Cleaning my CPU cooler...

sbohdan · January 27th, 2007

As everything, CPU coolers get dirty and thus their cooling ability gets degraded, so I decided to remove my bad ass asus Star ice cooler and give it a good sweep

First I removed the 4 screws, that attached it to the MB...

...and proceeded to remove the outer shell. This did reveal the all copper, 6 heat pipe inner guts of my asus. As I suspected, the space between the fins was full of thick dust

:

here it is in all it's dirty glory

:

Now I got out one of my paint brushes and proceeded cleaning the space between the fins:

once the cooler was clean, I just reassembled the the outer shell back around it, reapplied AS5 on the CPU and reattached the bad boy to the MB. My temperatures dropped 3C

I'm very happy with this CPU cooler. this is the 3rd rig I used it in, since I bought it. I allways removed it from the old one and sold the named with it's original intel cooler.

**gvblake22** · January 27th, 2007

Good call!! Looks like the dust bunnies were starting to invade and you stopped 'em just in time!

It's easy to forget about little things like this until it is too late. And what's more than keeping heat dissipation performance at a maximum by cleaning out the dust, you are keeping your components safe and lengthening the lifespan of the fans. With all that dust and grime getting on the blades and in the motor, it really causes issues with the longevity of the bearing and motor. And a failed fan can do a lot more damage than a few globs of dust.

So the moral of the story is: Clean Your Computer!

Seriously, it's a Saturday afternoon, what else do you have to do?!

**stinger608** · January 27th, 2007

Very true Blake!!! Depending on where you live, you should at the very least blow out your system once a month with some of the compressed air in a can!!!

I usually try to tear mine down once every couple of months to do a complete cleaning, and just blow them out every month.

Cyberlon · January 27th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by gvblake22

Seriously, it's a Saturday afternoon, what else do you have to do?!

Does Pr0n have priority over blowing away dust bunnies?

**gvblake22** · January 27th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyberlon

Does Pr0n have priority over blowing away dust bunnies?

What, you gonna go Pr0n fishing all day or something?

Tyreal · January 27th, 2007

The copper core of your cooler looks alot like my old thermaltake 112 heatsink. Same number of heat pipes, but I'd have to see not as many fins.

wtcnbrwndo4u · January 27th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by gvblake22

What, you gonna go Pr0n fishing all day or something?

Yeah, I cleaned out the heatsink of my dead laptop in my room. God that was loaded with dust. I didn't get a chance to clean the fan yet though.

Lol, I broke that laptop even more though. I was trying to remove the CMOS battery, but I broke the entire damn thing off. Haha.

Panda Man · January 27th, 2007

Am I the only one who noticed that he has his motherboard laying on carpet?

Oh well, good call on the HSF.

JazzyJake · January 27th, 2007

i noticed for sure lol
just got to posting

Tyreal · January 27th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Panda Man

Am I the only one who noticed that he has his motherboard laying on carpet?

Oh well, good call on the HSF.

Didn't notice that actually. It's really not that bad you just have to be extremely careful. I would not put any of my components on the carpet.

January 27th, 2007	#1
sbohdan VGA tuner & F@H Moderator Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Ottawa, Canada Posts: 600	Cleaning my CPU cooler... As everything, CPU coolers get dirty and thus their cooling ability gets degraded, so I decided to remove my bad ass asus Star ice cooler and give it a good sweep First I removed the 4 screws, that attached it to the MB... ...and proceeded to remove the outer shell. This did reveal the all copper, 6 heat pipe inner guts of my asus. As I suspected, the space between the fins was full of thick dust : here it is in all it's dirty glory : Now I got out one of my paint brushes and proceeded cleaning the space between the fins: once the cooler was clean, I just reassembled the the outer shell back around it, reapplied AS5 on the CPU and reattached the bad boy to the MB. My temperatures dropped 3C I'm very happy with this CPU cooler. this is the 3rd rig I used it in, since I bought it. I allways removed it from the old one and sold the named with it's original intel cooler. Main rig: Chieftec modded case,MSI P4N Diamond, D830@3.48Ghz,1.4V,928FSB 2GB patriot Extreme Performance 6400@900Mhz, 4-4-4-17 Inno3D 7900GT@542Mhz/1.6Ghz, Thermalright SI-97 Samsung 320GB, Maxtor 250GB; Antec 500W Swiftech NB, Asus StarIceBlue CPU cooler; XP Pro Laptop: Dell XPS 1530 (T7500; 3GB 667 RAM; 160GB 7200rpm HDD; 8600GT; Vista 32bit) my 6800LE mod Last edited by sbohdan; January 27th, 2007 at 23:51.

January 27th, 2007	#2
gvblake22 Modder-ator Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Tempe Desert Posts: 6,356 Blog Entries: 1	Re: Cleaning my CPU cooler... Good call!! Looks like the dust bunnies were starting to invade and you stopped 'em just in time! It's easy to forget about little things like this until it is too late. And what's more than keeping heat dissipation performance at a maximum by cleaning out the dust, you are keeping your components safe and lengthening the lifespan of the fans. With all that dust and grime getting on the blades and in the motor, it really causes issues with the longevity of the bearing and motor. And a failed fan can do a lot more damage than a few globs of dust. So the moral of the story is: Clean Your Computer! Seriously, it's a Saturday afternoon, what else do you have to do?!

January 27th, 2007	#3
stinger608 The Real Final Word Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: In the Zone! Posts: 2,552 Blog Entries: 1	Re: Cleaning my CPU cooler... Very true Blake!!! Depending on where you live, you should at the very least blow out your system once a month with some of the compressed air in a can!!! I usually try to tear mine down once every couple of months to do a complete cleaning, and just blow them out every month.

January 27th, 2007	#6
Tyreal Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: British Columbia, Canada Posts: 2,557	Re: Cleaning my CPU cooler... The copper core of your cooler looks alot like my old thermaltake 112 heatsink. Same number of heat pipes, but I'd have to see not as many fins. I Like Watercooling. D-Tek Fuzion, MCP655, MCR220

January 27th, 2007	#8
Panda Man Meow means woof in cat. Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Elba, AL Posts: 1,907	Re: Cleaning my CPU cooler... Am I the only one who noticed that he has his motherboard laying on carpet? Oh well, good call on the HSF. Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Conroe @ 2.80GHz Cooler Master GeminII - Thanks Rich and HL! GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 (rev. 1.3) EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 320MB @ 726/962 CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (4 x 1GB) DDR2-800 OCZ GameXStream 600W PSU Maxtor 300GB 7200RPM SATA150 16MB cache HDD Seagate 500GB 7200ROM SATA300 16mb cache HDD Sony NEC Optiarc 18X DVD±R DVD Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 7.1 ZyXel m-202 802.11g adapter Antec Nine Hundred Creative 5.1 speakers Viewsonic Optiquest q20wb 20" LCD

January 27th, 2007	#9
JazzyJake i love bawls Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: teh_Earth Posts: 828	Re: Cleaning my CPU cooler... i noticed for sure lol just got to posting

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