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| A time comes when you got to do what you got to do. |
Christmas, New year holidays, time for your loved ones: family, friends and rigs.
Cleaning the dust off your rigs has several benefits:
1. Increases GPU / ASIC / CPU lifespan.
2. Increases the fans lifespan.
3. Lowers the fan speed.
4. Lowers the noise.
5. Lowers the power draw (lower fan speed=lower electric bill).
6. Lowers the chance for component failure or short circuit.
7. When all works fine, you have more time to spent around human beings.
Tools needed:
An air compressor. Second best is leaf blower, third is a can of compressed air. You can also use hard brush or anything usefull to remove the dust, wet micro fiber towel, vacuum cleaner can help too.
General steps:
1. Power off the rig and disconnect it from power.
2. Take it out at an open space outside.
3. Blow the dust out of the heatsink fins.
*If using a compressor:
Drain the air compressor of moisture - you may have to pressurize it for extra draining power. Moisture gets into the tank when you are filling it with warmer air, that typically has more moisture in it. When the air cools down, the moisture pools at the bottom of the tank - there should be a drain there if you spent enough money on your air compressor. (recommendation by skyroket from Reddit)
If not available, use a can of compressed air. If you want to go full cheap, get a brush, scrape the dust off and then blow it away or collect with vacuum cleaner. Be careful with air compressors. If they are set to too high PSI, they can force tha fans to spin too fast and break them. Either adjsut the PSI to a safe amount or apply compressed air from bigger distance first, so you can find the best distance for your fan. Hold the fans with your hand to avoid spinning them too fast. If you have moist climate, the dust usually forms a black, sticky substance. You can use slightly moist cloth (I recommend a microfiber towel) to clean the sticky dust.
Try not to blow the dust further into the heatsink fins. Blow it OUT. (recommendation by skyroket from Reddit)
