[Nottingham] Hoover cooling

[Graeme Fowler]

Odd subject, I appreciate, but...

My home server's CPU suddenly started heating up dramatically last
Friday, spending long periods above 60 degrees with all the throttling
that ensues when that happens. Yes, it's a nasty overclocked P4, but
still - it's in a really decent case (Antec P180), it has three 120mm
fans to keep things cool, and the CPU has a Zalman P4 Flower cooler..
Something was definitely Not Quite Right.

This all happened soon after upgrading to Fedora 8. I assumed the sensor
driver had changed, so re-ran sensors-detect to sort it out.
Coincidentally, it seems, the temperature then seemed to fall to below
50 degrees.

Today, however, the CPU temperature exceeded 65 degrees (in this
weather, too). I opened the case and was confronted with my beautiful
work-of-art Zalman flower heatsink completely clogged with dust. I'd
have taken a photo but it looked pretty grotty :)

So, the Hoover - one vacuum cleaner session of all the filters, fan
intakes and the heatsink later and my CPU is now chugging away at 32
degrees, my disks at 35 degrees, and my fans are all at their minimum
setting.

Not Linux related at all, but still relevant - if you experience a heat
build up, give your innards a clean. Well, not yours, but you know what
I mean!

Graeme