

Also, am I haunted? I didn't see no ghosts...

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

PSU has its own little air channel, sucking air in from the bottom and pushing it out the back.

The big fan in front sucks in from the front (the cover in front of the fan has gaps on both sides, top and bottom) and pushes it directly out the back. There's a vent right there next to the CPU.

I'd considered adding another fan at that rear vent, to potentially increase airflow (first time in the 10ish years I've actually had this issue. Probably due to the new video card, since the CPU isn't drawing anymore wattage, I believe), but my mobo is an micro ATX and doesn't have any additional fan headers.

I'll apparently just have to remember to clean it once every 8 months with the new processor and GPU.

Also, am I haunted? I didn't see no ghosts...

Grab a rear fan I'd say, you can just use a basic 2 way splitter from Amazon or whatever on the fan header you wont over amp the port by a long shot.

 

[Colif]

The horror

Maybe you should clean it more often

I had been meaning to do mine but its only 3 months since last time

Before:

Now:

Sure makes it quieter and cooler

It doesn't need a rear fan if that 200mm fan on front is actually clear of dust on filter, With only one exit, air has to go out the back. Its not a case I would use, the only inlets on front aren't real big

 

[BeardyHat]

Grab a rear fan I'd say, you can just use a basic 2 way splitter from Amazon or whatever on the fan header you wont over amp the port by a long shot.

Definitely something I thought about, but I'll probably leave it as is for now. I've been running this case for close to 10 years now and my current setup actually draws less power than my old.

Though given my penchant for benchmarking, it might be fun to do some and see if it makes a difference or not.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I doubt it will make any noticeable performance difference but its nice to keep things a bit cooler for longevity IMO.

 

[Colif]

What case is that?

the days before fishtanks, where cooling was an after thought.

I had a Case from back then, only one spot air could go in... but it was intentional and used to be best air cooling case you could buy until Fractal beat it in the last few years.

I would say I miss it but its still in my room with me now. I wonder if ssd still boots. I haven't plugged it in for 3 years.

 

[BeardyHat]

I doubt it will make any noticeable performance difference but its nice to keep things a bit cooler for longevity IMO.

Fair enough, though again, not necessarily a worry.

The components that started their life in there around 2015 are still in use in another application in my home, seeing daily gaming use (Mobo/RAM and GTX970. Processor was upgraded), in fact just made some solid progress on Lies of P playing on that machine yesterday.

 

[BeardyHat]

What case is that?

the days before fishtanks, where cooling was an after thought.

I had a Case from back then, only one spot air could go in... but it was intentional and used to be best air cooling case you could buy until Fractal beat it in the last few years.

I would say I miss it but its still in my room with me now. I wonder if ssd still boots. I haven't plugged it in for 3 years.

Phanteks something or other

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16811854016?item=N82E16811854016

I used to have a full tower, but got tired of the size and weight.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Fair enough, though again, not necessarily a worry.

The components that started their life in there around 2015 are still in use in another application in my home, seeing daily gaming use (Mobo/RAM and GTX970. Processor was upgraded), in fact just made some solid progress on Lies of P playing on that machine yesterday.

I used to get unreasonably obsessed with airflow, benching and stress testing in a galaxy far away where I seemed to have enough time to do stuff like that. So I have that hangover at least where I'm checking temps fairly regularly still. Im pretty sure 90% of people never look at all so no worries!

 

[BeardyHat]

I used to get unreasonably obsessed with airflow, benching and stress testing in a galaxy far away where I seemed to have enough time to do stuff like that. So I have that hangover at least where I'm checking temps fairly regularly still. Im pretty sure 90% of people never look at all so no worries!

I get you. I usually only bench when I get a new piece of hardware, which I did with all these upgrades, especially once I put Kyronaut paste on the CPU.

That said, of habits that stick around, I check fire extinguishers. I had a job long ago where that was part of it, making sure their still in spec, according to their dials. So now when I'm out and about, I'll check random ones just to see.

 

[Colif]

Im pretty sure 90% of people never look at all so no worries!

I am in that other 10% with you.
I always know temps of CPU as its on taskbar, always curious why it rises if it does. What is windows doing now.

that was a few days ago. photo was necessary as the action of taking screenshot would change CPU temps.
cores/package/Nvme/GPU in order of temps.


need to clean screen still. I can't see the dust unless light is shining on it.

Lowest I ever seen in any PC was 16c in my PC above, so getting to 19c on a 8core CPU is impressive
PC only hits 80c running all cores at 4.3ghz Cinebench R23, I did it a few days ago.
I generally don't stress test PC as sometimes I don't want to know.

only review I can find for your case mentioned bad air flow.

i might get a slightly smaller case next time, I just have to make sure my GPU fits in it.

 

[BeardyHat]

I am in that other 10% with you.
I always know temps of CPU as its on taskbar, always curious why it rises if it does. What is windows doing now.

that was a few days ago. photo was necessary as the action of taking screenshot would change CPU temps.
cores/package/Nvme/GPU in order of temps.


need to clean screen still. I can't see the dust unless light is shining on it.

Lowest I ever seen in any PC was 16c in my PC above, so getting to 19c on a 8core CPU is impressive
PC only hits 80c running all cores at 4.3ghz Cinebench R23, I did it a few days ago.
I generally don't stress test PC as sometimes I don't want to know.

only review I can find for your case mentioned bad air flow.

i might get a slightly smaller case next time, I just have to make sure my GPU fits in it.

Most cases will fit a full size GPU. I just rebuilt my HTPC with one of these and while it was a bit of a struggle to initially get things fit in there, it fit my 970 and works well for my needs.

Amazon.com

Maybe I'll eventually pick another up for my main PC if airflow is that bad, but again, I've been running it for almost 10 years now and have only had issues because I don't clean it regularly enough, as it's kind of a pain to get at it where it is. But pulling the front panel off and just cleaning the fan cover would be easy and might do the trick to keep things running normally.

 

[Colif]

At time I made PC, people asked why I bought such a large case.
At that time my GPU looked tiny in it so I understand their point of view:

But the new GPU makes more use of the space compared to the 2070 Super I had at time

And case doesn't look as empty anymore. A few other things changed in that time too.
My current GPU is almost 35cm long, it wouldn't have fit in a smaller case.

I had a 980 in my previous PC, it was only 28cm long

ASUS STRIX GTX 980 DirectCU II OC Specs

NVIDIA GM204, 1279 MHz, 2048 Cores, 128 TMUs, 64 ROPs, 4096 MB GDDR5, 1753 MHz, 256 bit

www.techpowerup.com

Silverstone make good cases. My old one in post 8 above was a Silverstone. Prior to current case, my last two cases were made by them. I would have this case too but finding them in 2020 wasn't exactly easy. Not a good time to build one. I had to make do.