MSI Develops Dust Removal Tech for GPUs
MSI's Dust Removal tech has the GPU fan spinning in the opposite direction for thirty seconds to blow off the accumulated dust.
Last week, MSI introduced a new feature it's adding to its graphic cards called Dust Removal technology, and right now it's only available on the meaty N580GTX Lightning Xtreme Edition add-on.
Essentially this new "tech" merely runs the GPU's fans at 100-percent in the opposite direction when the system is turned on, expelling any dust from the heatsink fins and fan blades that may have accumulated since the system was powered off. After thirty seconds, the fan will then resume its correct rotation and blow heat off the chip.
"Experiments show that cold air can't effectively remove the heat from the heat sink fans on a graphics card if they are covered with dust," the company reports. "The result is reduced cooling performance and the GPU's working temperature may even increase by 15°C! With the advanced MSI Dust Removal Technology, the fans spin in reverse for 30 seconds upon system startup, helping to remove dust buildup on heatsink and ensuring optimal cooling performance."
It's surprising that card manufacturers haven't thought of this before, but you can bet non-MSI vendors will surely follow in the coming months. It will be interesting to see if this fan-reversal for 30 seconds will actually keep the GPU and its cooling components clean, or if it ends up becoming just another gimmick to sell more cards. That said, the dust removal "tech" may not be too useful for those who keep their desktops powered up 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
For consumers interested in purchasing the first-ever graphics card featuring MSI's Dust Removal method, the N580GTX Lightning Xtreme Edition is available for $599 USD over on Newegg and other retailers. Actual specs include Nvidia's GeForce GTX 580 "Fermi" GPU clocked at 832 MHz, a shader clock of 1747 MHz, 512 processor cores, 3072 MB of GDDR5 dedicated memory and so on.
how about the rest of us? dont we matter?
Its even hard to remove with an ear wax cleaner.
Mabye if the used Teflon blades that would help some.
But i am however interested in the colour tep changing tech. i could use that as a temp monitior by looking at the colurs in the case..
Good idea!
Its even hard to remove with an ear wax cleaner.
Mabye if the used Teflon blades that would help some.
But i am however interested in the colour tep changing tech. i could use that as a temp monitior by looking at the colurs in the case..
Anyway, I will keep dusting out my PC at least twice a year (compressed air does wonders) and vacuuming the case filters weekly.
how about the rest of us? dont we matter?
Once every couple of months I take a couple of hours to disassemble my box, clean every component (including the inside of the PSU) and put it back together again. Seems to work and makes me feel like a man, getting my hands dirty and all that.
Is your PSU water cooled too?
Are you asking if you matter to me, or to MSI?
My case keeps the PSU in its own sealed compartment at the bottom, the fan evacuates air directly downwards and out, and the air intake has also been retrofitted with a HEPA filter.
The last time I had to clean dust from my machine was when I wiped the top of the case with a cloth. The inside is like a surgical bay.
Surgical bay, that sounds very nice. I'm thinking of installing liquid cooling too.
But... you know that there is dust in your PSU despite the filter? Doesn't that bother you? You know it's just sitting there, accumulating and restricting airflow... :evilgrin:
The filters do a pretty good job, every 6 months I blast key points with a can of compressed air. The PSU, the opening tray of the optical drive, the card reader. It also helps if you swap out the HEPA filters regularly and clean them.
Running a PC is like running a house, a reasonable outlay for cleanliness and a small amount of basic housekeeping can make a world of difference. Otherwise you are always fighting a losing battle against dirt and grime.
Sure but if you keep it running for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, will dust stick to it?
HEPA for computer cooling....overkill