How often to open up your cabinet ?

G

So today I opened up my pc, took out all parts & cleaned out the dust & there was a lot of it, I do this around every 3 months for about the last one year, since I upgraded to this rig.
I don't really like taking off the cpu fan, The time before I had some trouble putting it on back, This time i cleaned from the outside.

I'm sure there is no definite answer to how often one should do this. Please share your routines on this.

Is there any way I can stop / reduce dust collection inside, may be some kind of filters ? I have no idea on this.

Thanks.

First of all if you removed the cpu fan+heatsink from the motherboard, you spoiled the thermal paste, better get some from your local shop, they may give you the paste which they get with the processors for about Rs. 70 -100.

Personally, I just open the the side cover, check for dust, and if it's present I call up my friend to deliver his cycle pump at my home and then I take out all components and clean them while pushing the pump :-D

There's really no regularity to it, I just keep checking for dust every few days. Last time, I sealed up all the holes except the fan hole, so I expect less dust to be present now.

G

harshilsharma63 said:
First of all if you removed the cpu fan+heatsink from the motherboard, you spoiled the thermal paste, better get some from your local shop, they may give you the paste which they get with the processors for about Rs. 70 -100.

Personally, I just open the the side cover, check for dust, and if it's present I call up my friend to deliver his cycle pump at my home and then I take out all components and clean them while pushing the pump
There's really no regularity to it, I just keep checking for dust every few days. Last time, I sealed up all the holes except the fan hole, so I expect less dust to be present now.

Yeah, The last time I wasn't sure If I was applying thermal paste uniformly over the surface, that's why I didn't bother taking it off this time.
Cycle pump - Good idea; and you sealed up all the holes ? Won't that be a problem with overheating inside ?
I suppose vacuuming is not a good idea with the static electricity thing, is it ?

^ no, sealing them didn't create any problem. I have two intake fans, one blowing cool air directly over cpu fan through a diy cardboard duct and the other over the chippet. There's also an exaust fan. After my exams get over, I'll be doing some nodding job and attaching some more fans just for fun.

Besides, what are your system's temperatures?

One light cleaning every month with just a blower, one complete overhaul cleaning 3 times an year.

G

harshilsharma63 said:
Besides, what are your system's temperatures?

Don't know. I don't really check them.

tkin said:
One light cleaning every month with just a blower, one complete overhaul cleaning 3 times an year.

That's good, I think I should start doing the light cleaning monthly, though the major problem is the dust in the GPU & CPU fan which won't go by just blowing, I need to use those swabs.

Thanks guys for for your suggestions.

^^ If you perform monthly cleaning, there won't be much of those accumulated dusts in your system.
P.S. use blower fan at high RPM.

keep it open all the time
should clean more often, do it only when the cooler stops working and the comp starts rebooting

^

Anorion said:
keep it open all the time
should clean more often, do it only when the cooler stops working and the comp starts rebooting

*i.imgur.com/oTDJFs0.jpg

Just attach a very large heat sink, of the size of the cabinet itself, attach it to your cpu, ram and graphic card and place it outside the cabinet, now you can easily seal the complete cabinet in a polyethine bag, seal it perfectly and you will never encounter any dust problem and the heat sink will keep it cool too.

Usually I open up in like 15-20 days and clean it with a piece of cloth and brushes. Usually clean the system thoroughly in 4-5 months. It takes a lot of time and patience though, cleaning every fin of the fan and all.

Anorion said:
keep it open all the time
should clean more often, do it only when the cooler stops working and the comp starts rebooting

Bad suggestion.
Open setup or semi open chassis = dust magnet..

gameranand said:
Usually I open up in like 15-20 days and clean it with a piece of cloth and brushes. Usually clean the system thoroughly in 4-5 months. It takes a lot of time and patience though, cleaning every fin of the fan and all.

every 15-20 days??? :suicide:

Mine is always open, because i left side panel at my old room while vacating and now whole thing is covered in dust.

furious_gamer said:
Mine is always open, because i left side panel at my old room while vacating and now whole thing is covered in dust.

Why don't you get a different cover then, maybe a different colored one may add a nice color scheme? Or that you like your desh ki mitti? :-D

harshilsharma63 said:
Why don't you get a different cover then, maybe a different colored one may add a nice color scheme? Or that you like your desh ki mitti?

Or hang a bedcover on the side, with some holes in them

I have one cabinet opened from both sides. It requires no fans no cooling systems...nothing, its a old tech-com cheap local crappy cabinet i bought my CPU in 2004.

P.S : There is nothing inside the cabinet. The computer does not run. I destroyed everything, literally ripped them and burned.

d6bmg said:
Bad suggestion.
Open setup or semi open chassis = dust magnet..

thank you for your profound observations, but it was not a suggestion, it was an answer to the question

have to find it first to put it back on, and swipe drives pretty frequently so gonna leave it open

D

use a blower to clean dust of fans.

How much does a blower cost ? I asked in a shop, they quoted Rs 500, it's around 700 online, worth the price ?

I am sure i have more dust inside my cabinet than any of you, i live in a hostel, i haven't cleaned my room since last year, 3 intake fans pull in huge amount of dust, cleaned it on New Year, used a "Pichkari", and a table fan to blow off all the dust, it's really hard to clean it without opening anything with all the wires from SMPS and so many HDDs but i have to keep my PC running all the time ( Read: too lazy )

foly huck 7TB+2TB hdd :shock:

9tb total. lol.
That must be the local piratebay server

Myth said:
9tb total. lol.
That must be the local piratebay server

Hope he has backups, 250GB of anime lost, never again, dvds all the way

tkin said:
Hope he has backups, 250GB of anime lost, never again, dvds all the way

yeah.. i always burn priceless things onto DVDs.. like the full Disney Collection..

DVDs flake after long storage
and go corrupt
store all critical data in the cloud

yeah in India with BSNL :lol:

Anorion said:
DVDs flake after long storage
and go corrupt
store all critical data in the cloud

I use Verbatim DVDs :chucks:

Not a long term solution. Starts with small spots and edges. The heat and himidity exfoliate the layers. You have to keep em absolutely sealed.
Srsly, cloud is better than dvds as a long term storage solution, pls not to trust critical data to dvds, at least create data dumps and email em to yourself

Anorion said:
thank you for your profound observations, but it was not a suggestion, it was an answer to the question

tkin said:
I use Verbatim DVDs

Only those imported Verbatim are good. I've 2 spindle of them along with 1 spindle of 'desi' Verbatim. Those imported ones are very good, but from the desi spindle I already found 5-6 damaged disks.

Anorion said:
Not a long term solution. Starts with small spots and edges. The heat and himidity exfoliate the layers. You have to keep em absolutely sealed.
Srsly, cloud is better than dvds as a long term storage solution, pls not to trust critical data to dvds, at least create data dumps and email em to yourself

DVDs just for media, critical data is all synced using google drive

d6bmg said:
Only those imported Verbatim are good. I've 2 spindle of them along with 1 spindle of 'desi' Verbatim. Those imported ones are very good, but from the desi spindle I already found 5-6 damaged disks.

Mines the foreign one, from Singapore I think.

imported Verbatim DVDs? how are they compared to moserbaer/sony/frontech dvds? and cost of those and shop for buying please.

anirbandd said:
imported Verbatim DVDs? how are they compared to moserbaer/sony/frontech dvds? and cost of those and shop for buying please.

Got them from ebay and flipkart, now only ebay stocks them: Verbatim DVD-R Matt Silver 50pack 16x 4.7gb DVD AZO | eBay

PS: These guys(dvdstoredelhi) import them, last I bought these for 600/- per pack. But even @ 750/- these are worth it. The scans are beyond groovy: *www.thinkdigit.com/forum/reviews/153541-multi-dvd-cd-reviews.html

15/disc hmm.. it can be considered.. have to talk with my cousin.. he uses dvds..
@tkin, thanks!!