Just a reminder...

[Billy_Bat]

Its time to blow the dust out of your boxen, and renew the thermal interface material.
I just did it, so you should too!!! :D :D :D

[phil]

Pah, if you upgrade often enough this becomes a non-issue :D

[Bruce]

Originally posted by phil
Pah, if you upgrade often enough this becomes a non-issue :D

Not if you own a long-hared cat. ;)

It becomes more and more important to use the "Pah" method of cleaning (that's the sound of blowing a puff of air through the dust, right?). :D :D

[Billy_Bat]

If you have good case ventilation, you generally have a decent amount of dust in no time! And then you say "Pah" while choking on the dust you blow out. Then the wife says "Pah" (and some other things) when she sees the mess you made! :D

[pelligrini]

And if you're allergic to cats, don't blow out your Mom's computer while you have it over at your house either, because she has half a dozen of 'em. :banghead:

[dnar]

My rack mounts have filters on the intake fans. Works really well! I do get a very small amount of fine dusk around the fins of my SLK, but nothing like it used to be !

This deal about replacing TIM really makes me wonder, the risk of damage to die/socket is not worth the risk IMHO. Commercial servers dont get re-TIM'd ever, their bubble-gum TIM works for years... Maybe AS is different...

[Billy_Bat]

Maybe AS is different...

That might be... Since that is what I replaced, and it is much cooler. But I also washed the hs, that was a bit crummy too. So there isn't a scientific example there.

[dnar]

My experience has shown that it doesnt take very much dust at all to significantly restrict airflow.

I'll re-AS my O/C'd Barton this weekend and report the change (it's been applied for 9 months).

If the "chewing gum" TIM's provide 1-2c higher temps and don;t require frequent re-application, then in my books that has to be better in systems that will not be touched for 2-3 years (as is the case in many server farms). Of course, if your a fiddle-fingers over-clocker (as we are) and you upgrade your CPU and/or HSF regularly, then AS has to be the go.

Another thing, I beleive "gum" TIM's provide more consistent results when used by un-experienced users, compared with AS, as AS MUST be applied properly, something I feel doesnt always happen. In fact, I once did a really crap job with AS, and tried again, provided a huge decrease in temps. I once screwed the HSF mounting on one of my dualies, luckily I spotted the soaring temp on that CPU and rectified before it cooked. :eek: