Now my DELL is forever clean.

[Wolfehunter]

This morning I was seeing alot of dust build up in my fans for my XPS 730 uber rig.

I'm thinking jezz where did all that come from? I open her up and she loaded with fine dust.

Damb it I said. So I clean her properly and thorough. Before finishing I've come to the conclusion that I have to find air filters and modify my case so that only air comes in and out.

Driving to Home depot I find Hammock Filter Pads that are disposable and cut to fit your size.

Some company called True blue... Anyhow take it home and look at my case....

How do I get the front and back covers off? Looking at the inner case I see many sets of screws. What I can't see is the other end of the case which I can't find any way to open it without cleaning the guts from the case.

Well Sitting their drinking and thinking is it worth it? Is it worth dismantling my brand new DELL XPS 730 uber $3k rig to preserve it from dust and cat hair?

But if I screw up then I could loose it? Hard choices.

Well I check the manual. Only helps me with fans, MB, Vid cards, any normal component. To have access to case isn't in the manual... So I take a sip of my drink and say lets begin.

I take each cable and mark them. Their was too many for me to remember so I id each one.

Then removed the 2 major fans.

Then removed the uber CPU headsink.

GeForce GTX 280 PCI-e card next

Soundblaster X-fi card and then the mother board.

Hard drive plus the 2 housings under the powersupply....

Then the Uber heavy powersupply.

Thank god the power cables can be removed from the PS.

Removed hardpoints in various places to get to the back of the case.

Dvd burner removed.

Now I Have a master board and various other sister board in side the case...

More wires to move, leds, firewire, etc.

Finally have access to the front and side panels.

Removed them and then cut out shapes to nicely fit the panels.

When I was satified with the finishes air filters then I rebuilt my system.

Yes I screwed up I miss matched 3 screws but found them and fixed it. They're almost identical.

I started 9 AM and finished 6 PM. My back hurts and my body is in pain... Man I'm out of shape... lol. This damb computer ways over 70 pounds. :nope:

But its finished. All test show normal and all screws accounted for. I was delayed because I had to by an extra long screwdriver... Damb access to the back end of the case was a pain in the butt. How Dell build these rigs they don't want anybody tampering in them that is for sure..:o

But now I don't have to worry about dust... So she's forever clean...

My only issue was the filters are white... not black... or silver..:roll:

What the hell was I thinking this morning..:damn: I don't want to open her for a long time....:rotfl:

Now I'm going to drink good tonight...:()1:

[longam]

Wow, that's alot of work you did there.

One thing I found out a long time ago is not to put your PC on the floor, it becomes a vacuum cleaner. That seems to be where all the dust settles.

I have the XPS 630 which is the same case and seen the dust collecting on the front grill pretty fast also, even up on my desktop. I think I'm just going to fashion some black filter media to the front to allow for fast easy exchange, you'll be surprised how fast the filters will clog up and slow down air flow.

[Wolfehunter]

You have no idea... I didn't even get into the details.. Even if someone showed me the black air filters I would tossed them out... I'm not opening her in a long time.

I've monitored her temp and its stable..

system temp is about 36 to 54 C

4 CPU's each about 40ish

GPU 30 resting and 60ish working.

Front and back panels show 34 C

Fans shows the same.

HDD fan RPM and Case fans plus CPU fans are working abit harder now with the filters in the way. Plus to get access to the GeForce GTX 280 is boxed up like a fridge. Its an uber vid card man... I've never seen a video card so massive. :o

But no dust, cat hair, Cigarettes fumes, Pollen or bugs are not making a home in my rig. Squeeky clean system. My Persian cats sheds alot of hair and cleaning her mess is a pain. But my wife wanted her so I'm stuck with a mop running in my house..:rotfl:

Air is bad where I live and somehow the fine dust always get into my house. City polution.

I don't put it under my desk either I have on my desk. My cat has a habit of playing with the wires so I have to rig my house with cables not touching the floor.

Will the filters collect dust and block? I have proper cleaning electronic kit from Miele micro set for my vac. For tight spots I use air duster cans.

Longam I know its a hell of alot of work to clean this system because of all them heat sinks and fans and hard to reach areas. But in the end air filters are the way to go.

I can't figure why they don't do that as a norm? 7 years ago I used to be in distribution for computers etc. I knew a company that would build a air tight case for computers that would be in hazardous environment where metal dust, etc would cause havoc on PC hardware.

Their work was too expensive for the average home user. But their principle could be used to help home users protect their rigs from dust or some such..

I can't have my rig die on me in a year or two... worst part is most of the dell components are made in china. Even though this is a upper end dell pc its still uses cheap components.:nope:

I can't take that chance because I loose almost 3 grand.

Regardless of my personal experience I wasn't trying to be negative. I'm trying to suggest that people should protect their rigs better even if the job is a pain in the rearend.

[A Very Super Market]

Congrats on your successful de-dusting (Har har, CS pun)

I had to get a new computer when all that dust piled up on one of my old ones. It caught on fire, and I had to get the room de-toxified due to all the electric, plastic, and metal burning.

I think I've been through 10 or 11 computers already...

[Wolfehunter]

:o Ouch.

I've never seen a fire from a PC but I've smelt plenty of burnt parts from overheating because of dust buildup or poor quality power supplies. :nope:

[Reece]

Good move but be aware Wolfehunter, not that I'm being picky, filters cut the airflow a lot so keep watch on temperatures just to be safe, I have 3 filters on my rig and cut them to size from an old airconditioner filter, they reduce airflow a little and I still end up with a dusty machine inside within a few months, but better than one month!!:up: My main problem is that I live next to a dirt road that can get busy, dust everywhere!!:-? Wonder why I have a monster vaccume cleaner!:lol:
PS. I hope they are accessible!:yep:

[Wolfehunter]

Good move but be aware Wolfehunter, not that I'm being picky, filters cut the airflow a lot so keep watch on temperatures just to be safe, I have 3 filters on my rig and cut them to size from an old airconditioner filter, they reduce airflow a little and I still end up with a dusty machine inside within a few months, but better than one month!!:up: My main problem is that I live next to a dirt road that can get busy, dust everywhere!!:-? Wonder why I have a monster vaccume cleaner!:lol:
PS. I hope they are accessible!:yep:Thanks for the warning. I've had that feeling too. I have the nForce Dell 790i board and all the sensors are working withing tolerance.

RPMs on the fans are abit higher than before. I figured they would work harder.

Anyhow Fans are cheap to replace.

Geforce GTX 280 isn't.;)

I understand your point. I have my Nvidia System monitor monitoring. So far all has passed and within normal levels.

When summer comes then we will see the real tests. But I have air conditioning so it shouldn't be a problem. :hmm:;)

[Task Force]

Yea, dust can realy get in there.

Yea the GTX 280 is a big card, The better the card the bigger it seems, my 8800gts takes up a lot of room also. (how much does a GTX 280 cost, I am making my Christmas list for next year. (wonder what will be out by then.):lol:

[FIREWALL]

Yea, dust can realy get in there.

Yea the GTX 280 is a big card, The better the card the bigger it seems, my 8800gts takes up a lot of room also. (how much does a GTX 280 cost, I am making my Christmas list for next year. (wonder what will be out by then.):lol:

Bigger is always better. Ask any woman. :p :rotfl:

[Wolfehunter]

Yea, dust can realy get in there.

Yea the GTX 280 is a big card, The better the card the bigger it seems, my 8800gts takes up a lot of room also. (how much does a GTX 280 cost, I am making my Christmas list for next year. (wonder what will be out by then.):lol:
Bigger is always better. Ask any woman. :p :rotfl: :rotfl:Good one. Because they like a tight fit. lol

@ Task Force. This summer comming if moneys permits I'm getting a second GTX 280 SLI for my rig. By then Nvidia should have fixed the drivers and performance for the SLI GTX 280.


Orginally the GTX 280 was about $680 Can. Now I don't know? :hmm: