Just about time to pull out the air compressor again

antspants · Sep 4, 2023

Edwin said:
I check mine once a year or so, unless it starts feeling/sounding sluggish.

We’re still talking about computers… right?

Ghot · Sep 4, 2023

I use this... RIDGID

Edwin · Sep 4, 2023

antspants said:
We’re still talking about computers… right?

Oh!!!

I thought we were talkin about the thing that..., ummm..., never mind!

IownAmoneyPit · Sep 4, 2023

jds63 said:
Used this for years over canned air, even if i have to bring it outside. Works great well worth cost over time.

Metro Vac

I've had a Metro Vac for a few years now and it also works good for cleaning dust filters.

antspants · Sep 4, 2023

IownAmoneyPit said:
I've had a Metro Vac for a few years now and it also works good for cleaning dust filters.

I had a look earlier today. This thing ranges from between AU$200 to AU$600. Australia is a running joke, they are trying to take us for everything we have. And people can’t even afford to rent a caravan let alone a house or unit. I’d move to America or Canada but I have a fear of carrots and people who smile all the time, respectively. My wife is Canadian, she doesn’t want to go home.

RD Mercer · Sep 4, 2023

When your PC is big enough to where you can almost crawl into it and work on it, cable management is not as crucial. :lmao:

I do have an NVMe M.2 on a card, but you can barely see it, it's under the video card.

JAM83 · Sep 4, 2023

RD Mercer said:
When your PC is big enough to where you can almost crawl into it and work on it, cable management is not as crucial.

View attachment 69973

I love how the SSD is just hanging there. . lol

RD Mercer · Sep 4, 2023

JAM83 said:
I love how the SSD is just hanging there. . lol

Yes! it sure makes it easier to change, to my LTSB and LTSC and to my Windows 7 or 10 drives. :lmao:

I'm running 11 on my M.2. I haven't put the door on that PC since I built it, or really of any of my PC's, I like to keep the hoods up.

Scannerman · Sep 4, 2023

Dru2 said:
Yeah, that was the most expensive system I did to date considering the board itself was $550. CPU was another $525. Add 5 SSDs (2 NVMe, 3 SATA) and the expensive RAM kit. GPU wasn't cheap either. But I was looking to build something high-end, so I went for it.

That said, that has nothing to do with my cabling and cleanliness as I've been that way from the first PC, I owned which was also custom built. Here's an earlier build from around 2011.

View attachment 69946

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Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD 5 board. Intel i7-950. AMD (Sapphire) 6950 GPU. Cooler is a Noctua NH-C12P-SE14. Housed in a Antec P182 case.

I have builds posted in seven, eight, and ten forums. Haven't done a new build since the Red Storm build (first build posted) in 2019.

Two of my four daughters are currently using X58 platforms. One is the GA-X58A and the other is just on an old Dell board. One uses an i 920 Bloomfield and the other uses an i 960. They both used to include AMD (Sapphire ) GPUs. I can't remember the numbers on the more expensive card but the other card was a 6770 and there wasn't much difference between the two anyway. I later swapped both out for MSI 1050 Ti cards and I'm thinking that's about as much as those old i7 Quad cores can handle before bottle necking issues get out of hand. Gigabyte has a good X58 platform and it over clocks well on air cooling. RAM latency on that board was 7-7-7 on 24 GB which is purdee durn good for DDR3. This is the platform my daughter won't let me touch. She'll literally chase me away from her PC if I even suggest upgrading. Even my daughter using the Dell (the one that can't be over clocked) is happy with her PC and refuses to let me upgrade it. Both PCs are fully loaded.

Both daughters know the X58 platform is old and limited. They don't care. The X-58 Legacy lives on.

JAM83 · Sep 4, 2023

RD Mercer said:
Yes! it sure makes it easier to change, to my LTSB and LTSC and to my Windows 7 or 10 drives. I'm running 11 on my M.2. I haven't put the door on that PC since I built it, or really of any of my PC's, I like to keep the hoods up.

lol I have to have the doors on mine. Not sure why either. I'm running 11 on my M.2 drive as well. (I went with M.2 back in January). . I don't regret it.

RD Mercer · Sep 4, 2023

This is my Asus P6T Deluxe V2 machine, running 24 Gig of ram with a Xeon 5690 running @4.3 GHz. I know, the cable management on this machine is so bad, it would make you want to slap your momma. :lmao:

Scannerman · Sep 4, 2023

Ghot said:
Yeah, I don't know if it would be better or worse in my comp...
That's an ATX motherboard in mine.

View attachment 69957

That's a very practical looking unit you have there. I like the way you labelled your drives.

glasskuter · Sep 4, 2023

@Dru2 That thing is an absolute work of art and i can only dream. And lit up, it looks like something out of a futuristic movie.
I definitely think when it comes to clean,neat, and beautiful, you take the prize. You built something to be proud of.

I try to clean mine regularly because it's probably going to be the last one I ever own. And with my nasty smoking habit, I have to really stay after nicotine as it builds up fairly quickly even with fans pulling smoke away from the PC. Nothing is nastier than that buildup, nor harder to clean. Every month I use a compressor to blow out dust and wipe down what I can with alcohol. Once a year in December I completely disassemble it to fine clean everything, even the screws. Takes all damn day, sometimes two if I screw up putting it back together.

I tried to quit my horrible habit multiple times, but I've done it so long, it's a little late now. Except for cussin' it's the only vice (and enjoyment) I have left.....except for food...and Dos Equis...and margharitas...and an X-rated movie occassionally :shush:

RD Mercer · Sep 4, 2023

glasskuter said:
@Dru2I tried to quit my horrible habit multiple times, but I've done it so long, it's a little late now. Except for cussin' it's the only vice (and enjoyment) I have left.....

I'll be 72 in October, never have smoked cigarettes, "just weed" quit that in 1995. and have rarely drink. All the young folks I hang around with sometimes, really get onto me because of my diet, they're just jealous, because I still physically look the same as I did 30 years ago. I do have the worlds worst ice cream habit, maybe I should move to Brenham closer to Blue Bell. I will say this, being single and living a clean life, is not easy, sometimes I really just want to go out dancing, and have about 15 tequila shots, and of course Uber back home, and pass out for a few days, that should about get me caught up.

Scannerman · Sep 4, 2023

glasskuter said:
Once a year in December I completely disassemble it to fine clean everything, even the screws. Takes all damn day, sometimes two if I screw up putting it back together.

I'm thinking I should adopt this annual practice. I ain't luggin' an 82 pound PC up the stairs every month to put a compressor to it, but somehow the annual tear down, clean up, and rebuild makes sense to me. Lots of work in my case though... PC is fully loaded and then some. It would be a lot to put back together. If I do it September would be the time. Will have to wait for a dry, sunny day. Up here snow stays on the ground in Oct.

Wolfzz · Sep 4, 2023

I'm in IT and I own a Air Compressor as a lot of clients bring their computers to me and oh my god they are filthy and I blow them out before I bring them into my office. One of my clients computer I cant believe it was even working without over heating.

Codex · Sep 4, 2023

Dru2 said:
Being I'm obsessive about dust and cable management I'd fall over in horror if the inside of my case looked like that

This is mine. And it's still that clean as I just did a dust job last week

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Backside of the Cooler Master H500M is a dream for cable management...

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And please, I mean no offense to anyone as I know not everyone is into cable management / dusting. As I said, I'm obsessive here.

I do custom computer setup. To make computer clean look
#1 Goal is to change all cable to custom sleeve. In short any computer casing paired with cable sleeve will look nice.
#2 It is better to buy an casing that has a rubber grommet
#3 make your gpu to vertical position
#4 Buy a casing that hides PSU cable

Wolfzz · Sep 4, 2023

Here are a couple of pictures of my personal computer a bit different to my clients one above

Ghot · Sep 4, 2023

Scannerman said:
That's a very practical looking unit you have there. I like the way you labelled your drives.

I just labeled the picture.

I like labeling... pictures.

RD Mercer · Sep 4, 2023

Wolfzz said:
I'm in IT and I own a Air Compressor as a lot of clients bring their computers to me and oh my god they are filthy and I blow them out before I bring them into my office. One of my clients computer I cant believe it was even working without over heating.

View attachment 69984 View attachment 69985

Wow! that's crazy, I have a pretty clean barn, I have to take mine out there to blow out, if not the dust if I did it inside, would kill me with my allergies. The Alienware box, is heavy as heck, so I just try to get it out on the deck, and run the compressor hose from the barn to the deck.