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!

  • dan1101@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    Yes if a modern computer gets too hot the CPU will throttle itself and the fans will run faster.

    If the computer is on the floor try to get it off the floor at least somewhat. Set it on a box or something.

    • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 months ago

      On top of that modern computers are essentially designed to run as fast as they possibly can while staying just under their max temperature. Especially laptops, they will regularly kiss 100c as part of turbo boost.

      Your GPU has a much lower temperature limit and starts throttling way sooner than its max rated temp since they do NOT like running hot. Your CPU will tolerate it, but your GPU is far too large of a chip for this temperature fluctuations.

  • breadsmasher@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Dust traps heat and blocks airflow, fans run worse etc. More heat means more likely the system will throttle down to keep temperatures manageable

  • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    I have one computer that I can tell is dirty because the CPU and video fans run at max all the time, and the machine slows down (I’m sure it self-throttlws, I have the bios configured to be sensitive to heat).

    Clean it and it’s quiet as can be, runs fine.

  • neidu2@feddit.nl
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    2 months ago

    Yes, especially laptops. Dust leads to heat buildup, which is detrimental to performance.
    This goes doubly so for laptops, as the cooling rarely has more than one flow “channel”. I open my laptop an clean it out once a year, as it runs somewhat hot even when perfectly clean.

  • dustyData@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    An old Pentium III an extended family member had burned itself out of disrepair. The computer was used for about a decade before being forgotten, but plugged in for some other 5 years. Then they had the bright idea of using the old computer without cleaning it. It all went well for a while it boot up and otherwise was it old win7 self. Except, a couple of days later they let it on overnight. The house owner was awaken alarmed by the fumes of burning plastic and a faint trail of smoke coming from the case.

    The over a decade buildup of dust had been trapping heat so bad that some old shoddy HDD power cable melted partially exposing the conducting wires. Then it short circuited and arced through the dust setting some lint on fire.

    The flame was minuscule and it was controlled fast. But I would say that, it is indeed wise to clean your computers, at least once in a while.

    • AdNecrias@lemmy.pt
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      2 months ago

      Pentium III, win7?! Do those motherboards even accept enough memory for what post vista OS slurps?

      • dustyData@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Listen, that computer was manhandled and abused for almost two decades. You’d be shocked by the weird things they got it to do. Part of the hazard was all the Chinese “upgrades” it got over time.

  • That_Devil_Girl@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    Computers need to be relatively cool to function properly.

    Dust acts as a heat insulator, trapping heat inside.

    Dust also clogs the cooling fans from doing their job.

    Most computers have built-in features that auto throttle or even self shut-down if the heat gets too high.

    More dust = more heat = more speed throttling & shutdowns.

    • Siegfried@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Half a year worth of my lovely fur ball sitting on the top of my desktop was enough to entirely block 1/4 of my CPU heatsink in a highly vemtilated room. I would have thought that it was uniformly distributing everywhere. Nope, it wasn’t.

      Just open it and do a quick pick. And pet that bastard for me.

      • JetpackJackson@feddit.org
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        2 months ago

        Luckily my cats don’t sit on the PC, but I haven’t cleaned it in years and I can see a fine layer of dust and cat fur on the power supply and the drives. I’ll have to clean this weekend. And I’ll pet the cats for you :3