The Official PC building thread - 4th Edition

I bought one of those compressed air cans once, and even using it upright i was horrified at how wet everything was that it sprayed. I never let it near my PC in the end. I use the 'mouth' method to blow dust - preliminary blow first just in case any saliva wants to escape, then close eyes and blow hard I generally only actually wipe coolers and fans/dust filters. Actual PCBs shouldn't come to harm from the amount of dust that can't easily be blown off. If a card is physically removed however it's often shook gently and blown at close range to clear the surface dust. In situ though, I don't bother, as it's usually too awkward.

 

I evacuate all saliva before blowing Suck dry.

And actually, I've bought the canned airs, and seen that in some instances, blowing the coolant on the CPU's is ok, for rapid cooling when needed.

I used it once on a northbridge that was overheating.

 

Ugh, seeing inside the PCs of smoke, the horrible things it does to dust...

 

Yah, it completely destroyed my first DVD-R burner. An NEC ND-3550. It was pretty good in its day That burner, and a power supply are the reason I will no longer smoke around my PC's. It does wreak havoc on them! Though I understand how some would. In fact, I may have a pc designed for just that, should I continue smoking beyond a few months from now, when I plan to quit.

 

That is true and that is why mine does not, relatively, key word here is relatively. I never have problems with my compressor and condensation which is a huge compressor and could easily feed a shop.

I too have used compressed air cans to cool down the northbridge or even a CPU out of control but it can be dangerous with power on and moisture on your mainboard, I tend not to do such things.

 

I was highly careful steve I wasn't blasting, just enough to hit the NB

I prefer to smoke outside these days. For one, it's forbidden in this house...

 

Well that's the key and I wouldn't suggest that you aren't careful either, except with ceiling fans.... Shame on me for that comment Kevin.

 

Shame on you indeed. I still have nightmares...

 

My NEC ND-4570 unfortunately was a casualty of starforce :/

 

A game disc?

A copy protection?

 

I think he means constant play finely burned the drive out, reading between the lines of course.

 

Starforce was a game copy protection system known to destroy optical drives and cause BSODs due to manually forcing a different driver through the drive to move the laser in different ways to the design specification. Due to being anti-piracy however the company was above the law and a blind eye was turned by the authorities. Thankfully the plethora of complaints from the gaming community have seen its use curtailed, and it has been retroactively removed from large numbers of titles. Starforce was also known to have been distributed virally, to users who never played any games, let alone some protected by starforce.

It was quite conceivable to destroy the hardware of a new drive within days with starforce if you got unlucky.

 

Wow. Never dealt with that one thankfully.

 

That makes sense and I now recognize it, I always have run off my hard drive(s) so I don't have to deal with the protection schemes.

 

By putting the disc in the drive, the driver could end up on your system. Doesn't matter that you cracked the game, the Starforce driver would still be there in the background. Nasty stuff.

 

I just noticed some new nVidia cards on new egg. A bunch of new GTX-660 ti Video cards.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...315498&IsNodeId=1&name=GeForce GTX 600 series

My personal choice will be to get an identical card, to the one I have now and have fun!

Russ

 

I got the same e-Blast from them too. To bad the GTX's suck otherwise that would be a good deal Russ. LOL

 

Have been whacked by Starforce myself on a new Plextor drive way back when. It was rather expensive

Likewise I have a problem with dust build-up due to smoking near my PC. I am very meticulous and detailed with my cleanings. Maybe once every couple weeks. I never let it build up.

 

far be it from me to preach, but you guys do realize that if you dont smoke cigs the amount of dust and smoke that sticks in your machine is greatly reduced...stopping 7 years ago allowed me the cash to keep up this obsession with tech toys and also take a few classes for fun.