Have you ever looked between your CPU fan and heatsink?

[treetops]

Well I did and pulled out half a fist worth of dust bunnies. My computer has had to have a household fan on the side of it for almost a year and now I know why. Please check this out on your computer! Tweezers would probably be the best way to remove the dust blanket under your cpu fan on the heat sink but I used about 7 qtips with my phone flashlight.

Its the area between your cpu fan and the metal heat sink just below the cpu fan. I could not remove my fan from this so I used qutip between the fan blades.

p.s. went from 41c idle to 30c idle checking a game now )

p.s.s. holy **** went from 70-80c while gaming to 50c, wish I knew about this sooner who knows how much dmg my comp took

p.s.s.s. No vacuum or air can could spray out that dirt it looked like a blanket of pocket lint under the fan when inspected closely.

insane fps boost I can play my games on max again

 

[cliffordcooley]

A 150 PSI air compressor works wonders, on those hard to reach dust bunnies. Some people recommend not using an air compressor, but thats all I've used for over 20 years.

 

[treetops]

A 150 PSI air compressor works wonders, on those hard to reach dust bunnies. Some people recommend not using an air compressor, but thats all I've used for over 20 years.

I used a leaf blower before but the way this dust was I dont think any air could take it out. It was a lint blanket just under the psu fan not visible unless u use a flashlight.

 

[cliffordcooley]

A leaf blower will deliver volume not force. An air compressor can deliver enough force to literally spin the blades off a cooling fan. Might even have your neighbors looking and wondering why they hear a siren. But with experience one would quickly learn where to apply the force, without causing damage.

The best goal however would be to use preventive maintenance, before dust accumulates and not so easy to clean.

Congrats though on cleaning, regardless of methods. As long as the PC is clean and not damaged, it doesn't matter what methods were used. (y)

 

[GeforcerFX]

Well my heat sinks are usually very clean since I dust them out once a month. I remember one of my older apartments I would just leave my computer for 3-4 months without cleaning (as I did at my parents when I lived there). It was fine until winter would show up and the dust form my heater was in the air. I had to spend 3 hours cleaning that system, that's when I developed the once a month habit.

 

[treetops]

I clean like every 6 months to a year, obviously not often enough lol.

 

[St1ckM4n]

I wan to see pics!

 

[Raoul Duke]

That is one real pain about desktop computers. Need fans for cooling, fans make noise and draw in dust/dirt. Put a filter on the fan and the fan must work faster which means more noisily. Doesn't take long until my CPU fan looks like it has a layer of drier lint on it.Going to try a closed loop cpu cooler. Found a waterblock that fits my GPU, but it doesn't cool the video memory. I don't know but think that likely gets hot. I hate buying canned air. I wish I could buy a videocard that from the factory has a watercooling system. Haven't used water yet, but will try the cpu unit

 

[hopgop1]

That is one real pain about desktop computers. Need fans for cooling, fans make noise and draw in dust/dirt. Put a filter on the fan and the fan must work faster which means more noisily. Doesn't take long until my CPU fan looks like it has a layer of drier lint on it.Going to try a closed loop cpu cooler. Found a waterblock that fits my GPU, but it doesn't cool the video memory. I don't know but think that likely gets hot. I hate buying canned air. I wish I could buy a videocard that from the factory has a watercooling system. Haven't used water yet, but will try the cpu unit

This comes with watercooling / air.

Only problem is they are impossible to find.

 

[Raoul Duke]

I broke down and bought some air and gave a blast underneath my cpu cooler.....whoa! wasn't expecting the huge cloud of dust that come out. Thought just cleaning the heat sink with the fan itself would be enough. Apparently not.
I know watercooling still has to draw air through a radiator (thus getting dusty), but I was hoping I could clean the rad with a vacuum or like without worrying about ESD frying one of the computer components. That would be a nice advantage.