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Mac pro dust

S

swordfish86

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hey there
I was just dusting my desk and a few little pieces of dust got sucked into the front of my macpro, can this be at all harmful? i dont suppose it will do any harm as its kind of unavoidable really, i have my tower on my desk to avoid this kind of thing. Just wanted some piece of mind
thanks 🙂
 
princealfie said:
Dust is fine in the Mac Pro. There is no harm.
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well, I have to disagree a tiny tiny bit...

dust isn't to bad... as long as it isn't ALWAYS getting dust in there.... I definitly recommend popping the side off now and then and occasionally getting the dust out of there......

ESPECIALLY if you have pets. dog hair tends to be heavy (GENERALLY speaking...) and falls down to the carpet.. but CAT HAIR (as most cat owners will attest to..) can fly up and into computers with just the air disturbance from you walking by....

With enough time, it can cause heating issues if it tends to clog up the heat sinks on the CPU, or more of a worry for the power gamers, the entrance to the X1900XT video card heat sink......

Granted it does take a bit of time... but yet, I still advocate blowing out things now and then 🙂
 
use fan control to ramp the speed of the fans up all the way.

leave it that way for a while

it is like a jet engine.

do this every once and a while and you will remove quite a bit of dust
 
I tend to find dust doesn't really bother the Mac Pro but the X1900XT does tend to clog up with dust (the inlet where the air is drawn over the heatsink).

In fact, I started to notice that the X1900XT's fan was spinning up periodically when I was just sitting doing normal stuff (ie, not 3D intensive) which prompted me to go get an air duster and when I inspected the graphics card, it was clogged, hence the fan spinning up more as the card was getting hot.

Therefore, I'd periodically give the inside of the computer a clean out with an air duster, just to get the obvious dust out of there.
 
Solution to MacPro dust problem

I got my MacPro and I installed a new hard drive two weeks later. I noticed qute a bit of dust in it already. After a little thinking I came up with a solution:

Net blind

It's one of them net curtains that allow your neighbours to see you at night when you are naked in the lounge. Initially I wrapped my MacPro with an old t-shirt, but after half an hour I began to notice a funny smell and it wasn't the toaster 😱, so the t-shirt came right off. The above curtain is super fine but it does not impede air flow at all, and it is doing a fantastic job keeping both my PC and my MacPro absolutely dust-free. Granted, it looks like my computers are going to get married, but boy does it work!

If you need to insert an optical disk into the drive, lift the skirt and shove it in.

MacPro.jpg
 
Scoox said:
I got my MacPro and I installed a new hard drive two weeks later. I noticed qute a bit of dust in it already. After a little thinking I came up with a solution:

Net blind

It's one of them net curtains that allow your neighbours to see you at night when you are naked in the lounge. Initially I wrapped my MacPro with an old t-shirt, but after half an hour I began to notice a funny smell and it wasn't the toaster 😱, so the t-shirt came right off. The above curtain is super fine but it does not impede air flow at all, and it is doing a fantastic job keeping both my PC and my MacPro absolutely dust-free. Granted, it looks like my computers are going to get married, but boy does it work!

If you need to insert an optical disk into the drive, lift the skirt and shove it in.
Click to expand...

Doesn't impede air flow much, but it has to impede it some.

Wow. You definitely have a way with words.

 
You can by professional covers like that. If you have that much dust in your mp that you can't blow it out once a week without it dying or you dying you either need to line your pets up throw your wife out or your just shoving it in, in order to have an excuse to clean it and loot at its pretty insides.
 
Everybody has a different amount of dust in their house. It depends on a lot of factors.

I'm okay if I open mine up and blow it out 2-3 times a year. Some should probably do it more frequently, others less.

The main problem I've had with dust in some computers is that it tends to impede fan spin. A noisy computer is the first clue. If it's louder than it used to be, it's probably time to blow it out.
 
CharlieKirk said:
You can by professional covers like that.
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I have been searching on Google and I found very few commercially available breathable dust covers.

Frozoncold said:
My Mac Pro is on my desk though, so it would look kinda silly..
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Of course my computers look a bit unusual but but I'd rather have a 100% clean computer that needs zero servicing. Maybe you can put your machine under your desk somewhere, I don't know.

Roy said:
Doesn't impede air flow much, but it has to impede it some.
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You are absolutely right. What I meant is this: the fans in the MacPro are constantly spinning (they never shut off completely) and therefore an idle MacPro will continue to run its fans at the lowest possible speed. Under the exact same conditions, if I cover my MacPro with this makeshift dust cover the thermal control system does not make the fans spin any faster because the minimum fan speed is still sufficient to keep the MacPro innards cool. But no doubt the dust cover will lower the temperature threshold at which the fans start spinning faster, althought the difference will be ever so slight.
 
Scoox said:
I got my MacPro and I installed a new hard drive two weeks later. I noticed qute a bit of dust in it already. After a little thinking I came up with a solution:

Net blind

It's one of them net curtains that allow your neighbours to see you at night when you are naked in the lounge. Initially I wrapped my MacPro with an old t-shirt, but after half an hour I began to notice a funny smell and it wasn't the toaster 😱, so the t-shirt came right off. The above curtain is super fine but it does not impede air flow at all, and it is doing a fantastic job keeping both my PC and my MacPro absolutely dust-free. Granted, it looks like my computers are going to get married, but boy does it work!

If you need to insert an optical disk into the drive, lift the skirt and shove it in.
Click to expand...

Dirty Boy!


Scoox said:
MacPro.jpg
Click to expand...

Do you monitor your MPs temperatures at all? It would be interesting to see what they are with your "net curtain" modification. Few points:

  • One could argue that it is easier to see dust on the aluminium case than a net curtain. If you can see it, you can get rid of it.
  • If air is sucked in from the front, will the dust still find it's way in or are the curtains like fine mosquito nets?

Personally, it's not something I would do. If you are really concerned about dust, I would recommend not having any upholstery in the room/office where the mac is situated and clean regularly. If you do this you shouldn't have that much of a problem. It can also pay once in a while to either vacuum the dust or use a can of compressed air to blow out the dust.

Some people think vacuuming is better since compressed air can sometimes force dust between into components.
 
My MP's under my desk about 4 inches off the ground on a wooden stand, but i notice a little dust build up now and then, not a lot, but you notice it if you look for it, and once you notice it, You Just can't help but think about it, so all i do is gently go over the front with the vacuum every couple of months (and vacuum the carpet in my office, if the wife thought all i did was Vacuum the front of the Mac then i'd get an earfull and she can shout 😱 ) , but it keeps things clean and the MP happy, but what's 5 minutes cleaning every few months for peace of mind 🙂
 
About every three months, I take my Mac Pro outside and give it a thorough dusting throughout the inside with a can of compressed air. I pull the RAM risers and hard drive sleds and get all the nooks and crannies, including the PCI cards and fan blades themselves. I don't really have a dusty house at all, but the machines does sit on a wood floor, so any little bits floating on the floor can get sucked in to the machine.
 
quick question, is compressed "gas" the same thing as compressed air? Someone gave me some compressed gas to use on my new mac pro but I don't want to ignite it by accident.
 
phakebrill said:
Dirty Boy!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the compliment 😀

phakebrill said:
Do you monitor your MPs temperatures at all? It would be interesting to see what they are with your "net curtain" modification.
Click to expand...

I don't but I might do if I have time.

phakebrill said:
One could argue that it is easier to see dust on the aluminium case than a net curtain. If you can see it, you can get rid of it.
Click to expand...

Yeah but that also means that if there is dust ON the box there probably is twice as much inside already.

phakebrill said:
If air is sucked in from the front, will the dust still find it's way in or are the curtains like fine mosquito nets?
Click to expand...

Dust builds up on the net curtain. The curtains are surprinsingly fine, even finer than mosquito nets, a bit like unstretched women's tights. It is inevitable that a small amount of dust should find its way in, but we are talking about the really microscopic particles. But let's not forget that there exist forces between particles (e.g. electrostatic, gravitational, etc) which make dust stick to the curtain instead. In summary, the net curtain keeps most of the dust out.

phakebrill said:
Personally, it's not something I would do. If you are really concerned about dust, I would recommend not having any upholstery in the room/office where the mac is situated and clean regularly. If you do this you shouldn't have that much of a problem. It can also pay once in a while to either vacuum the dust or use a can of compressed air to blow out the dust.
Click to expand...

I already do!--I keep my house very clean and I don't have any pets. Every house is different yet dust sucks equally in all houses, therefore every house sucks differently. In my house, no matter how much I clean, dust reappears, and there is nothing I can do. Cleaning helps but does not eradicate the problem, so I bought the net curtains. Then I give the curtains a shake every week.

Ideally all computers should have some sort of EXTERNAL heat radiator as found in water-cooled systems; the case could then be virtually airtight and no dust would be able to get in. Incidentally, there are no signs of the MacPro case itself acting as a heatsink which is a real shame as it is made of aluminium.
 
big dainjerus said:
quick question, is compressed "gas" the same thing as compressed air? Someone gave me some compressed gas to use on my new mac pro but I don't want to ignite it by accident.
Click to expand...

It is typically not compressed air, but it also it not flammable.

This of course assumes you mean the compressed gas used for cleaning computers and not propane, acetylene or some other extremely flammable product that would be hard to confuse with the compressed gas used for cleaning.
 
Scoox said:
Thanks for the compliment 😀



I don't but I might do if I have time.



Yeah but that also means that if there is dust ON the box there probably is twice as much inside already.



Dust builds up on the net curtain. The curtains are surprinsingly fine, even finer than mosquito nets, a bit like unstretched women's tights. It is inevitable that a small amount of dust should find its way in, but we are talking about the really microscopic particles. But let's not forget that there exist forces between particles (e.g. electrostatic, gravitational, etc) which make dust stick to the curtain instead. In summary, the net curtain keeps most of the dust out.



I already do!--I keep my house very clean and I don't have any pets. Every house is different yet dust sucks equally in all houses, therefore every house sucks differently. In my house, no matter how much I clean, dust reappears, and there is nothing I can do. Cleaning helps but does not eradicate the problem, so I bought the net curtains. Then I give the curtains a shake every week.

Ideally all computers should have some sort of EXTERNAL heat radiator as found in water-cooled systems; the case could then be virtually airtight and no dust would be able to get in. Incidentally, there are no signs of the MacPro case itself acting as a heatsink which is a real shame as it is made of aluminium.
Click to expand...

Cool. I guess the most important thing is monitoring the temps... Let us know what the scores are. iStat Pro is a good bet...
 
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