grease for fans?

[kingo'mountain]

computer case fans use special grease to reduce friction, whats its name? brand? type?

what do you recommend?

i refer to the grease the factories put in

[cyu]

I used simple lubrication oil. There is no special grease for case fans, but don't use WD-40.

http://www.dansdata.com/fanmaint.htm

[Atmo]

I use 3-in-1 oil.

http://www.atmodigitaldesign.com/temp/3in1.jpg

It's easy to use, doesnt cost much and lasts quite a while between applications.

[PulseDriver]

I borrowed some of the siliconoil which my mom use for her sewing machine

[kingo'mountain]

atmo, due to my location, this product may be unavailable for me, is there any household products that do the same thing? cooking oil?

[General Geoff]

lithium grease is win.

[Atmo]

I dont know about cooking oil, it's probably a bit thin.

Sewing machine oil works fine.

[deeder7001]

how would i go about cleaning a fan? with Q-tips? a couple of my fans need to be cleaned a little. starting to make more noise than usual.

[aFfLiCtEd]

Originally posted by deeder7001
how would i go about cleaning a fan? with Q-tips? a couple of my fans need to be cleaned a little. starting to make more noise than usual.

I use compressed air.

[Atmo]

Compressed air works well, but a (dry) paintbrush will work too. You'd be there for ages with a q-tip.

If it's just a bit dusty, it wont affect the fan's performance or the noise level much. If it's really covered in crap (generally only happens if you smoke around your pc) then it may slightly throw the fan out of ballance, which may make the fan a little louder, but it shouldnt make enough difference to be noticeable, even if it's really filthy.

It's more likely your fan's bearings are drying out (oil time).

[deeder7001]

i only bout this fan deally like 2 months ago. there's 2 40mm fans that keep my HD cool. those are the ones that make a lot of noise. especially since it sits in a CD-ROM drive bay with the HD(which is fairly quiet).

[kingo'mountain]

Originally posted by Atmo
Sewing machine oil works fine.

you guys are WAY older than me, that technology should be history

i think ill go to a car supply shop and ask if they have something

oh, im cleaning my fans by taking them apart, washing the wings squeaky clean, and just wipe the dirt around the other part (around where the alectricity part is) and put the wings back.
it takes patience that only tech support people by phone have....

my dad yelled at me because he says that taking stuff apart somewhere from the computer 1000's of times can just damage it all.... wear and tear and sh!t... atmo... i made a thread once for computer tips and tricks where phily baby suggested putting a filter held by velcro tapes in front of intake fans to reduce the amount of dust coming in, i thought about it, the PSU fan blows out-ward, so is putting the filter in its vent holes (the ones facing the back of the CD-ROM) will make it hotter due to reduced airflow?

[Phyltre]

You could try the animal fat of your choice...

possibly fish oil, since it's liquid-state at most temperatures.

[kingo'mountain]

if theres one thing i hate... its fish!

[Phyltre]

As individuals or as food?

[kingo'mountain]

both

[Atmo]

i made a thread once for computer tips and tricks where phily baby suggested putting a filter held by velcro tapes in front of intake fans to reduce the amount of dust coming in, i thought about it, the PSU fan blows out-ward, so is putting the filter in its vent holes (the ones facing the back of the CD-ROM) will make it hotter due to reduced airflow?

Yes, it definately will.

If you want to keep the system/fans clean, you want to filter the air coming into the case, so put the filters over any fans blowing in.

I personally dont like using filters in my own pc's. They reduce the overall airflow and make the fans work harder (producing more noise).

[kingo'mountain]

well, thats legitimate when you overclock every little innocent chip in your machine... that really heats things up so much that you have to live in antarctica (or england, lol) for it to stay cool enough to function properly and mishap-free

i plan filtering for a non-overclocked P4 3.0G... ill just have to watch what kind of proccessor name should it be...
if its a Prescott, then putting filters will make it dangerously hot (even in wintery weather), but if i bump into a Northbridge one, ill get it

[Atmo]

If you're not overclocking, or even if you are but aren't pushing it to extremes, filtering is fine.

There's no reason you couldnt use fan filters if you're running a prescott, they do produce more heat than an equivalent northwood, but should still be ok as long as there's a reasonable ammount of airflow through the case. Without filtering you may get away with fewer or less powerful case fans though.

Remember that you still need to clean the filters, and you'll need to do it more regularly than just cleaning the dust out of the case/heatsinks/fans. Filters wont trap every bit of dust entering the system, so you'll still need to clean everything occasionally.

To further explain my reasoning for not running filters, i live in a dusty area in rural australia and i have to clean my system out once every 6 months or so to keep things running smoothly. At the same time i oil the fans and make sure everything's working as it should. That takes about an hour each time for my main pc (with 13 fans total) or about half an hour for my others.

A few years back i ran home made (pantyhose) filters over my intake fans, and found i had to clean them out once a month or they'd get clogged up to the point that very little air would get through. That took about half an hour each time, as i had to dissasemble part of the case to remove the filters, and i still needed to clean the case out once a year and oil the bearings, so there's 5 1/2 - 6 hours per year spent on maintenance in comparison.

That's why i decided they werent worthwhile, as unless they made maintenance easier or quicker, there was no point putting up with the (albeit small) drop in airflow and increase in noise.

Of course if your case makes it quick and easy to remove the filters then it may even out. Using a courser filter will increase the time before they get clogged, but then they'll let more dust in. If you live in a less dusty area then you wont need to clean as much either, but then again that probably means you dont need filters in the first place.

[kingo'mountain]

well, im using a SEC proccessor type currenly with the heatsink+fan attached to it, so everytime i want to clean the fans (and maybe other parts around) i have to take out the CPU completely... take out the heatsink... wash the heatsink and clean the fan, all that for about once in 2 months or closer if i have been dusting the room.. wear and tear (reconnecting the CPU) degraded my CPU to a level that when browsing sites and playing MP3s in winamp (classic, shade mode) makes the songs stutter like if im running a very old sound card...
[offtopic edit]
im using creative's Vibra128 [/ote]

i plan to buy a P4 with paying attention that the type of slot it has will be ZIF and not the SEC type so whenever i have to clean the CPU fan, i dont have to take out the CPU and cause wear and tear.. that means also keeping my case unscrewed so the screw holders wont wear out....

well, i dont know if i live in a dusty area, like, dust travels in the air as such small particles that you have to look through a microscope to see them, so i think most places are dusty.. i live in a city area.. lots of cars, plus that my father smokes with no way to suck the smoke out of the house (bummer)... you should see the amount of grime that he has on his keyboard!!! so add the smoke and the microscopic amount of dust and get the result of heavy cleaning duty for me


oh, and if you know of other filters besides pantyhoses, i'd like to know about them



the PSU fan is tricky, i think ill stick with the velcro plan, and try the pantyhose deal (gosh i wish i had a babe to steal her pantyhose)