Extremely dusty heatsink, is this the norm?

lynx6200

New Member
Im using an xp-90 heatsink with a thermaltake silent cat fan on it. Its been cooling the cpu fine, and I finally just took it off after about 2 years to switch mother boards, and noticed the heatsink was extremely dusty, as well as the fan, but not as much.

There where big chunks of dust in it, which I was able to clean out for the most part with one of those air dusters, I dont know how else it could be cleaned...

So im wondering if this is normal, for the heatsink to become extremely dusty/full of dust? Are you typicaly supposed to clean these things on a regular basis?

One thing Ive noted, is my 80mm fan on the side, blows directly towards the heatsink/cpu, so I dont know if this has much to do with it, as it would be difficult to move anyway.

Thanks for your help.
 
Even better, put some sort of filter material over your intake fans. Anything really. Then, every few days, you can just bend over and scrape the dust off the intake filter, easy peasy.
 
it's nice to have an air compressor handy, but if you are like me, you run down to the gas station and have a bunch of people stare at you because they think you're trying to fill your computer w/ air, lol
 
Yeah, I guess the filter thing should work, Ill give that a try. Other than that, Im not sure its worth it to detach the heatsink every so often, as that takes a bit of work, and re-applying the grease.
 
it's nice to have an air compressor handy, but if you are like me, you run down to the gas station and have a bunch of people stare at you because they think you're trying to fill your computer w/ air, lol

LMFAO WOW YOU'RE AWSOME
 
Yeah, I guess the filter thing should work, Ill give that a try. Other than that, Im not sure its worth it to detach the heatsink every so often, as that takes a bit of work, and re-applying the grease.


who said something about removing the heatsinkt from the CPU? ;)
 
Depending on the HSF in question, it's often easier to remove the fan from the top of the heatsink, to facilitate cleaning of both parts.
 
it's nice to have an air compressor handy, but if you are like me, you run down to the gas station and have a bunch of people stare at you because they think you're trying to fill your computer w/ air, lol

Just don't grab the wrong hose and spray water all over it lol



I say buy some canned air for regular mantinence. Home air compressor works the best for dusty computers.
 
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