Spring clean on an elderly PC.

[spoonsinger]

So got gifted £100 on my Amazon account and thought well it's that time of year to do some maintenance, but always could do with some options.

 

PC is an old 8120 with 32Gb and 7 internal drivers. (Main drive an 11 year old 256gb M4 SSD, Then have a 512gb Seagate Hybrid, A 500gb EVO, (basically Skyrim + mods), A 256gb EVO random Steam Games, A 512GB Western Digital spinny, (random VHD PC backups for clients and music), A 512GB Seagate spinny, (random old code and DB stuff which may or not be useful in the future), and another 256gb EVO with random Steam Games. There is also the equivalent of USB drives hanging off the PC for backups. 

 

I have some spare gloop to re-ink the CPU, so that's fine. The power supply is fine as far as I can tell from the meters. So thought well this year get myself a corded blower rather than canned air. So was thinking to spend the dosh on:-

 

1) XPOWER A-2 Multi Electric Computer Duster Dryer Air Pump, (corded)

2) Crucial BX 1TB SSD to swap out the 512gb EVO, (Skyrim drive). Then use the 512gb EVO as a replacement for the M4 boot which is down to 71% ware. (It has lasted well). 

 

Both those basically fit into my price range, so wondering if anybody has any experience of either?

[Grey Cloud]

Just a couple of thoughts.

Is the PC in an environment which would require the fancy-dan air pump?

Will the air pump put any extra strain on your PSU?

[spoonsinger]

42 minutes ago, Grey Cloud said:

Just a couple of thoughts.

Is the PC in an environment which would require the fancy-dan air pump?

Will the air pump put any extra strain on your PSU?

 

The air pump is to blow out dust rather than using canned air during cleaning. Actually will also be useful for other peoples PC's when having to do maintenance. I don't use many a year, but if I had something which just plugs into the wall and point at the open case, I suspect it would actually be cheaper in the long run. (Also 'people' never have them around when you need them). 

 

(PC cooling wise, it has 3 intakes and 3 exhausts, most of which are the old Gentle Typhoons, and I think an odd Zalman, The two other fans came with the case and are emm, probably need replacing, but not really important. So actual cooling isn't really a problem). 

[27X]

remember to jam fans with straws or dowels before doing anything with air, also avoid doing anything directly parallel to the traces if there's a shit ton of latent dust because static is a hell of a drug.

[pinky6225]

On 5/20/2023 at 12:47 PM, spoonsinger said:

1) XPOWER A-2 Multi Electric Computer Duster Dryer Air Pump, (corded)

 

I brought one of these after seeing your post (and deciding it was about time i cleaned my PC) and it worked pretty well, was able to clean the entire PC without it getting to hot to use (some reviews i saw mentioned it getting quite hot) although it is quite powerful so i only used the low power setting and that was blowing stuff clear across the table

 

My one complaint would be the attachments as while there is one that is very small (similar to the straws you'd get with cans of compressed air) it didn't have much reach so i ended up using one of the longer connector ones instead

[spoonsinger]

29 minutes ago, pinky6225 said:

 

I brought one of these after seeing your post (and deciding it was about time i cleaned my PC) and it worked pretty well, was able to clean the entire PC without it getting to hot to use (some reviews i saw mentioned it getting quite hot) although it is quite powerful so i only used the low power setting and that was blowing stuff clear across the table

 

My one complaint would be the attachments as while there is one that is very small (similar to the straws you'd get with cans of compressed air) it didn't have much reach so i ended up using one of the longer connector ones instead

 

Sheepish reply. I did get one at the tail end of last week, (after umming and erring). But then was given a 2Tb MX500, so needed to use the last of the spring sunny weather to get it installed - which meant taking the PC apart in the garden and blasting it ? Very effective it was too.  I just used the one big snoozle  - which seemed fine for my purposes, (made sure the case fans were firmly non spinning).   Also - as pointed out - very good for blowing paper off a desk at distance, if such a task is required and/or you want grumpy looks from owner of said desk.

 

Cheers.