thx for the tip CCC, that hadn't occurred to me. fwiw, the case is a giant tower of steel and aluminum and our relative humidity around here is running around 70% so maybe that worked in my favor. I didn't vacuum directly on parts that weren't connected to the mobo, except a plastic fan i had disconnected. I'll be more careful next time
Tessa- heh I tried to install Win 7 in this thing and the dopey install saw my hard drive and then claimed it couldn't see it when it went to start the install! apparently a known issue. But yeah I'm using Win 7 at work and it's pretty good (for Windows!
)
ok so i just ordered one of these beasts:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835186016
luckily my case is gigantic enough to hold the thing.
i'll report back hopefully with good news after the install/testing.