[NBLUG/talk] Safe cooling in a dusty environment?

Lincoln Peters anfrind at gmail.com
Fri Nov 27 15:23:43 PST 2009


On Fri, Nov 27, 2009 at 1:23 PM, Troy Arnold <troy at zenux.net> wrote:
> Unless your parents are gamers or otherwise need serious graphical
> capabilities, why don't you dodge the issue and spec out cool-running
> hardware?  This generation's CPU's aren't the mini thermo-nuclear devices
> of a few years ago, and you may be able to replace the existing video card
> with something integrated.

The original plan was to get a new video card (my dad wants to hook up
a 1080p HD monitor to the computer), but the rest of the system is
starting to show its age (AMD Sempron, 2.1GHz, 1GB RAM, no PCI
Express).  Then I realized that I could dramatically upgrade it using
a combo deal from NewEgg:

<http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.295698>

And, yes, that motherboard has a built-in video controller that works
with Linux (I looked it up) and is capable of supporting a 1080p
monitor at full resolution.


My assumption was that it would consume more power (and thus
presumably generate more heat) than the existing Sempron CPU, since
it's so much faster, but I don't know for sure.

>
> Regarding the dust and cat hair problem: the higher you can situate the box
> off of the ground, the less of an issue it will be.

Good point.  I had originally hoped to put it in a cabinet that's
built into their computer desk (which I think is reasonably insulated
at least from cat hair), but there didn't seem to be enough air
circulation in there.


-- 
Lincoln Peters
<anfrind at gmail.com>



More information about the talk mailing list