Forward, legal: By attempting any of this, you assume all risks. Neither myself, nor McNeel, the makers of Rhino 3D, assume any risk or responsibility. Only do any of the following if you feel qualified and comfortable working on computers. When cleaning your computer, you should be wearing a dusk mask, and wear eye/hearing protection. Working an an outdoors environment is safer than working indoors.
As you may know, running any CAD/Design/Rendering/Analysis software is really hard on computer. Rhino is or has accommodations for all of of these. I am here with a helpful hint to help your computer breathe. In order for your computer to cool itself, it needs to transfer the heat to the air, which is not really all that efficient, so it’s important to make sure that there is contact between the heatsink and the air, and that air is moved out of the computer–and the only way that that will happen is if more air comes in.
It’s common knowledge that dust interferes with your computer’s cooling, but even some IT people, who work on desktops for office applications may not realize just how much air a workstation or gaming computer moves through it. With that air comes dust.
Let’s see… I have two 120mm fans on the front of my computer. And they draw 186.7 m³/h, each for 373.4m³/h–and this room is about 23.78615m³, so if it weren’t for stagnate spots, the air would go through it quite a few times in a minute.
[With a highway always near, there is a lot of dust in Silicon Valley. My computer has to be cleaned every two months. Like gaining wait watching TV while eating ice-cream, I never notice the fans getting louder…but I can hear the difference after it is cleaned.}
This is an old server a friend gave that was being professionally maintained. When I opened it, I found this:
Before Starting, if you haven’t done a backup in a while–this is a great time to do it. Shut down your computer, unplug the computer before you clean it. Modern desktop computers may have large filter caps holding a dangerous and lethal DC charge for quite a while. So, it’s best to leave your computer unplugged before working on it, for quite some time.
One Thing to Watch for is to make sure that the fans in your computer don’t freewheel and spin up fast. It may be possible to generate electricity enough to damage the computer’s motherboard. If the fan run on 12v at 1,000 RPM, then how much might it put out at 4,000 RPM?
If you are working on a desktop computer, you may use a small plastic stick, like a spudger, to hold each fan before cleaning it. This is a delicate thing to do, and it’s best not to do–unless you can be careful holding them.
Usually, I start with the general case, than then blow out the fans, and then the ports on the back. Also, it’s best to start with the air source far away. The initial dust cloud is often quite profound, even on a computer that doesn’t look too bad.
If you are working on a laptop computer or a computer you cannot open, small bursts of air may help the fan from climbing in RPM.
Compressed Air in a Can is a common way to to clean your computer. Even if you only have one of those cans of Dust-off, that will work good. It’s expensive, but it works. It gets cold, though. Make sure you hold the can upright. Prolonged use will make the can unusably cold. It’s better to let the can warm up on it’s own, not applying any kind of heat to it. Also, the cold air could damage some parts of your computer, such as hot ones. Breathing the chemicals from one of those cans–in an enclosed room–is probably not the best idea. Likely, the chemicals in most of the cans are either already on the health-risk lists, or they will be.
An Air-compressor and Blow-Gun at light to moderate pressures also is great for cleaning a computer, but if you use too much pressure, that pressure could break something on the board or even flex it. It’s best to start with the nozzle a few feet away, and work closer.
A Small Electric Leaf Blower works really well, and it’s cheaper that canned air. You will likely want to take the nozzle off, not only to lower the pressure, but also so that you are not using some long unwieldy thing.
The Area Around a Desktop Computer is also something to consider. If you push the computer against the wall, or if you trap it between the desk and wall, or if you put things on top of it–it may affect the cooling. Putting anything on top or two near may also insulate the computer box itself, trapping heat that might have radiated or that convection might have taken away.
Propping up the Back of a Notebook Computer May Help it Cool Itself, especially on computers that take their air in from the underside. Even a pencil or the edge of a book may help your computer cool itself, but if you still have a mechanical hard drive, it’s probably best not to let if slip from whatever you put it on. Raising the computer will allow the bottom of the computer to be cooled.
Using a Vacuum Cleaner for Cleaning a Computer has its issues, while it’s good that you might have a HEPA filter on it, it’s pretty easy for the nozzle to be sucked into the computer, damaging it. You only have to scrape a few parts off the motherboard or break one memory socket for the computer not to work.
Also…
Some people use cooling pads, but I prefer either putting a notebook computer up or putting it on a mesh grill because it will be less likely than some cooling pads to circumvent your computer’s cooling. If the cooling pad pushes against the fan airflow direction, your poor CPU or GPU might not have airflow.
After rendering on a notebook computer, it’s probably best to shut any major applications, and let the computer cool down for a few minutes. This can protect the screen from damage. Take a break, do a bit of browsing, catch up on your social networking, doomscroll. Limit the videos if you want it to cool down fast.
Larger fans tend to be quieter and more efficient than small ones. Two slower fans will likely be quieter than one fast one. Fan size is not in the specs for any notebook computer I have ever seen. Thin is not sexy in a notebook workstation computer. A computer may run faster–just from cleaning it, as it may throttle less. Cooling the room will help cool the computer. If the room is hot expect more noise and lower performance.
[Soapbox: There probably aren’t any notebook workstation/gaming-computers that cools themselves well and don’t throttle under heavy loads. Not even for the love of money will the manufactures make one. Your notebook CPU and GPU that you paid a lot of money for probably has a lot more potential–if they had put more cooling in it. No, I don’t think temperatures over 85c are reasonable for computer reliability. No, I don’t think the computer reviewer your are watching or reading will have their computer they are reviewing…for more than a week, so longevity is not a thing for them.]