dust cause heat buildup?

[sweeper2]

I am wondering if dust can cause heat buildup on cpu and motherboard...I'm sure it can, but how much dust will it take? I have noticed my pc system temps going up lately and my cpu temps also. I have case fans, one 80 mm on bottom intake in front, one 80 mm on side intake for HD, one 80 mm intake for pci slots, exhaust 3200 rpm pci slot fan and exhaust 92mm top rear fan, also the power supply fans, the video card fan and heatsink and the cpu fan and heatsink. How often should I blow out the pc? And what can I do to prevent all the dust. Is there inside filters I could put on so it doesn't show on the outside of case? I have 2 cats and a dog but I try and keep my house pretty clean, plus the pc is on a table about 3 feet up. I am guessing I should just clean as often as possible, but how much damage can i do by blowing off the components to often?

thanks

[jmebonner]

It has to be a pretty fair amount to cause heat buildup, IMO. I wish I'd taken pics of the one I'm working on right now. I opened it and dust was just falling out in clumps Not a good thing. It was overheating the cpu and causing instability. Just a light film is nothing to get excited about. I blo mine out about twice a year. I've noticed people that live on dirt roads are the ones with the worst problmes, case in point, the one I just opened. It really makes a big difference.

[Brainchild]

Yeah a lot of dust can cause problems with CPU,and PSU.Also dust on the Fan blades can cause one to fail.IMO anyway.
But like jmebonner says it has to be a significant amount.

like this would be a problem

[sweeper2]

well i must say..mines no where near that...

man, where did they dig that up "literaly"

going to blow it out and see what happens, just got back with some compressed air, any ideas on filters??

[elroy]

I've seen 2 problems with dust.
[1] dust that clogs up the vents on the p/s
[2] dust clogging up the fins on the cpu heatsink

In the 1st case I had a machine in for repair that the p/s had burned up due to the vents being completly blocked by dust.
I vacuum my computers out every few months. I use a 1 inch long bristle paint brush to dislodge the dust while holding the vacuum nozzle nearby.

[StealthyV]

wow. looks like that person never heard of "zip ties" haha.

all that dust...that looked like a pentium one from the early 90's.

keep a high-powered vacuum nearby for sucking out the dust, and a Hepa-Filter in the same room would be helpful; removes dust and allergens from the air, reducing the kicked-up dust in the room.

~Branson

[nochay]

smoking + dust = Tar Death. Luckily, I have never seen a computer that someone who puffed like a smokestack owned, but I have heard they are nasty. don't smoke!

Dane

[sweeper2]

well, I blew out the cpu and heat sink and blew out the fans as well, and got it to drop a good deal...didn't look that dirty, but was alot of hair and dust inside the heatsink fins. Running normal temps now. Guess I will try and get some kind of filter system for my pc fans so i can just blow them out if possible.

[Maniaman]

Dust can definately cause heat buildups. I cleaned out an old computer of mine last week, that has the side panels off and had been running for over a year without being cleaned. The dust inside the psu/cpu fan was scary. I also found bugs living between the motherboard and bottom of my case.

[tgxiii]

That's bad, Maniaman. Reminds me of my friend who had his Xbox repaired. The repairman had to charge him for extra labor: turns out his Xbox was filled with roach eggs and they had to be cleaned out before he could service it.