I am not a tech person, but I cleaned out my secondhand PC today, and it took hours with the sheer amount of dust accumulation. The fans were nearly overloaded with it!!

Does a clean PC run better / faster than one filled with dust? Or is it more a matter of keeping the fans running easily? Or something else…? Idk, maybe I imagined it, but it seemed to boot much faster after cleaning. Could be wishful thinking!

  • SharkEatingBreakfast@sopuli.xyzOP
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    3 months ago

    WHOA!

    Removing that nearly entire bucket of dust feels justified now! Makes me happy I wasn’t just wasting my time. Thank you!

          • SharkEatingBreakfast@sopuli.xyzOP
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            3 months ago

            Looking into my trash, it’s more like half a bucket, the other half being crumpled paper towels.

            Sadly, I only remembered to take a single one before the process started. You can see an alarming amount of dust on certain parts if you look closely.

            Warning for tech-gore, maybe? Again, I’m not a tech person. The back has always been partially open. This was built by someone else, and it’s… probably not standard.

            • Wow that is… Magnificent! I’m glad you de-dusted it but I’d be more worried about cables becoming disconnected while you’re trying to clean it.

              Glad it worked out for you though! Fingers crossed it continues to work🤗

              FYI the PSU box with those black shielded power cables is meant to fit internally in the big hole at the top 🤣
              I usually use compressed air to clean the dust out of my cases. If you’re feeling adventurous, you could slide that side panel off and attempt to re-home the PSU inside the case.👌🤣

                  • The PSU is sketch but likely fine. I’m more worried about the expansion slot cover that’s barely hanging.
                    I have an old pic somewhere of an old Frankenstein PC with the case cut with tin snips to fit a bigger GPU. It also had an external PSU for a while, although I did add a ground wire between the PSU and case. I’ll see if I can find it.

              • SharkEatingBreakfast@sopuli.xyzOP
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                3 months ago

                Oh, I labeled the cords & disconnected them to clean. Slid the side off to give everything a thorough shine!

                Problem is: this cables connect to this big ho (which I also had to clean very very heavily).

                • Ziglin@lemmy.world
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                  30 days ago

                  It’s meant to be right behind/in the big rectangular hole. It should have some screw holes on the side where it connects to the outlet (likely also has a power switch) that match up with the ones in the case. It looks like there’s an optical drive in the way though. If you like I can try my best to circle them for you.

                  I’d love (hate) to see the computer with the side panel open.

                  • SharkEatingBreakfast@sopuli.xyzOP
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                    30 days ago

                    Fan too big. ):

                    Tbf, I did not build this. A friend did and then sold it to me for a good price! Can’t complain. It’s run pretty good for 6+ years. Though I guess I have no point of comparison.