Author Topic: Dust and your pc. (Well, MY pc, to be more precise.) (Read 9451 times)

MMiller8 · « **on:** 2001-08-15 16:10:00 »

I have a coolmax fan on the side of my box sucking air in. It has a little metal filter before it, kinda like screen door material. It is supposed to catch dust, I think, (because that is exactly what it is doing!) and the dust seems to clog it. I took it out, and noticed a significant increase in airflow. is it okay if I leave it out? I don't want to clean the filter all the time. The dust won't harm my pc, will it? I know I can count on you people to give me a good answer. I trust you guys! Thanks.

ficedula · « **Reply #1 on:** 2001-08-15 16:21:00 »

I don't think dust should harm anything - delicate parts like hard drive units are totally sealed up anyway - but...

Do you have a temperature sensor fitted, or that you can use to check the temperatures inside the case? If so, check 'em. If removing the cover doesn't give a noticeable drop in temperature (I'd say 5-10%, pref. more) then it's probably not worth taking the cover off. No real gain, and who knows - maybe the dust will cause problems.

OTOH, if there's a noticeable temperature drop, it's probably worth leaving the filter off; lower temps are always good on modern PC's.

If the temperature isn't too high anyway, I'd personally err on the side of caution and leave the cover fitted. After all, it can't take THAT long to clean it and it doesn't need doing every week ... does it?

MMiller8 · « **Reply #2 on:** 2001-08-15 16:26:00 »

It gets up to 118 degrees F. Is that way too hot?

ficedula · « **Reply #3 on:** 2001-08-15 16:30:00 »

Do I look like I know Farenheit?

From what little I remember of the scale I think that's well within safe territory, though.

MMiller8 · « **Reply #4 on:** 2001-08-15 16:30:00 »

I think i'll keep it off. It takes the temp down to 102 degrees, and plus, i'm going to a lan party in a couple days, and there is bound to be someone there who knows. Thanks!

MMiller8 · « **Reply #5 on:** 2001-08-15 16:32:00 »

I swear, I am going to DIE when the USA finally decides to use metric. I hate those decrepid old men who are too lazy to learn it. That's the only reason we don't use it. RRRRRRRRGH! I hate our republican government. Thank god for Sen. Jeffords!

Threesixty · « **Reply #6 on:** 2001-08-15 08:20:00 »

118F....Guess that's somewhere around 47-50C.

When is the rest of the world going to learn Fahrenheit. Geez doesn't everyone know that 100 degrees outside sounds a lot better than 37 degrees outside. Besides fahrenheit is more accurate then Celsius. .

Anyway 53C is pretty hot. You really don't want to go over 60C/140F.

140F...see what I mean. Fahrenheit jumps from 118F-140F...that looks like a big jump in numbers....Celsius jumps 48C-60C...doesn't look that big does it? Fahrenhiet just looks more accurate to me.

And dust will definetly kill a motherboard/video Card, if it lands in the right spot and given enough time. But being that the average Computer is used only for about 4 years, before being replaced.....It really doesn't become that much of a factor. I think you need the airflow, anyway.....A better heatsink is what you really should be looking for. Mine's running pretty hot too, 47C/113F. If I overclock this thing...I'll be looking for a Delta fan.

You really want to see the temps in the low 40's or less(around 106F or less). The lower the better, of course. But as long as your under 60C/140F, your doing Ok. The chips are usually rated for 95C/203F, but they usually start crashing programs at 60C/140F.

(9/5)(C)+32 = F
(5/9)(F-32) = C

[This message has been edited by Threesixty (edited August 15, 2001).]

Joey · « **Reply #7 on:** 2001-08-15 14:58:00 »

Dust can slow down your PC and spoil delicate sections on the motherboard. It's up to you wether you wanna clean it or not

Alhexx · « **Reply #8 on:** 2001-08-15 15:22:00 »

Sucking air in? That's not too good.

The cooling fan should blow the got air out of the comp...like most of the fans do...

- Alhexx

M0T · « **Reply #9 on:** 2001-08-15 16:42:00 »

No, Its supposed to be a fan suckeing air in and one pushing one out which means that the air is constantly moving through so it is kept cooler.
BTW The fahrenheit scale is not gonna be adopted by anyone else because its easier to write a 2 digit number than a 3 digit number and it saves space on paper and if your in an office you need to save all the space you can so you can save money on paper, especially if you work at the meteorology office

chowderhead · « **Reply #10 on:** 2001-08-15 18:15:00 »

I don't know that decrepit old men have anything to do with us not converting over to the metric system whole hog yet. It's likely because of two things-first, it's a logistical nightmare. Take for example the navy-now, I worked for the defense department for 4 years, and spent plenty of time in the drawing rooms looking at microfiche plans. One submarine might have, say, several thousand sets of drawings that apply to the systems and subsystems of the ship. Who's going to go back and change all those drawings? The answer is, they're not. They'll build new ships and equipment in metric, and draw plans accordingly. It'll all have to be slowly converted over. And working on subs is dangerous business, because you make an error and then you have another Kursk-no one wants that. On the other end of the spectrum you have the automotive industry, which has totally converted to metric since the mid-eighties. And that brings up the second point-I don't think Americans as a whole are totally ready to change. Since I lost my job, I've went back to selling auto parts for a national retail chain. And guess what. I hear people complain, both young and old, about having to buy metric tools to work on newer and/or import cars. Lots of people. I just don't think the mentality is set for it yet. And unless we push, your not going to hear anybody stump to convert, republican or democrat. If it was a big democratic issue, don't you think Bill Clinton would have pushed it through in his first two years in office, when he had a democratic congress to back him? We're getting there, we need to be there, but I wouldn't hold yer breath, bub.

Sorry about being so long-winded!

MMiller8 · « **Reply #11 on:** 2001-08-15 19:18:00 »

Your idea makes more sense, Chowder. My 8th grade math teacher told us that the old politicians are just too lazy to learn the system, so they won't incorporate it. I think she's wrong.

MMiller8 · « **Reply #12 on:** 2001-08-15 19:47:00 »

Ohkay, thanks for all your help! Do you think dust could settle if:
I had a fan sucking in, a fan blowing out, and three fans inside propelling the air?

The SaiNt · « **Reply #13 on:** 2001-08-15 20:01:00 »

In a perfect world there will be no such thing as dust settling but we live in a normal world, so there will always be dust.
No matter what you do there will always be dust.
Remember that you should always allow air to come in and air to go out. So both air sucking and exhaust fans are necessary. Dust may seem to not cause much problems but in my experience running 24V fans, cumulative dust can reduce airflow in the long run. There was once when I found my whole heatsink was just full of dust

MMiller8 · « **Reply #14 on:** 2001-08-15 20:03:00 »

AAAAIIIIEEEGGGHH! FULL of it, you say?!
*fumbles for a screwdriver*

dagsverre · « **Reply #15 on:** 2001-08-15 22:18:00 »

Big advantage of the metric systems is it convert very easily. Say you have 4 cubic metre of water and want to know how much energy is required to warm it up 2 celsius, now that's a no-brainer in the metric system (well, ok, you need to know the magic number 4180 for water's warmth capacity) while calculating how to warm up 4 cubic feet of water 2 fahrenheit is bound to be more difficult since you need to convert from cube feet to the weight of that water and so you need a lot more magic numbers.

I think someone said that all physics is done in the metric system even in US, at least that would make sense.

[This message has been edited by dagsverre (edited August 15, 2001).]

Threesixty · « **Reply #16 on:** 2001-08-15 22:52:00 »

Chemistry uses metric...even here (mainly because it's easier to use). But as far as overall temps....I doubt the US will ever change. Everyone here knows what 72 degrees feels like...and what 74 or 69 degrees feels like.

Not very many people here, know what the Celsius numbers feel like. But they will remember that 0C is freezing and 100C is boiling. The same people won't be able to tell you what the boiling temp of Fahrenheit is, and over half will know that 32 degrees is when water begins to freeze. Kinda wierd if you think about it.

As far as feet and inches...that will always be the same here. Architects and Mechanical Engineers are too, used to using it in their scalings factors. (1/4" = 1'-0")

Did you know that 100 degrees Fahrenheit was supposed to be set to the human body...but the guy who made the scaling messed up.....98.6 is the real normal temp of the human body. Read that in my old Chemistry book.

[This message has been edited by Threesixty (edited August 15, 2001).]

MMiller8 · « **Reply #17 on:** 2001-08-15 23:44:00 »

Interesting facts! Anyway, I got that ^*&$ing filter back on, and it took me about 45 minutes. Damn my motor skills! I screwed it up, and had to take it apart and put it back together twice! Well, it's all good now. Thanks for all your help, guys!

eerrrr · « **Reply #18 on:** 2001-08-16 12:32:00 »

Heh, how exactly would I go about cleaning the dust out of my PC? I've had it for about 5 years and have never cleaned it out, lol. I've only opened it up once which was a while ago to put a new CD-rewriter in, but I didnt clean it. Any tips?

The SaiNt · « **Reply #19 on:** 2001-08-16 12:36:00 »

The Metric system.
Sometimes you really wonder if there exists a "perfect" measuring system where everything just "fits"

M0T · « **Reply #20 on:** 2001-08-16 15:26:00 »

There cant ever be anything that just fits because wed never adopt it, people would still mix in old systems etc.
To clean the dust out get a can of compressed air and spray it in the case it will blow all the dust away.
BTW anyone in here going to ECTS?

dagsverre · « **Reply #21 on:** 2001-08-16 16:58:00 »

Saint: Don't think that is possible, because there will always be constants. You could somehow change the gravity of earth to be 10 instead of 9.8 but that wouldn't make gravity on the moon fit any better. You could use celsius (actually, the metric system uses kelvin) instead of fahrenheit and make things "fit" with water, but things still doesn't fit for melted iron. So there can't be a perfect system.

Besides from those constants, I think the metric system comes close, except for the fact that ideally one litre should have been 1 m^3 instead of 1 dm^3, and one gram should have been what is now known as a ton.

The litre->kilo conversion and the temperature scale works with water in the metric system, which is not perfect but it's just as good as picking anything wierd as nothing will work on everything...

Anyway, I think americans use a good half of the metric system (well, actually the SI system), like watt, volt, joule, second etc. These all convert good to metre and kilograms. Why americans don't have a seperate joule based on feets and ounces instead I don't know but I'm thankful for it.