Computers: Basic info/how to guide for best results!

Anthonis

Hi all,
This info is just for your consideration. If I had forgot something please state and I will add it to post.
No matter whether its old or new equipment it has its own specifications to work properly.
Don't bash on my English, just correct me...

For proper operation and longer life time of equipment you have to follow these simple steps:
1. Equipment must be placed far from heat inducting components.
Lets say you have pc box which stands in front of heating radiator. Heating radiators depending on config can reach up to 90'C temperature. So your pc box gonna operate at high temperature, which after some time will result a failure of parts.
2. Ensure that equipment has free space for proper air flow. People like to hide pc box in to a shelf or somewhere else. This results that it doesn't have proper airflow to keep optimal temperature. Bad thing that people think that this is fine... We all know that CPU and GPU can easily operate at high temperatures, but PSU is always at risk. Also keep way from curtains as it can stuck air flow. And curtains are also source of dust.
3. Place for equipment must be dust free and pet free. That's the most important. Dust reduces heat spread from parts, impacts on normal operation, may cause short electric circuits on board. Pet hair is more terrible than dust. Here are some pictures:



About how to clean pc inside there are plenty online videos. Youtube is great source for such things. But if you are not experienced in such things I would recommend to hire tech guy for this job.

How to know whether you need cleaning or relocation of pc box:
Easiest way is visual check. Another way with applications: I know there are plenty of them, but as an example I use SpeedFan.
Download and install Speedfan from here http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php
After install you will have SpeedFan icon on desktop, click it twice.


This is small, really handy tool and it doesn't uses much resources. It shows you most that you need to know how optimally pc works at the moment. Also it has features where you can control some system/board settings. Those features would be for more experienced users.
Now if your system is on idle (1%-10%) or slight load (10%-30%) and you see that temperature icon is burning there is something wrong....

High temperature leads to part fail/fry also cause slow performance.
Hard drive must operate up to 45'C (depending on specifications), otherwise life time reduces by lot. This means that someday it can just die...
Portable owners: Batteries hate heat. By manufacturers it is stated that: for best performance and longer life time, battery can operate in up to 60'C max. I would say 50'C or even 40'C.... Due to poor design of laptops (especially with dedicated GPU) it reaches 50'C, heavy load up to 80'C. So it is possible to kill battery within half year easily on such machines...

Whatever equipment it would be you must follow manufacturers guide. High temperature is main thing that prevents equipment to operate correctly and leads to some sort of damage. Unless that equipment is designed to work at high temperatures.

Hope this helped somebody. Later I will post more info about slow performance issues.

Bodymass

Would probably have been best to add somewhere within the title the fact this post is about computers. Apart from that it's a great feature and I'm a massive fan (no pun intended) of Alfredo's Speedfan (though the icon remains a constant issue on W7 when added onto the taskbar).

Btw I recognise some of the pics from theregister website feature lol.

Dave_C_2

Perhaps a better title could be Desktop PC. Heat management best practice. The initial title was too broad.

Dave

Anthonis

Dave_C wrote: »

Perhaps a better title could be Desktop PC. Heat management best practice. The initial title was too broad.

Dave

Thanks, but later I gonna add more info related not only to desktop pc's, and not only about heat management.