problem with "thin fin" type heatsinks.

[Intrepid]

I have an MCX4000 and it cools nice, at first. but over time it gets cloged with dust really easy, I noticed when installing that the pins are very close on it, this seeems to allow dust to collect really well. also had this problem with the coolermaster HHC-001 on my old XP2000+ system.

 

[Jeff7477]

get a fast enough fan and dust doesn't get a chance to get stuck

 

[OSUmaxx]

get a fast enough fan and dust doesn't get a chance to get stuck

I still had dust accumulation with my SLK-800 and tornado around the edges. You just need to clean it every few months.

 

[Intrepid]

yeah. or get a loud fan. but we don't want that. i'm al lfor cleaning it, or...I might jsut have to seee how it operates inside a freezer (in reference to my thread in alt modding)

 

[CrashOveride]

get a can of compressed air and spray in ther every once and a while... it gets it out pretty well.. then every time you take it off give it a good clean and get everythign out

 

[Intrepid]

dah..so much for low maintenance. my case was TOXIC when i opened it up too. man the mobo well..it's a MAX2 christ it's only 6 months old! and my last upgrade when i ripped it all out was november 22nd when Spyder did some stuff to my case.

 

[su root]

One thing to try: keep it in a dust-free environment -- if you smoke, dont' smoke at/around your computer. Also, depending on how your case is set up, usually you syphen new air from the bottom front, and spill hot air out the back. If this is the case, make sure it isn't sucking up dust from the carpets. Maybe elevate it a bit. Another thing -- when you dust out your computer, do it in another room or outside, so the dust doesn't just get thrown into the air, and settle later, just to be sucked back into the case.

Makes you wonder about the people who have like 5 month uptimes -- only bringing down the system for new hardware, and a cleanout.

 

[Intrepid]

what about the pour techie sob who opens up a system that hasnt been opened in 3 years?

 

[su root]

what about the pour techie sob who opens up a system that hasnt been opened in 3 years?

That would be my old job.. cracking open P1s (or 486's in some cases) which were used in classrooms/labs/shops and swapping NICs/parts that didn't work.

One machine I ran across, "was crashing randomly", i took off the case, and all I could see was dust -- I mean the dust had completely took up ALL empty space in the case.. it was ALL dust. Hmm.. i wonder if it's an airflow problem? The CPU fan had siezed up, me=not surprised.

Another machine I plugged in caught fire due to the dust in the PSU. Never can get enough of that "burning computer parts smell"

 

[CrashOveride]

That would be my old job.. cracking open P1s (or 486's in some cases) which were used in classrooms/labs/shops and swapping NICs/parts that didn't work.

One machine I ran across, "was crashing randomly", i took off the case, and all I could see was dust -- I mean the dust had completely took up ALL empty space in the case.. it was ALL dust. Hmm.. i wonder if it's an airflow problem? The CPU fan had siezed up, me=not surprised.

Another machine I plugged in caught fire due to the dust in the PSU. Never can get enough of that "burning computer parts smell"

lmao!

you could always get filters for all of your in fans if you get the aluminum ones you just take em out a scrape off the dust

 

[Intrepid]

ahh. filter material is cheep jsut buy it in sheets and cut it up to your needs. and only the intakes usualy need filtering, espeicaly the ones by the floor!

 

[CrashOveride]

ahh. filter material is cheep jsut buy it in sheets and cut it up to your needs. and only the intakes usualy need filtering, espeicaly the ones by the floor!

thats what i did... hten i took em out and just decided to clean a little more often... i didnt like changing htem and they looked bad and im too cheap for aluminum ones

 

[su root]

thats what i did... hten i took em out and just decided to clean a little more often... i didnt like changing htem and they looked bad and im too cheap for aluminum ones

One good idea I've heard is to use furnace filters. If you do it right, you should be able to cut it up into small squares. One furnace filter should last you quite a long time (as they're huge), and shouldn't impede air flow that much. They're also cheap. I think they use static electricity as a way of getting dust to stick, which is effective.

 

[CrashOveride]

One good idea I've heard is to use furnace filters. If you do it right, you should be able to cut it up into small squares. One furnace filter should last you quite a long time (as they're huge), and shouldn't impede air flow that much. They're also cheap. I think they use static electricity as a way of getting dust to stick, which is effective.

you mean those big things with the cardboard type frame thing?
if it is i considered this too but they are kinda thick... i wouldnt do it now cuz its ugly but i had though about it before...

 

[su root]

you mean those big things with the cardboard type frame thing?
if it is i considered this too but they are kinda thick... i wouldnt do it now cuz its ugly but i had though about it before...

I had thought about them before, they are pretty thick, but as far as I know, you could just compress it. For mine, I ended up using air-filters specifically made for the vents in my room.. just cut out a square and used it. I think it was a little to hard on the fan though, so I took it out.

 

[grunjee]

I feel your pain

Same heatsink and same problem. It's convinced me to go back to watercooling (not that I needed convincing).

Mine gets clogged down with dust after about a month. Might not sound bad but the MCX4000 is a PITA to get off, not to mention dangerous. It is so easy to gouge your motherboard with that thing...

I know exactly when it gets clogged because one day my temps rise about 4 degrees. Just happened yesterday in fact! It's so frustrating.

It's a shame because it's a fine piece of work and a good performer. Unfortunately it's going to be a paperweight now

 

[modenaf1]

do those filters cut down the airlow of the fans?

 

[su root]

do those filters cut down the airlow of the fans?

Yes, they would cut down the air flow, but it would be clean air going through.. you wouldn't have to clean out your case very often, just change the filters every once in a while.

 

[Stedeman]

make your computer room more dust free by putting a hepa filter/ ionc filter in the same room and run it all the time this is what I do and it knocked my clean time down to once a year

 

[Gnufsh]

get a fast enough fan and dust doesn't get a chance to get stuck

Sadly, this is not entirely correct. The velocity of the fluid (in this case air) flowing accross a surface aproaches 0 as you approach the surface. So, the more air you pump through, the faster the overall airflow, but just above the surface, the air is hardly moving, and dust will accumulate. I suppose if you pumped enough air through the heatsink that the air half a dust particle's diameter above the surface was moving fast enough to rip the dust of, you could end up dust free. On second thought, you'd just end up with finer dust. Increasing airflow will have the effect of reducing the massive dust-bunny-type accumulation. I must stress that I have done no calculations or tests, but it is something to think about. What if increasing the airflow increased dust accumulation by bring more dust into contact with the heatsink? I would imagine at the very least that the patter of dust accumulation changes with airflow, but I'm not sure how. Perhaps you have bigger, flufier dust with less airflow, and dense, fine dust with higher airflow. My main point is that these things need to be calculated, thought about, and tested before blanket statements are made with out a disclamer that this is all merely conjecture, or, at best, anecdotal evidence. On the other hand, I don't see major scientific journals publishing articles about dust accumulation and airflow on high-end PC heatsinks. There is likely to be other data that can be adapted to this situation, then tested to see how the data fits our conclusions, but I don't have the time, nor the perfectly controlled environment to even begin.

-Dan