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Cleaning the Mac Pro

Jbgloss

Jbgloss

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 20, 2011
98
0
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Hello everyone!

About 4 months in on my Hex - opened up yesterday and low and behold dust city in there. Even the GPU is dusty.

If you can help, looking for the best way to clean inside the case. Would you just blow it out with the can stuff or is it better to vacuum it out.

Just curious from some of the Mac Pro vets on here how you clean out the case. I am assuming once a quater is about all I need to do.

Any ideas or suggestions would be great.

Thank You,

JB
 
I've been running mine about 16 hours a day since I bought it Dec 2009, and it has the thinnest of dust layers when I open it once a quarter. I think this is because it sits on my desk, not on the floor.

I take everything out and shoot some canned air on it when I clean it. I take care to always give a short blast into the air first, just to make sure the tube is clear and dry, and always hold the can level to avoid blowing frost. I also don't squeeze the trigger completely, just enough to blow the dust off. The exception is when I'm blowing the fan blades... those get a full blast.
 
Thank you!!

wonderspark said:
I've been running mine about 16 hours a day since I bought it Dec 2009, and it has the thinnest of dust layers when I open it once a quarter. I think this is because it sits on my desk, not on the floor.

I take everything out and shoot some canned air on it when I clean it. I take care to always give a short blast into the air first, just to make sure the tube is clear and dry, and always hold the can level to avoid blowing frost. I also don't squeeze the trigger completely, just enough to blow the dust off. The exception is when I'm blowing the fan blades... those get a full blast.
Click to expand...

Thank you!!

I have mine on the floor and may elevate it. I was surprised at the amount of dust it had gathered.

Thanks for the tips.

JB
 
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I need one of those. I had no idea.

My 4,1 gets dusty, but nowhere near as bad as my old Antec P182 case. A fine layer of dust everywhere in the Mac Pro compared to the explosion in the P182 case (which is a very nice case, by the way). Both were in the same environment.

You cannot cheat dust, but it would be nice if there was an easily removable filter to clean rather than having to crawl under my desk, power down, remove the access panel, and get to dusting.
 
Last edited:
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Lol

getz76 said:
I need one of those. I had no idea.

My 4,1 gets dusty, but nowhere near as bad as my old Antec P182 case. A fine layer of dust everywhere in the Mac Pro compared to the explosion in the P182 case (which is a very nice case, by the way). Both were in the same environment.

You cannot cheat dust, but it would be nice if there was an easily removable filter to clean rather than having to crawl under my desk, power down, remove the access panel, and get to dusting.
Click to expand...

I agree - thats a million dollar idea if you can build something. Maybe a internal dust collector or something.
 
The thing is so powerful. Read the reviews, they are no joke. So be careful. It also sounds like a jet engine. But... no liquid residue and you clean out your machine in less than 1 min.
 
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That duster looks rad. Does it blow and suck at the same time? That's what I'm hoping. If so, I'm ordering it immediately.
 
About a month after I got my Mac Pro, I found a layer of dust on everything, things were getting covered up and obscured from view. I cleaned the machine by taking it apart, brushing and cleaning piece-by-piece. Then I bought a replacement airfilter with plastic meshes on both sides, cut that to size and fit it on the inside of the front grill. This has been tremendously helpful in reducing the amount of dust in the machine and I've only needed to [do a minor] clean about 2-3x in the last couple years after that first major cleaning.

I guess moving my machine to my desk would probably help, but my desk hasn't enough room.
 
derbothaus said:
It doesn't suck. It blows.
Click to expand...
Well why do they call it a vacuum then? How awesome would it be if it blew a jet of air out the middle of the nozzle, and then had suction around the outside to suck up the loosened dust?

It would be beyond awesome.
alphaod said:
I guess moving my machine to my desk would probably help, but my desk hasn't enough room.
Click to expand...
I have a massive desk that has killed three people during moves due to its enormity. (Kidding)
 
wonderspark said:
Well why do they call it a vacuum then? How awesome would it be if it blew a jet of air out the middle of the nozzle, and then had suction around the outside to suck up the loosened dust?

It would be beyond awesome.
Click to expand...

I think you can now quite your day job. You need to pour all your time into an engineering sample of what you speak. Might need 1000W for that trick though.
 
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