No Price Many people Locating - My Cool New Diversion!

Well now I've gotten a bit older, and I finally found a reason to dust - a cooler running computer. The computer is running at standard speeds and specifications, and has always been very stable - but not 100%. My initial thought was that the computer was overheating, specifically the CPUs.

In unscientific testing I'd say my computer was absolutely more stable after the reduction in temperature.

Should you dust your computer? Dust blocks fans in your case, which generally cool you CPU, video card and motherboard components. Dust also blocks fans and their airflow into and out of your case. If the airways are blocked, system temperature can rise quickly. If your computer is stable but the CPU is running too hot, you cut down on its lifespan, potentially quickly.

More important to many people though, may be the result of that first heat related computer lock up. Even if it's never been a problem before, if your computer crashes at the wrong time it can be catastrophic.

Of course, reducing heat is also always a priority for people who overclock their CPU. I have an old dual CPU system that was supposed to run at 366 MHz. If my hard drive crashes and ultimately loses data, that could be a much more problematic situation.

I opened up the system and saw more dust than computer. I put the case back on and took temperature readings of my computer both idle and when working. The tests are all run are on the following system:

CPU - Dual AMD Athlon MP 2000+ (1.67 GHz) Motherboard - AMD K7-D RAM - 1024 MB RAM (2 x 512 MB registered DDR 2100) Video Card - Matrox Parhelia AGP 128 MB HD - Segate 5400 rpm- st320410a Windows XP SP2

For the idle readings the computer was freshly booted into Windows. To get the computer running at full load I ran two instances of Prime95, a math application that will max out a CPU (2 copies running, one each for 2 CPUs), and copied 2 GB of Music on the hard drive to another folder on the same drive. Remember, each CPU type has a different recommended temperature range.

Dusting the computer

The most notable exception is your CPU.

Idle, CPU 1 saw an 18% reduction in temperature, while CPU 2 is 10% cooler.

At full load, CPU 1 is 21% cooler and CPU 2 is 12% cooler.

It's interesting that originally CPU 1 was hotter than CPU 2, and after the cleaning they switched.

The hard drive temperature saw a 9% improvement while idle after dusting, and again a 9% improvement at full load. There is defiantly room for improvement as well. At the very least, I can be sure CPU heat is not the problem, as now they are running at very acceptable temperatures. Your own results will vary, and may not be as dramatic if your computer wasn't as dusty as mine. Regardless, you should see some reduction in component temperature after cleaning your system.

If it's dusty, $7 and an hour of your time seems like a good investment to increase the life of your computer and prevent system lock ups.

Dusting Your Computer - Keeping it Cool

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Fast ; Easy.