The unseen enemy - Dust!

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Unless your home PC happens to be in a room with a CRAC (Computer Room Air Conditioner) its probably suffering like most BOINC / Gridcoin machines with issues around heat. More column inches in consumer computing articles nowdays probably go to issues around heat management than anything else, what case to get, should you air cool or water cool, TDP, airflow etc.

Those in the Northern hemisphere its winter and the heating is on, and those in the Southern hemishere its summer; doesnt matter where you are its a problem, and unless you are prepared to compute in a scarf and mittens like Bob Cratchit in Scrooge, sorting out hot components isnt a breeze.

Heat isnt just about efficiency of the rig, or component lifetime either, hotter machines typically have higher fan speeds which means more noise as well; it can make you tired having that constant noise in the background.

However one of the simplest remedies to heat, is to clean your case, more specifically the dust filters on the air intakes. If you are lucky your PC case will have removable dust filters like mine

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They dont look too bad, but on closer inspection, YUK!

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And after 60 seconds of work

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much better!

But does this few minutes of effort really make any difference. Here are my Tthrottle temps before cleaning

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And after

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I can also say my machine is much quieter and more pleasant to be around.

How often you need to do this varies, unfortunately my machine is on the floor and its air intakes are on the bottom of the case so it probably needs more attention, but if you didnt do this for a while, now may be time.

Happy Crunchin'

The unseen enemy - Dust! | Ecency