Hate dust? Turn off your fans

[8BitZ80]

Shock horror: Less airflow means less dust intake and therefore less cleaning maintenance will be required.

I have 7 fans in total but only 3 are active at idle and spin at around 300rpm (very slow). Everything kicks into action when gaming obviously.
Even after two years of neglect and constant use, there has been hardly any dust accumulated inside the case itself. In fact there's more dust settled on top of the case than inside the computer itself.
The magnetic mesh dust filters have also helped to some extent in preventing dust from drifting in, so I highly recommend them.

Spoiler: Pictures (before cleaning)

 

[Toothless]

Okay but some people can't do that with overly high-power hardware. I can bet you my 4790k will throttle if I did what you're suggesting. We all know that fans bring in dust so besides a bad PSA what's the post about?

EDIT: You probably have an i7 4770(k) or 4790(k) or an i5. I highly doubt if it was an i7 that it's running cool.

 

[londiste]

Unless that high-power hardware is from a decade or two ago, it would not matter. Powerful hardware draws very little power at idle.
Now, getting fans that go down to as low as 300RPM might be a different kind of problem

Had i7 4770, ran it under Scythe Ninja 2 and airflow from case fans that ran 400-500RPM at idle. No problems whatsoever.

 

[Toothless]

Unless that high-power hardware is from a decade or two ago, it would not matter. Powerful hardware draws very little power at idle.
Now, getting fans that go down to as low as 300RPM might be a different kind of problem

My 1080ti puts out a ton of heat even with a higher fan curve. I can hit 70c at 100% fans so if you have a way to keep that cool I'll hear it at low/no fans

 

[londiste]

@Toothless you missed the part where OP said "everything kicks into action when gaming obviously".

 

[Toothless]

@Toothless you missed the part where OP said "everything kicks into action when gaming obviously".

Just reminds me when I didn't update my bios and my chip hit 95c opening a blank page of Chrome. I'd like to know OP's temps when gaming.

 

[xtreemchaos]

on my 7700k build my fans don't start until it hits 45c but I still get plenty of dust because it soon gos over 45c even if you move the mouse and ive a custom loop.

 

[R00kie]

I turn my case fans off usually when im not gaming, ML120 fans on the rads make barely any noise, so it's peace and quiet for me. no dust in the case to speak of.

 

[micropage7]

So all you need is fan with 20 Rpm

 

[bug]

Hate dust? Use filters!

 

[freeagent]

Hate dust and filters?

Get a Metro Datavac

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

My 1080ti puts out a ton of heat even with a higher fan curve. I can hit 70c at 100% fans so if you have a way to keep that cool I'll hear it at low/no fans

sounds like you need more airflow around the card.

 

[Rahnak]

I find it very disturbing that you let that much dust accumulate on top of your case. If you hate dust clean regularly.

 

[Sybaris_Caesar]

Does SysFan or sth still work? Iirc it was long abandoned.

 

[64K]

I just blow my case out every 3 to 6 months. Works fine for me.

 

[8BitZ80]

Just reminds me when I didn't update my bios and my chip hit 95c opening a blank page of Chrome. I'd like to know OP's temps when gaming.

Temps are pretty good, actually.
Core i5 4670K at 4.0GHz and GTX 1060 overclocked.
Ambient is currently 30C and I'm getting a max CPU of 70C on Shadow of the Tomb Raider (ideal game for getting 100% usage on all cores). IntelBurnTest is high 80's, which is pretty normal.
I'm using Asus Fan Xpert 3 to control fan curves, if anyone's curious.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Shock horror: Less airflow means less dust intake and therefore less cleaning maintenance will be required.

I have 7 fans in total but only 3 are active at idle and spin at around 300rpm (very slow). Everything kicks into action when gaming obviously.
Even after two years of neglect and constant use, there has been hardly any dust accumulated inside the case itself. In fact there's more dust settled on top of the case than inside the computer itself.
The magnetic mesh dust filters have also helped to some extent in preventing dust from drifting in, so I highly recommend them.

Spoiler: Pictures (before cleaning)

View attachment 145021

View attachment 145022

View attachment 145023

So...it sounds as if you use intake filters. Good. That’s what you’re supposed to do. I don’t deny my system air and I use filters, so my case innatds stay super clean. Thaat’s why nearly everyone who has bought a GPU from me thinks it is almost brand new.

 

[Chomiq]

I just blow my case out every 3 to 6 months. Works fine for me.

I just clean intake filter on a monthly basis. Maybe clean the interior every odd month. I wish that my apartment was as clean as my office when it comes to dust buildup. There's almost none at work, while at home it's dusty AF.

 

[Vario]

Vacuum your house more and you will have less dust and breathe easier.

 

[freeagent]

Fresh furnace filters, and a shameless plug for Dyson vacuums.

 

[xtreemchaos]

theres a lot of good in using filters, we have parrots and some how thay make loads of dust I would have to dust out my intel rigg once a month before getting some of those magnetic ones now I only have to clean the dust from inside my rigg once every 3 months, now my amd rig is a p5 so other than the rad its a qwick feather duster when needed.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Hate dust? Turn off your fans

Shock horror: Less airflow means less dust intake and therefore less cleaning maintenance will be required.

Sorry, but that is really bad advice! Why? Because no where in your post did you mention the critical need for monitoring the temps after turning off the fans.

Yes, with 7 fans running, no doubt dust was pulled in too - especially if some did not pull air through filters and/or if you run with some negative instead of slight positive (over) pressure. One fan will eventually fill up the case with dust. And with any, even very slight negative (under) pressure, dust will also be pulled in through every unfiltered crack, crevice, and port opening too.

With 7 fans running, you likely had some unpleasant fan noise too. I hate fan noise. I mean I REALLY hate fan noise. But putting up with a little dust and fan noise is the MUCH BETTER option than having excess heat (or unknown heat).

Fact is, most computers, even under heavy load, will do just fine with 2 or 3 quality, large (140mm or larger) fans (not counting the PSU fan) that create a nice front-to-back flow of cool air through the case. If you run very demanding programs, then sure, you may need additional cooling. But just because HW at idle do not generate as much heat, that does NOT mean they don't need proper ventilation.

If you hate dust, buy a case that includes decent, removable, washable air filters. Quality cases tend to come with quality fans too. Get a case with a side panel window - not so you can gaze inside in awe all day but so you can easily check for dust build-up and spinning fans. That said, a quality case will help suppress fan noise too! My next case will likely be the Fractal Design R6 (or its successor).

Quality power supplies come with quality fans. Many PSUs don't even spin up the fan until some thermal threshold is crossed, and then it is slowly at first, and that increases as needed.

If you have kids and pets running around shedding hair and dander and stirring up dust, more frequent house dusting and vacuuming will be necessary. Lifting the computer just a few inches off the floor (instead of sitting on the floor) can surprisingly, decrease dust problems, often significantly. I would not use furnace filters on my computers. They may work but that seems like a Mickey Mouse solution to me. I'd buy a better case first. But speaking of furnace filters, regularly replacing the filters on the HVAC system will help reduce dust problems for your computers too.

If possible, control your ambient (room) temperatures. Cooler rooms result in cooler running computers.

Regardless your cooling solutions, use a real-time HW temperature monitor. I use and recommend Core Temp to monitor CPU temps in real time.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Sorry, but that is really bad advice! Why? Because no where in your post did you mention the critical need for monitoring the temps after turning off the fans.

Yes, with 7 fans running, no doubt dust was pulled in too - especially if some did not pull air through filters and/or if you run with some negative instead of slight positive (over) pressure. One fan will eventually fill up the case with dust. And with any, even very slight negative (under) pressure, dust will also be pulled in through every unfiltered crack, crevice, and port opening too.

With 7 fans running, you likely had some unpleasant fan noise too. I hate fan noise. I mean I REALLY hate fan noise. But putting up with a little dust and fan noise is the MUCH BETTER option than having excess heat (or unknown heat).

Fact is, most computers, even under heavy load, will do just fine with 2 or 3 quality, large (140mm or larger) fans (not counting the PSU fan) that create a nice front-to-back flow of cool air through the case. If you run very demanding programs, then sure, you may need additional cooling. But just because HW at idle do not generate as much heat, that does NOT mean they don't need proper ventilation.

If you hate dust, buy a case that includes decent, removable, washable air filters. Quality cases tend to come with quality fans too. Get a case with a side panel window - not so you can gaze inside in awe all day but so you can easily check for dust build-up and spinning fans. That said, a quality case will help suppress fan noise too! My next case will likely be the Fractal Design R6 (or its successor).

Quality power supplies come with quality fans. Many PSUs don't even spin up the fan until some thermal threshold is crossed, and then it is slowly at first, and that increases as needed.

If you have kids and pets running around shedding hair and dander and stirring up dust, more frequent house dusting and vacuuming will be necessary. Lifting the computer just a few inches off the floor (instead of sitting on the floor) can surprisingly, decrease dust problems, often significantly. I would not use furnace filters on my computers. They may work but that seems like a Mickey Mouse solution to me. I'd buy a better case first. But speaking of furnace filters, regularly replacing the filters on the HVAC system will help reduce dust problems for your computers too.

If possible, control your ambient (room) temperatures. Cooler rooms result in cooler running computers.

Regardless your cooling solutions, use a real-time HW temperature monitor. I use and recommend Core Temp to monitor CPU temps in real time.

It could also be simplified greatly , Hate dust in your pc , Give your pc someone else lol.

Or Hate dust in your pc , dont switch it on.

But anyway I couldnt side with the OP , my fans are regulated as they should be relative to temperature and run audibly all the time since I crunch.


I have to clean my filters every other month MAX or temperatures start to rise due to some god awful muck IN the filters.

 

[Valantar]

Sorry, but that is really bad advice! Why? Because no where in your post did you mention the critical need for monitoring the temps after turning off the fans.

Yes, with 7 fans running, no doubt dust was pulled in too - especially if some did not pull air through filters and/or if you run with some negative instead of slight positive (over) pressure. One fan will eventually fill up the case with dust. And with any, even very slight negative (under) pressure, dust will also be pulled in through every unfiltered crack, crevice, and port opening too.

With 7 fans running, you likely had some unpleasant fan noise too. I hate fan noise. I mean I REALLY hate fan noise. But putting up with a little dust and fan noise is the MUCH BETTER option than having excess heat (or unknown heat).

Fact is, most computers, even under heavy load, will do just fine with 2 or 3 quality, large (140mm or larger) fans (not counting the PSU fan) that create a nice front-to-back flow of cool air through the case. If you run very demanding programs, then sure, you may need additional cooling. But just because HW at idle do not generate as much heat, that does NOT mean they don't need proper ventilation.

If you hate dust, buy a case that includes decent, removable, washable air filters. Quality cases tend to come with quality fans too. Get a case with a side panel window - not so you can gaze inside in awe all day but so you can easily check for dust build-up and spinning fans. That said, a quality case will help suppress fan noise too! My next case will likely be the Fractal Design R6 (or its successor).

Quality power supplies come with quality fans. Many PSUs don't even spin up the fan until some thermal threshold is crossed, and then it is slowly at first, and that increases as needed.

If you have kids and pets running around shedding hair and dander and stirring up dust, more frequent house dusting and vacuuming will be necessary. Lifting the computer just a few inches off the floor (instead of sitting on the floor) can surprisingly, decrease dust problems, often significantly. I would not use furnace filters on my computers. They may work but that seems like a Mickey Mouse solution to me. I'd buy a better case first. But speaking of furnace filters, regularly replacing the filters on the HVAC system will help reduce dust problems for your computers too.

If possible, control your ambient (room) temperatures. Cooler rooms result in cooler running computers.

Regardless your cooling solutions, use a real-time HW temperature monitor. I use and recommend Core Temp to monitor CPU temps in real time.

Nothing especially wrong with what you're saying here, but nothing wrong with what the OP is advocating either: setting a temperature controlled fan curve that turns off the majority of your fans when the PC is idle, but turns them back on if temps go too high. It's rather obvious, frankly, though not all motherboards and/or fan controllers are able to turn off fans entirely. I mean, sure, you can read the rather skimpily formulated OP as advocating disconnecting fans or manually turning them off, but that's certainly not how I read it (imagine the hassle!). Nothing wrong with letting your PC idle in the 40s or 50s with relatively high (high 30s or 40s) case ambient temps as long as there is enough airflow to be had when the need arises. It's not like they're advocating turning off your fans and never turning them on again.

And it makes sense for dust reduction - if your PC is heavily stressed ... let's say 40% of the time it's on, then there's quite a lot of dust accumulation lost if you reduce airflow by >50% for the 60% of time when it's not being stressed, even if dust accumulation while gaming is still the same. Let's say original idle case intake airflow is X, and gaming airflow is 2X (2x fan RPM from a non-tuned idle state to full load sounds reasonable to me at least, even if rpm doesn't necessarily translate linearly to airflow - this is obviously a simplificaiton). Let's also assume that dust content in the air is constant at (which is likely unrealistic, but probably somewhat accurate over time). With a 60/40 desktop/gaming load (which I'd frankly think is unrealistic for most people here, especially those who never turn off their PCs - I'd assume a bigger portion is spent at low load), you'd then reduce dust brought into the case by ~22%. If you normally clean out your PC every 6 months you'd then be able to go 7 instead. You'll never reach zero dust accumulation, obviously, and you won't reduce what is accumulated while the PC is under high load, but letting the PC run hotter with slower fans while idle makes perfect sense as long as temperatures are within reasonable ranges. And the more you reduce the airflow (while keeping temperatures under control, obviously) the more you reduce dust accumulation.

This obviously doesn't apply to crunchers or other people constantly running heavy loads on their PCs.

Besides, it's relatively well established through testing that "noise blocking" cases are no quieter than a high airflow case fitted with good, quiet fans with a decently tuned fan curve, as the noise blocking also inevitably restricts airflow and thus forces (much) higher fan speeds to maintain good temperatures (especially in the modern era of automatic clock scaling based on temperature). It's always a balancing act, but good airflow at low noise levels can be had more easily with unobstructed, low-rpm fans than with obstructed fans + noise blocking material. That's not saying that the Fractal Define cases are bad, they're just not any more quiet than a well configured case with good airflow. And they do tend to run hot.

 

[Vayra86]

I'm running off two intakes (120mm) and one outtake, closed top. 150W from the 8700K and another 180-200 from the GPU is no issue whatsoever, and that is with 1000 RPM on the case fans, ie virtually inaudible. My case fan curve is also pretty flat. Max RPM at something around 1200 (they can do 2200, BeQuiet Silentwings 3 HS PWM). I've got a peak in the curve at 90C, they go hurricane mode then, never heard it.

Yes, hot days and continuous load will see temps close to throttle point. So what.

So yes I will confirm you can easily run off lower fan counts for most MSDT setups, even with an i7 (6c12t OC'd). The biggest factor really is ambient temp. As long as air is moving and your flow passes the hot bits and no weird hot spots are left, its fine. Keep in mind as well that the biggest temp hurdle is getting the heat away from the die anyway. Your bottleneck is not the case fan.

My experience with higher fan speeds: lots of noise, very low payoff. And running many fans is often more problematic than solving anything; you get all sorts of turbulence, conflicting airflow, etc. etc.

Less is more and efficiency > all

And as for dust... yup. This box has been standing here since jan 2019 and only just recently a very fine visible layer of dust started to accumulate. As in, you gotta focus to see it. I'm lazy like that, yeah... but there is really no need to do anything other than dust off some fan blades here and there. Even my white fan is still white