Hey GB my computer was overheating like crazy so decided to open her up ...i have seen some threads on Giantbomb where people show the inside of their computers so i thought i would show you what mine looks like .
I dunno if what i have is that great but here you go ...
My USB ports were not working also so i rang up my computer customer support from where i bought it from and they told me to take out the bottom usb ports and discconect the card reader at the front ...so i did and the usb ports started working :)
haha i didnt realise how dusty the inside could get i almost had a astma attack opening this shit up ..
@turbomonkey138: o lol. i thought it was old because of how simple the inside is compared to say my computer. Pentium 4 3.4ghz, 2gigs, Nvidia 7900gt 512MB.
My family's computer got ridiculously dusty inside and at one point it actually affected it working so much we had to remove the side panel on the case and leave it in the garden to blow all the dust out.
Ha-ha, yeah some of us just had this conversation yesterday. How Often Do You Clean Your PC? I opened mine this past weekend and was surprised how much dust had accumulated since the last time I popped the side to install a new GPU. I now plan to keep a closer eye on such things. Once every couple of months I think in addition to keeping the fans and vents free.
I think every 6 months or so it's probably a good call to open it and take a vacuum to that thing to clear out the dust. I had a friend with some performance issues that I swear were due to overheating because there was so much dust inside the tower.
" I think every 6 months or so it's probably a good call to open it and take a vacuum to that thing to clear out the dust. I had a friend with some performance issues that I swear were due to overheating because there was so much dust inside the tower. "
Vacuum cleaners generate a lot of static electricity. If the built up static discharges into one of your components you could irreparably damage it.
" I think every 6 months or so it's probably a good call to open it and take a vacuum to that thing to clear out the dust. I had a friend with some performance issues that I swear were due to overheating because there was so much dust inside the tower. "
Vacuum cleaners generate a lot of static electricity. If the built up static discharges into one of your components you could irreparably damage it. "
The most important thing might be to clean the dust off the case fan(s) so that air can flow freely thruout. it also helps to blow compressed air into the heatsink/fan and the GPU fan and of course give the whole thing a good blow-dusting. Honestly I only clean my computer when I notice it is running hotter than usual. Speedfan is good for monitoring that sort of thing: http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php
I swear the first time I've ever opened my old computer in 4-5 years since buying it; was fucking dusty as hell. The ventilation for the PSU was pratically sealed off.
There's nothing wrong with getting it from a website, you just need to find good builders. For example, Digital Storm offers the best build quality in the biz, look how clean the wiring is on this beast (not my PC btw):
Look how fucking clean it is. The PCIe power connectors are pretty much the only wiring there, and even then only out of necessity. It helps air flow, which in turn decreases dust buildup and overheating.
I opened my old one up a few times to add another drive for it, cleaning, and some fixing up. I've had my new one for about a year now, and I have yet to open it up and see what's inside.
" @iam3green: its not that old though its only a year old haha . here are my specs 8190mb RAM 2.83 GHz Quad core N-vidia gtx 260 vista 64 bit 1TB hardrive "
Damn. Got enough RAM there? lol. I would show mine, but its a laptop.
There's nothing wrong with getting it from a website, you just need to find good builders. For example, Digital Storm offers the best build quality in the biz, look how clean the wiring is on this beast (not my PC btw):
Look how fucking clean it is. The PCIe power connectors are pretty much the only wiring there, and even then only out of necessity. It helps air flow, which in turn decreases dust buildup and overheating. "
Holy shit that's some good cable managment, are those corsair cases good?
Since I'm at work at the moment, I can't take a snapshot of the inside of my home computer but anyways.. *this* is how mine looks like inside. Nice cable management, eh?
@Black_Raven: It's not the case, it's the builders. Digital Storm is known for having the best build quality in the business; in that case what they did was take off the right-side panel and hide all of the wiring there, taking care to twist-tie it as well so it doesn't get messy. I'm not sure what case that is but the HAF 932 has the same capability.
I don't understand why people put LED lights in their computers. I find the power button light annoying enough. Not to mention, who's looking at your PC? Mine just gets hidden away under my desk so that all I have visible are my speakers, my keyboard, my two monitors, and my mouse. Even my laptop has its own hidden docking station so no one has to see it when in-use. I just don't understand the allure of "sexifying" a PC. Then again, I hate clutter, so anything unecessary has to go, or be well-hidden.
" I don't understand why people put LED lights in their computers. I find the power button light annoying enough. Not to mention, who's looking at your PC? Mine just gets hidden away under my desk so that all I have visible are my speakers, my keyboard, my two monitors, and my mouse. Even my laptop has its own hidden docking station so no one has to see it when in-use. I just don't understand the allure of "sexifying" a PC. Then again, I hate clutter, so anything unecessary has to go, or be well-hidden. "
Some people like having their stuff on display, especially expensive stuff.
I'm not one of those people, so my computer is under the desk. :P
@Geno: Those Corsair cases are just the Lian Li PC-P50 Armorsuit models rebadged. Yes, they are great. The BTX style design places the PSU on the bottom but unlike the older BTX standard the PSU's fan is placed downwards with the intake taking air from under the case via filter in the case floor. This means that no PSU heated air is let into the case and also considerably lowers the potential that dust will flow over the motherboard. Also those Lian Li cases have cable clamping slots at the bottom of the case just slightly ahead of the PSU so that you can make sure that the PSU cables are easily managed and redirected to the rear of the MOBO and drive compartments neatly. The Corsar versions don't have this feature.
You can see the cable clamps just off the bottom right hand corner.
@SeriouslyNow: Ah yes, those are definitely good ones. Lian Li is arguably the best case manufacturer but I think they're also a little overpriced; the PC-P50 however is fairly good value for price, coming in at the same price as the Antec 1200 or HAF 932, all very good cases.
@Geno: Yeah, especially in Australia where all the cases that are really good seem overpriced against the UK and US values. I love my Lian Li PC 58 still even though it's quite old, but I'm beginning to think its fan setup (2x10mm front and rear + 1x10mm top) is a little to noisy for my liking so I've been looking around for a new case and so far I'm torn between the HAF922 or Antec 902 as cases that fall within my budget. If I could justify the extra 50-70 bucks I'd go with the Lian Li PC-P50 because out of all the cases I've owned none of them compare to Lian Li's build quality or ergonomic design. My PC 58 still has more room than most modern and larger cases.
Frankly, I'm afraid to open my up, meaning that it's looong overdue for a cleaning. I just remember hearing this one story where customer service was carelessly instructing this one person to open up their PC and it caused the insides to completely crash down. That, and we're talking 5 years of accumulated dust here. That's gotta be potent stuff.
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