The dust thread

[c_hegge]

Re: The dust thread

Here's another one I took home from work today. A Skt. 754 Cooler. I cleaned it all out with a small, handheld vacuum cleaner

[c_hegge]

Re: The dust thread

I just had a SFF PC which had plenty of dust. Unfortunately, I had no vacuum or air compresser available, so I had to clean it out by hand.

[Junk Parts]

Re: The dust thread

c hegge I use the good old paint brush most of the time myself. Static can be and issue when using the brush or the vac. I dampen my brush with a spray bottle then dry in on paper towels. This negates the static risk. It is in no way "wet" so I'm not going to short anything out. I am a dumb ass because I do this with the CMOS battery still installed. I have not killed one yet this way but I better start taking the CMOS batteries out first before I do.

[ratdude747]

Re: The dust thread

i use the "dissamble the dumb thing" method... and a toothpick for heatsinks.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: The dust thread

c hegge I use the good old paint brush most of the time myself. Static can be and issue when using the brush or the vac. I dampen my brush with a spray bottle then dry in on paper towels. This negates the static risk. It is in no way "wet" so I'm not going to short anything out. I am a dumb ass because I do this with the CMOS battery still installed. I have not killed one yet this way but I better start taking the CMOS batteries out first before I do.

Navy specifies a dry horse or hog hair brush for that.
No synthetic bristles.

[Junk Parts]

Re: The dust thread

My brushes are 100% white bristle. Wouldn't even think of using one of the .59 cent dollar store plastic things in my PC.

[Wizard]

Re: The dust thread

my same thought long ago, I use natural bristle for brushes when sweeping clean of stuff on circuit boards (cleaning) with vacuum.

Cheers, Wizard

[ratdude747]

Re: The dust thread

why is synthetic bristle bad? its just a brush...

[PCBONEZ]

Re: The dust thread

synthetic = plastic = MO static

[Toasty]

Re: The dust thread

I use a cat hair one....
.
.
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[momaka]

Re: The dust thread

No synthetic bristles.

At all? What about a toothbrush? I've been using a few old ones for almost anything and never had a problem (is it perhaps because the bristles are short?).

[ratdude747]

Re: The dust thread

ok, so can carpeting. so i guess having a computer in a carpeted room is a no-no too? cmon, thats why they make anti-static wristbands.

[c_hegge]

Re: The dust thread

I've used paint brushes to clean dust off fan blades and it works just fine. I think that the amount of static on synthetic bristles would be too small to damage the parts. If that would damage them, so would putting the computer in a room with carpet, like Ratdude was saying. Besides, I don't use brushes on motherboards anyway. I remove fans from the case and use the brush to clean the blades. I use either compressed air or a handleld vacuum on the components. In this case, with the SFF PC, I didn't have anything at all available, no compressed air, no vacuum, no brush, no nothing.

[Krankshaft]

Re: The dust thread

Compressed air all the way here.

My Antec 300 case even has a cleanable filter behind the front bezel on the front two fans which reduces the dust that gets in there considerably.

[c_hegge]

Re: The dust thread

My Antec 300 case even has a cleanable filter behind the front bezel on the front two fans which reduces the dust that gets in there considerably.

I have an Antec 1200 case (the giant one). It also has filters on all the intake fans, so it doesn't get very dusty inside.

EDIT: Oops, already mentioned that in another post.

[c_hegge]

Re: The dust thread

Here's a dell dimension 3000. The first pic is before I did anything to it. The second is after I blew it out with a leaf blower.

[kc8adu]

Re: The dust thread

Here's a dell dimension 3000. The first pic is before I did anything to it. The second is after I blew it out with a leaf blower.

looks like that one was in a bad environment.rust on the case.
had a neighbor with a unit with a dead mobo.turns out it failed due to mouse pee.

[Junk Parts]

Re: The dust thread

I was just thinking that myself. I had a home built that died from mouse pee too. I always make sure the is no way for those furry little critters to get into any of my PC's now.

[Krankshaft]

Re: The dust thread

I recently modified an old Dell Dimension 4700 to have a front intake fan. It was a tight squeeze but I was able to fit a 120mm in there.

I removed the HDD rack and put the HDD in a 3.5 to 5.25 converter and installed it in one of the drive bays.

Cut out the mesh with a Dremel drilled 4 holes and installed a quiet Low Speed Yate Loon undervolted to 5 volts. Its whisper quiet and almost undetectable.

ALWAYS flip the CPU fans on those comps to blow out from the factory they actually blow in.

So basically they suck the hot air exiting the PSU fan and blow it back into the comp blow that already hot air over the VRM and the CPU heatsink. This already hot air now has to cool other mobo components and the video card? I don't think so.

I installed this fan to get better cooling into the case since I installed an Arctic Cooling passive heatsink on the ATI HD3850 inside.

With the case closed the heatsink barely feels warm when the comp is open it gets warmer so that channeled airflow when the side is closed makes a difference.

[kaniki]

Re: The dust thread

I wish i had some pictures of some computers that i used to have to clean at work. There was so much build up in them that the whole motherboard was covered in a sheet of dust. It was so thick that you could not even see the motherboard. the whole PC was like this..