Cleaning out the dust - suck or blow?

[h9826790]

Just get the Datavac duster. It works perfectly well. Just spend few minutes to blow the dust away (I didn't even disassembly the cMP). The average temperature under full load is now 7-10C lower which effectively keep all fan at lower speed. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[CapnDavey]

I worked for many years at a plastics recycling plant we used older windows boxes they would cake up with dust. So what I did is unplugged them took them in the granulator room and blew them out with the air compressor like every other month.

 

[deckard666]

Bump - I took the side panel off my MP when I fitted the PCI USB3 card a few weeks back and my god the dust and **** in there ! I remember cleaning it out with a canned air blower about 2 years ago when we moved to Cornwall so probably overdue - you lot do it any specific way ? This thread has a few recommendations but outside on a towel sounds like a good idea....I think last time I didn't disassemble anything I just blew all the gunk out...

 

[raymanster]

Bump - I took the side panel off my MP when I fitted the PCI USB3 card a few weeks back and my god the dust and **** in there ! I remember cleaning it out with a canned air blower about 2 years ago when we moved to Cornwall so probably overdue - you lot do it any specific way ? This thread has a few recommendations but outside on a towel sounds like a good idea....I think last time I didn't disassemble anything I just blew all the gunk out...

As others have mentioned just try and hold any fans in the area you spraying the air duster. I try to tilt the Mac to the side and outside on a clear dry day is always a good option. Otherwise indoors if the weather is bad and expect clouds of dust. Then vacuum to clear up the mess on your floor/carpet/tables afterwards.

If you're going to do this more regularly you might want to invest in one of these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ITDusters-...188874&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=air+duster&psc=1

 

[h9826790]

I have the Duster for about 2 years now, very happy with it. Hong Kong is a very dusty place. I really need to clean it on monthly basis. And every time after cleaning. I can clearly see that the temperature drop straight away.

This is the 24hr North bridge temperature history. I use NB temperature as reference because it's stabler than CPU temperature, but still sensitive to the cooling system condition.

(Of course, temperature comparison was based on same computer usage)

 

[MrAverigeUser]

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[MrAverigeUser]

I have the Duster for about 2 years now, very happy with it. Hong Kong is a very dusty place. I really need to clean it on monthly basis. And every time after cleaning. I can clearly see that the temperature drop straight away.

This is the 24hr North bridge temperature history. I use NB temperature as reference because it's stabler than CPU temperature, but still sensitive to the cooling system condition.
View attachment 747265
(Of course, temperature comparison was based on same computer usage)

Thank you for this impressive documentation of the cleaning-effect.

Found an excellent article about thermal problems of the MacPro in general worth reading to the end of the article:

http://securityspread.com/2013/05/31/computer-killers/

I am also a friend of prophylactic measures to hold temperatures even more consequently down by adding some simple methods as using macFanControl to Cool the system long before somewhere between idle and heating up under load.
I also wrote some postings more simple but similar to the article in the following link already some time ago - concerning the big issue of the bad designed thermal management of the MacBookPros - which have often enough dead GPUs because of thinness-mania and far too much tolerance of dangerous high temperatures of GPU and CPU...

With apps like MacFanControl or SMC and so on, you can adjust idle rpm higher than apple-standard, all this without any noise problems. As you can read in the linked article a 50% more rpm of the fans do not at all lead to more noise, but prevent most of the dangerous alternating changement of high and low temperatures wearing the lead in times of ROHS Found out that this works even very excellent with the MBPs, not only with the MacPro.

In my MBP I set the temperatures of PECI GPU and PECI CPU as relevant and this works great.
For the MacPro you find yourself and/or find propositions in the excellent article linked above.

 

[h9826790]

Yeah, it's very clear that once the dust start to build up, the temperature will go up steadily day by day.

(in fact, before I learn that I should clean up the dust regularly, I never clean my Mac Pro since 2009 for 5 year. The NB temperature can actually go over 85C , eventually it's heated to die, and I got a new CPU tray from Apple for $300)

I used MacsFanControl before. It's a good and powerful software (I leant quite a lot by studying how it control the fans), however, unable to spin up a single fan base on 2 different parameters (e.g. spin up the booster fan when either the CPU or NB is hot). Also, I don't like its relatively high background CPU usage (It's just few %, but only relatively high in terms of fan control software).

And now, I use my self modded open source Lobotomo fan control software to keep all the fans do exactly what I want.

It help my Mac to stay cooler than the stock setting, also less noise when under high stress. I know it doesn't sounds quite right, because better cooling means higher fan RPM, which should also means more fan noise. However, what I found is that the native fan setting very rely on the booster fan when the CPU is approaching 85C. Therefore, very high RPM on a single fan make the fan noise very noticeable. But if I create a profile that to more utilise the intake and exhaust fan. The booster can work less harder, but the CPU also stay cooler. The overall fan noise (and pitch) is significantly lowered, and the CPU max temperature now can only reach 78C, but no more 85C.