Xineas

Maintaining your air cooled PC
Disclaimer: This is from my point of view, as a computer technician. Each and every day I work on machines that are either brand new or 6 years old and dusty as hell. Don't take this as a how to, it's just my opinion. Apply it to your situation whichever way you want.
 
We all know dust will go anywhere and the fans in our computer move air and therefore also move dust particles. Over time, particles become clouds of dust and before you know it, it starts sticking to fan blades or clogs your heatsinks. Over the course of a couple years, as you can imagine, this can provide you with a lovely gray coating on everything inside your PC. Fans will not be as efficient, heatsinks will not dissipate the heat as quick as they would normally and before you know it, you'll see a rise in CPU and GPU temperatures. At idle or while browsing the web this is not a big deal, but if you regularly use your machine for gaming, the impact can be much bigger. Higher temperatures also means thermal compound degrades quicker. Degraded thermal compound doesn't do it's job of filling the microscopic gaps between the chip and the heatsink. That in turn also leads to higher temperatures. It's a vicious circle, I'm sure you get the point.
 

No matter how clean your house is, dust WILL get into your machine.
 
How do we avoid all this?
You can never avoid getting some dust inside your case. All cases have some uncovered parts or vent holes through which dust can sneak in when your machine is off. The picture below shows my regularly used rig, which hadn't been cleaned since early 2013 (over 3 years), but does have air filters on all case fans. You may notice there's a grayish hue on the motherboard and CPU fan. Do note there are no dust clouds or large amounts of accumulated dust anywhere.
 

Dust gets in, no matter what.
 
What can we do to reduce dust?
Fan filters are an easy way to avoid getting large amounts of dust in your machine. More expensive cases have built in filters nowadays, but if yours doesn't, you can buy them and attach them to your fan quite easily.
Just do a search on Amazon for fan filters. 120mm ones are between 5 and 10$US and come in a variety of designs and colors.
 

Before and after pictures of fan filters after more than 3 years of use.
 
Another way to prevent dust buildup inside of your rig is creating positive air pressure inside your case. All fans can move a certain amount of air per minute at a certain speed, usually specified in 'CFM' or cubic feet per minute. All you need to do is make sure you're pushing more air into the case than you're sucking out with your exhaust fan(s). A little bit of math, but it will prevent dust and air from entering your case through vent holes and creating big clouds of dust inside your case.
 
We're past that stage, the damage has been done. What do I do to clean it up?
 
Okay, so your machine looks like a vacuum cleaner's dust bag. You're gonna have to remove the dust. Take your computer apart to the point where you have decent access to most components and dusty spots and I'd advise to take your machine outside on a nice day when you do clean it. You don't want to get all that dust back into your house! Here's my step-by-step when it comes to internal cleaning and removing dust. Again, by no means the best and only way to do it, always use your common sense. I am not responsible for damages.
Go outside, you don't want that dust in your house/room. ESD strap! Make sure you don't kill your components with electrostatic discharge. Remove components if necessary. Get a nice hairy brush. 1 or even 2 inch wide painters brush from animal hair will do fine. Get compressed air if you must. I have never used them. Get rid of the dust. Do not ever put a vacuum cleaner nozzle against your components, for static discharge reasons as stated before. Take off your CPU heatsink. Too many different kinds to tell you how to do that. Google it if you are unsure. Remove thermal paste (or thermal cake after a while) and clean the two touching surfaces of the CPU and heatsink with a IPA (isopropyl alcohol) wipe. I usually gently buff the surfaces with a soft microfiber cloth until shiny. Reapply thermal paste. Many ways to do this. I use the pea in the middle method. Everyone has their own preference, I'm not gonna start a war here.  Put your heatsink on, make sure the thermal paste is spread nicely. Reassemble machine and turn it on to see if you assembled it correctly.  
 
I hope this was of any help. If so, thumbs up, agree, like and all that are much appreciated. Enjoy your dust free machine!

- Update 8 -
 
Time for an update, it's been a busy week. Putting in the last lights in the bottom floor and putting in a floor. I then used a flat blade to get rid of some bumps and what not, I believe it's called planing the surface. Correct me if I'm wrong.
 
It's getting cold in my workspace now that's winter is coming, so I won't be spending hours and hours there, but I'm sure an update every week should be no problem.
 

- Update 4 - 
 
Thanks for the continued support guys, here's another update. Finishing up the stairs and cladding some more walls.
 

- Update 3 -
 
Time for more inside wall cladding, but first some stairs have to go in. Putting them in after the fact would be a pain.
 

- Update 7 -
 
New phone and thus new camera with wider angle lens. I guess the pictures are sharper, maybe? 
Ground floor ceiling joists are all up, just need to add some lights in the hallway and mechanical room and then it's ready for a the second floor.
 

- Update 5 -
 
Finishing up the wall cladding on the downstairs. The room in the far corner is a mechanical room sort of thing and will have no interior cladding. That will also be the room where all the wiring for the lighting will come together. In the front you'll see some cantilevered sticks sticking out to carry the bay that sticks out on the floor above.
 

Think i will keep it empty for now.

- Update 4 - 
 
Thanks for the continued support guys, here's another update. Finishing up the stairs and cladding some more walls.
 

Yup, LEDs throughout wired up with switches so you can light up individual rooms. I've been testing for a while but I have a general idea of what I want to do. 

- Update 6 - 
 
And then there was light. I figured I'd try my skills on the little overhang since it's easily accessible and it ended up working great. They're not super bright, but when it's dark they light up just enough to see everything. Doing the ceiling was a pain in the rear end, so I ended up turning the whole thing on it's side so slap the sticks on the ceiling without them falling off seconds later.
 

- Update 6 - 
 
And then there was light. I figured I'd try my skills on the little overhang since it's easily accessible and it ended up working great. They're not super bright, but when it's dark they light up just enough to see everything. Doing the ceiling was a pain in the rear end, so I ended up turning the whole thing on it's side so slap the sticks on the ceiling without them falling off seconds later.
 

- Update 4 - 
 
Thanks for the continued support guys, here's another update. Finishing up the stairs and cladding some more walls.
 

- Update 4 - 
 
Thanks for the continued support guys, here's another update. Finishing up the stairs and cladding some more walls.
 

- Update 4 - 
 
Thanks for the continued support guys, here's another update. Finishing up the stairs and cladding some more walls.
 

- Update 3 -
 
Time for more inside wall cladding, but first some stairs have to go in. Putting them in after the fact would be a pain.
 

- Update 3 -
 
Time for more inside wall cladding, but first some stairs have to go in. Putting them in after the fact would be a pain.
 

- Update 2 - 
 
Interior walls going up, garage is first. Last picture is a view from the outside. Tidied up the electrical on the back wall, no more cables running all over.
 

Howdy folks,
 
Back when I lived with my parents I was working on a popsicle stick house, but I had to get rid of it since there was no space to put it in my new apartment. Now that I have a workbench in my shed, I can finally do some building projects I've been wanting to do for a while and a popsicle stick model house is one of them. Building and designing things from scratch is a hobby I guess, it helps me clear my head and allows me to be creative. Along the way I'm gonna take pictures and I figured I'd make a post here to have others enjoy my project, get feedback and comments, ideas, etc.
 
I'm building this to a 1:24 scale, kinda, I think. 1 inch = 2 feet. I use the metric system on a daily basis, better yet, I don't even have a ruler with inches on it. Anyways, 4cm is about a meter and building with wooden popsicle sticks is not that accurate anyway. A fully built wall is about 4.5 inches tall, so 9 ft, which I believe is a decent ceiling height. All doors are 3.5 inches tall, which translates to 7 ft. I intend on putting LED lighting in this house and powering them off of little solar panels I will stick to the roof. I guess it would also be fun to get a small LCD screen, say 2 inches diagonally and use that as a miniature TV that can actually display something. Just my imagination running wild here. I've got LEDs laying around somewhere, plenty of resistors, heat shrink and thin gauge wire. I know electronics basics, so should be able to get some lights working. As a base I'll be using a 3/4" (18mm) piece of particle board and I'm glueing it all together with a hot glue gun and a shitload of those glue cartridges.
 
As far as design goes, I used SketchUp to mock up a model of what I intend to make. This is subject to change though as the build progresses and ideas flow through my head. It's a modern build, I guess. My idea with this build was a house on a hill, where the back of the house is pretty much against the hill with a steep slope front to back. This picture resembles my idea somewhat.

 
Ground floor consists of a 2 car garage and on the right from front to back: entry with stairs going up, hallway, utility room/storage room.

 
Upper floor has stairs coming up on the bottom right to a landing, gap in the wall to a kitchen/living area, two bedrooms and a bathroom up top. Above this floor is an attic space, which could be a home office or guest bedroom of sorts.

 
Comments and ideas are always welcome of course. I'll be updating the thread with pictures as the build progresses.

- Update 1 -
 
The base has been cut from a piece of scrap wood I had lying around and I also made a jig to make my life easier when building the wall sections. Floorplan is transferred to the base plate with pencil marks. Walls are up for the ground floor, which ended up surprisingly straight. All walls get a double top plate for solidity and strength.
 
And yes, I do have plans to clean up my workbench and finish the electrical work.
 




 
Closeup of the hallway looking through the front door.

 
Questions, comments and ideas are welcome as always.

- Update 2 - 
 
Interior walls going up, garage is first. Last picture is a view from the outside. Tidied up the electrical on the back wall, no more cables running all over.
 

- Update 2 - 
 
Interior walls going up, garage is first. Last picture is a view from the outside. Tidied up the electrical on the back wall, no more cables running all over.
 

- Update 1 -
 
The base has been cut from a piece of scrap wood I had lying around and I also made a jig to make my life easier when building the wall sections. Floorplan is transferred to the base plate with pencil marks. Walls are up for the ground floor, which ended up surprisingly straight. All walls get a double top plate for solidity and strength.
 
And yes, I do have plans to clean up my workbench and finish the electrical work.
 




 
Closeup of the hallway looking through the front door.

 
Questions, comments and ideas are welcome as always.

- Update 1 -
 
The base has been cut from a piece of scrap wood I had lying around and I also made a jig to make my life easier when building the wall sections. Floorplan is transferred to the base plate with pencil marks. Walls are up for the ground floor, which ended up surprisingly straight. All walls get a double top plate for solidity and strength.
 
And yes, I do have plans to clean up my workbench and finish the electrical work.
 




 
Closeup of the hallway looking through the front door.

 
Questions, comments and ideas are welcome as always.

- Update 1 -
 
The base has been cut from a piece of scrap wood I had lying around and I also made a jig to make my life easier when building the wall sections. Floorplan is transferred to the base plate with pencil marks. Walls are up for the ground floor, which ended up surprisingly straight. All walls get a double top plate for solidity and strength.
 
And yes, I do have plans to clean up my workbench and finish the electrical work.
 




 
Closeup of the hallway looking through the front door.

 
Questions, comments and ideas are welcome as always.

all links be broken...
 
but generally, knowing asus and their market segmentation its usually a difference in features and aesthetic, rather than one being *generally better* than the other.