Front case fans a little more noisy and pulsating after dust cleaning?

[Omie]

So I finally got around to cleaning my front case fans of my Phanteks Enthoo Luxe case after like 6 years. I opened it up and there was a ton of dust, like literally clumps of dust (see video).

 

I took a dry towel to remove most of the dust then finished it off with a can of compressed air. I was careful with the fans, and only used small bursts of air to clean the dust off of them.

 

When I turned my Pc on, I noticed the front case Pc fans were just a little bit more noises, and if I get my ear real close to the case, I can hear the fans slightly pulsating.

 

None of my fan configuration settings changed, but wondering if this is normal? Part of me wants to think that it sounds different just because of all that dust that was removed.

[Alex Atkin UK]

3 minutes ago, Omie said:

So I finally got around to cleaning my front case fans after like 6 years. I opened it up and there was a ton of dust, like literally clumps of dust (see video).

 

I took a dry towel to remove most of the dust then finished it off with a can of compressed air. I was careful with the fans, and only used small bursts of air to clean the dust off of them.

 

When I turned my Pc on, I noticed the front case Pc fans were just a little bit more noises, and if I get my ear real close to the case, I can hear the fans slightly pulsating.

 

None of my fan configuration settings changed, but wondering if this is normal? Part of me wants to think that it sounds different just because of all that dust that was removed

With that amount of dust weighing them down I'm not surprised they sound different once cleaned.  The bearings have probably worn in a very specific way from the impact of the dust and removing it could very well make them rattle more.

Its not entirely unreasonable to replace fans after 6 years, especially if they've not been looked after.   But generally there is nothing to worry about so long as your PC is staying cool and the noise isnt too annoying.  I'd certainly try to get the rest of the dust off the front panel and filter before using it again though as it will just suck it into the case.

[Omie]

1 minute ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

With that amount of dust weighing them down I'm not surprised they sound different once cleaned.  The bearings have probably worn in a very specific way from the impact of the dust and removing it could very well make them rattle more.

Its not entirely unreasonable to replace fans after 6 years, especially if they've not been looked after.   But generally there is nothing to worry about so long as your PC is staying cool and the noise isnt too annoying.  I'd certainly try to get the rest of the dust off the front panel and filter before using it again though as it will just suck it into the case.

Thanks for the info. And yeah this video was actually before the compressed air cleaning. I just posted it to show how much dust was accumulated lol.

 

It’s pretty clean now and I put everything back together again.