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[fearlesslittletoaster]

Just something I found recently that has given a noticeable boost to my FPS. My PC is about five years old, and I'd been getting around 40-60 FPS on a reasonably simple 85 Dwarf fort. Every six months or so I clean out my case (yes, I still use a desktop), vacuum up any dust-bunnies, blow out the heat sinks with canned air, the standard stuff.

So I went to do this last week and, after all that, I noticed my heat sinks still looked a little... fuzzy. Some wiping got me more dust so I hauled my case out to the shop and fired up the air compressor. A nice point blank blast of 100PSI compressed air knocked a ton more dirt out of the thing, even after the canned air. And I mean a LOT more dirt. I blasted off the rest of my motherboard (with some distance to keep from damaging it) and set stuff back up.

Now that same fort is running at about 55-70 FPS, and a couple other saved forts are also noticeably faster. Apparently a pretty stuck-on layer of dirt had built up on my heat-sink over the years and it was thick enough to cost me some real processing power. I would suggest checking this for anyone whose case is more than a couple years old.

A note for those of you without air compressors: You should get the same level of clean by just wiping, and it probably wouldn't take that much longer. I just like gratuitous use of power tools for small tasks.     

[atari911]

This is probably somewhat unique to your computer... If the CPU is getting too hot it may throttle down the clock speed to save the chip. I also notice that there are a lot of i3 and i5 chips that will also throttle based on different triggers. What is the CPU you are using?

Of course, it's always a good idea to keep the insides of your computer clean!

[fearlesslittletoaster]

I run a i7-2600k at 3.4 GHz, Windows 7.

And yeah, I just found it interesting how much dirt the 'normal' cleaning methods I've always used allowed to build up over the years. I figure heat sinks are common to every PC, and if somebody doesn't have this issue and cleans the heck out of their heat sink it won't hurt anything.

[steel jackal]

I run a i7-2600k at 3.4 GHz, Windows 7.

And yeah, I just found it interesting how much dirt the 'normal' cleaning methods I've always used allowed to build up over the years. I figure heat sinks are common to every PC, and if somebody doesn't have this issue and cleans the heck out of their heat sink it won't hurt anything.

pff, i7 on a laptop? no wonder you get slowdowns from dust, that thing makes a TON of heat. you need a lot more than the fan on a laptop to keep it cool.
for the rest of us who have the i3-5 on our mediocre laptops, the built in fan is enough.

also, ive seen people put their laptops on top of a giant pile of pennies, the copper helps suck away heat a lot better than say, the wood of a desk
i retract this statement as i have misread

[GhostDwemer]

There's also laptop lap desks with built in coolers if you have the extra cash to spend. They run from $30 on up. Even the ones without the fan are a good way to keep dust and fibers out of your laptop. They also keep the hot laptop off of your lap which is a plus.

[NullForceOmega]

pff, i7 on a laptop? no wonder you get slowdowns from dust, that thing makes a TON of heat. you need a lot more than the fan on a laptop to keep it cool.
for the rest of us who have the i3-5 on our mediocre laptops, the built in fan is enough.

also, ive seen people put their laptops on top of a giant pile of pennies, the copper helps suck away heat a lot better than say, the wood of a desk

OP specified that his DF computer is a desktop, not a laptop.

[steel jackal]

pff, i7 on a laptop? no wonder you get slowdowns from dust, that thing makes a TON of heat. you need a lot more than the fan on a laptop to keep it cool.
for the rest of us who have the i3-5 on our mediocre laptops, the built in fan is enough.

also, ive seen people put their laptops on top of a giant pile of pennies, the copper helps suck away heat a lot better than say, the wood of a desk

OP specified that his DF computer is a desktop, not a laptop.

then i very much so misread that

[Dunamisdeos]

A note for those of you without air compressors: You should get the same level of clean by just wiping, and it probably wouldn't take that much longer. I just like gratuitous use of power tools for small tasks. 

This is the best way. The powerful way. The Dorf way.

[GhostDwemer]

A note for those of you without air compressors: You should get the same level of clean by just wiping, and it probably wouldn't take that much longer. I just like gratuitous use of power tools for small tasks. 

This is the best way. The powerful way. The Dorf way.

Old toothbrush works great.

[wierd]

Old toothbrush does better than forced air.

If you need longer bristles, get a stencil brush, or a small trim brush.

Removal and blasting with water then reapplying compound is the best, but the brush is usually enough.

[Dunamisdeos]

"Now, place the heat sink in question onto the wood like this. When you have completely worn through the table from above, your heat sink will be clean in the eyes of Armok."

[FantasticDorf]

As long as you're careful doing maintenance to clean out fans etc its recommended.

I use a cheapish pad with a large fan that goes in via USB to keep my laptop cool whilst im playing by keeping it at a angle so that the air being pushed out can travel out via the gaps getting a bit of coverage, for a piece cheap of kit it's served me well, it was really cold and cool when i got it and now it's pleasantly humid but it does have a noticable effect on fanning down when my laptop is REALLY chugging along with issues like FPS.

(I've had a laptop before where the heat actually melted the motherboard because it was so inefficient at dispelling heat, never bought that make again after that)

[Insert_Gnome_Here]

I remember running DF on an old laptop, the 80 Celcius temperature readings, the perma-burns on my thighs. Good times.

[Bumber]

"Now, place the heat sink in question onto the wood like this. When you have completely worn through the table from above, your heat sink will be clean in the eyes of Armok."

No magma?

When the magma evaporates into thin air, your heat sink will be clean in the eyes of Armok.

Hope it was carved from magma safe stone.

[fearlesslittletoaster]

When the magma evaporates into thin air, your heat sink will be clean in the eyes of Armok. Hope it was carved from magma safe stone.

Given how much my very first laptop weighed I think mine was carved from Slade...