Power supply at the bottom of the computer chassis?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Man-wai Chang to The Door (33600bps)
  • Start date Start date
Would it suck a lot of dust like a vacuum cleaner? :)
Click to expand...

Yes, they get filthy - top and bottom - whatever. Matter of time,
matter of build. Matter of who is looking and what looks disgusting.
Even if there were no airflow, everything green and passively cooled,
say along an intel atom and its HS's fins only, there's still
convection air circulation (ruling out an air-tight, sealed case).

More along QC - at a ramp when it's time to do something about it.

Take it all down, including the PS, put newspapers under everything,
tooth and a small, soft paintbrush, and a spray bottle to flush with
alcohol, change them until the newspapers show no yellow in the
runoff. Take spray tuner fluid or contact cleaner, if necessary swabs,
and rework the contact junctions after using an eraser over the flat
connectors on any insertion boards - PCI & etc.

Trick is a knack not to break anything, destroy the system or
yourself. Not sure about ratings inside Power Supplies, but
capacitors can be deadly. Good sense and respect for opening things
up isn't a bad idea.

I've a 60-gal. air compressor. Some people freak when I say I also
use that to bring one back to nearly as-new Condition.
 
Need to read the manual of the chassis to confirm your statement...
As a rule, you should always confirm *anything* you read on the internet.
Click to expand...

I read some manuals and they did NOT teach the buyers to mount the PSU
upside down.

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Well, nobody is forcing you to buy one, are they?

I knew!
And I can't swear for all of them, but some of the Antec cases do this and
they work just fine.
Click to expand...

I noticed that.

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I have heard it said that pcs shouldn't be placed on the floor because
of dust, but I'm not sure how much difference that makes since most pcs
at work are straight on the floor and my ones at home (which suffer from
dust] aren't.
Click to expand...

With the old approach (ie, the power supply at the top of the chassis),
the dust needs to travel a longer way from the intake to the power supply.

With bottom-mounting, the dust reaches the PSU directly from the intake.

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with my pcs at home, where they do seem to attact dust - I even have it
on my calendar to vacuum them out every 3 months or so (if I leave it
longer I can start to hear the cpu fan straining). Even then it tends to
be the cpu fan which get clogged up first - although when I'm vacuuming
out the case I normally try to vacuum the power supply as best I can
without removing it.
Click to expand...

Do you open the power supply and clean the dust there?

Would the warranty be broken by doing so?

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Man-wai Chang to The Door (33600bps) said:
Do you open the power supply and clean the dust there?

Would the warranty be broken by doing so?
Click to expand...

For power supplies, where one of the screws on the top lid is covered
with a "warranty void if removed" sticker, yes, the warranty would be
voided.

You can blow a lot of the dust out of the supply, from the exterior,
through the vents.

Paul
 
Man-wai Chang to The Door (33600bps) said:
With the old approach (ie, the power supply at the top of the
chassis), the dust needs to travel a longer way from the intake to
the power supply.
With bottom-mounting, the dust reaches the PSU directly from the
intake.
Click to expand...

No it doesn't! In my P180, the PSU is usually the cleanest bit.
 
....
You can blow a lot of the dust out of the supply, from the
exterior, through the vents.
Click to expand...

The local megastore sells regular size cans of 3M compressed air
for less than five dollars US, in the office supply area.
 
I take a vaccum and put it up against the vents on the p/s. The fan
starts spinning and it sucks the dust out. Its easy and seems to work
for me. Could this cause any problems with static electricity?
 
JediSpork said:
I take a vaccum and put it up against the vents on the p/s. The
fan starts spinning and it sucks the dust out. Its easy and
seems to work for me. Could this cause any problems with static
electricity?
Click to expand...

From what I gather, air/wind produced static electricity is caused
by dust particles. So the answer would be Yes, but who knows
whether it in fact would. Compressed air is probably better since
it is clean. Some people might argue that static electricity
really is not a problem, but parts do fail and (since you cannot
troubleshoot them) who knows why they fail. Eliminating leads
(like static electricity damage) at least might allow you to guess
about why something failed.

Good luck and have fun.
 
JediSpork said:
I take a vaccum and put it up against the vents on the p/s. The fan
starts spinning and it sucks the dust out. Its easy and seems to work
for me. Could this cause any problems with static electricity?
Click to expand...

I'd worry more about the fans spinning too fast. I'd block them from
moving by using something nonconductive and tough but not brittle,
like a plastic straw. Don't use anything metal because there's
exposed high voltage right behind the fan, even when the PSU is turned
off by its rear switch.

One former American TV manufacturer issued a service bulletin warned
technicians about static electricity from vacuum cleaner wind causing
damage to chips, but I seriously doubt that's a real problem with a
power supply because their chips aren't as delicate.
 
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