Aurora R7, cleaning and noise

Also, are these numbers bad?

I have a liquid cooled system and a Alienware Aurora r7. My pc is going on two years in October, I haven’t cleaned it at all yet. And is covering it with a sheet safe?

keep desktop off the floor on a desk helps significantly reduce dust and dog hair. periodically open the chassis and blow out dust using compressed air can.  fan noise has nothing to do w dust.  you did not mention the model (liquid or air cooled cpu?) and how old your aurora is.  fans have limited optimal work life,  old fans are more likely to be noisy due to bearing wearing out, but not from dust on blades.  If you do not need to run it 24/7, power it off when you don’t need it and cover w a sheet also helps.  chassis front intake fan basically is a vacuum cleaner.  the longer it stays on the more dust gets in.

how many hours per day in two years?  cleaning helps longevity but may have no effect on fan noise.  You can d/c power to each fan individually to diagnose which one causes excessive noise.

you do not cover it w sheet when it is powered on.  if your environment has vigorous air circulation such as forced air heating, cover it when it is powered off helps reduce dust on outside only. most of dust inside is introduced by intake fan.

Short answer: No, those temps are fine

Long answer:

What's good for CPU and GPU temps depend on what it's doing, if you're playing mine sweeper and you're GPU's pushing 70C, then there might be a problem. If your running a triple A game on max settings at 70C, that would be pretty good.

You should only really worry if GPU is in the 85+ range too long, I would consider checking it out, because that's when permanent damage occurs, prolonged use at high temps. CPU's tend to run a little colder, provided you have good cooling on it. If your CPU is sitting at 80+ for too long, then I would recommend checking it out.

At the end of the day it's best to check with your specific manufacture or supplier about temps.

Hope I could help  

I just have some questions to help figure this out.

1.) Are you using any Nvidia GPU in your system?

Go to number 2

2.) Do the fans tend to "rev up" under heavy load, then go back down under low load?

If they do this and you have an Nvidia GPU (I'm assuming you do since most DELL alienware use them), You can right click on your desktop -> Nvidia control panel -> PhysX settings -> Change where it says rendering from auto to GPU, this will prevent the CPU from doing the GPU's job, causing super loud fans. 

3.) Can you hear them when you have game audio on?

If you can't, then there is no real reason to worry. Just clean out your computer every so often using compressed air and care and you should be fine. It's normal for you to be able to hear the fans, but they shouldn't be loud enough to distract you.

4.) Do you have a frame cap on any of the games?

If you are running the games at an uncapped frame rate, then that might explain it. This is just for me, but I like to cap my games around 10-20 FPS higher than my refresh rate of my monitor, so there is no notable difference, but my system doesn't have to work as hard. This differs from game to game though and system to system.

I used to cover my pc with a towel when it was off, but one time my pc did not boot or turn on, so i had to redownload windows on a flash drive and install windows that way, and it was a mess. I thought that that happened because i put towels over my pc to prevent the dust, but i do not know. So I haven’t done it since. There is not a lot of dust, but it could use a cleaning, i got compressed air, and is there anything i should know before using it?

Hello, 

I do not know if I am using a nvidia GPU, i have not checked or anything in that sort.

I have a nvidia GeForce 1080 graphics card though. The fans do not rev up when I start a game, or play a game like gta or fortnite. Sometimes though, when i play a really heavy graphics game like gta, i can hear the computer be a bit louder from different areas and different sides of the pc. But its not too loud. 

I can rarely hear my pc with my headphones on or when i am playing with friends. Sometimes if its really quiet and there’s nothing happening, i can barely hear the fans or the computer, but that might just be because I’m really close to my Computer when i game. 

I do have a frame cap on fortnite which is at 165, and that seems to work well because i have my fortnite settings pretty low so it doesnt do too much, but it also makes the game look nice. My gta settings are also reduced for better performance, and it seems to work well in both games. I have a 144hz monitor, so i have fortnite at 165 frames. 

I have never cleaned out my pc and I usually just wipe the surface dust away on my fans before i turn on my pc. It’s not extremely dusty considering the environment i live in, and i can see some dust inside the pc but its not a huge accumulation.

i recently got a can of compressed air yesterday, and i plan on cleaning my pc soon. Should i open my pc and clean it that way with the compressed air or could i keep my pc closed and just spray the dust away with the air?

also, I accidentally shook the bottle of compressed air a little, maybe one shake, but it wasnt aggressive, however I’m still worried the liquid could come out. But i sprayed it on my hand gently and in slow sprays, and it seemed to be air, so should i be okay?

Please let me know if i need anything else or anything else i should be informed on. 

I would put on anti ESD wrist band and manually wipe off the interior visible gross dust bunny first before applying compressed air.  remember compressed air w only one side panel open redistributes interior dust towards isotropy (more random) unless you are able to open both side panels and blow out dust from the side of motherboard tray towards the other open side so dust can exit from case.  Before you do that wipe away gross dust ball so they do not become particle dust which is worse.  I would not remove graphic card before cleaning case because it is better to leave PCIe slot occupied while cleaning so dust does not get trapped in slot.  Do not remove ram sticks before you blow dust because dust may get in DIMM slots which is hard to blow out.  

So could I open one side of my Alienware aurora r7 and just blow out the dust? Where would i blow it out though, how would I get that angle? And also should i unplug my pc? 

I would unplug and drain all power from system before doing anything.  Dell does not design r7 to make dusting easy.  The swing out psu stands in the way.  I would say if not too much dust, just focus on where you see the worst area, and do it with the case standing upright (not lying flat), so dust can be blown away to outside rather than resettling back down inside.  It is difficult to describe how you should angle it TBH.

@RyanK39 :

So could I open one side of my Alienware aurora r7 and just blow out the dust? Where would i blow it out though, how would I get that angle? And also should i unplug my pc? 

Yes, you can, and please do unplug the PC. I know it's very rare but as long as the PC is plugged in, part of the PSU is powered and a stray piece of conducting material could get blown to shunt a live to ground.

My suggestion is to let the rig lay down on its side on a padded and non-abrasive surface. I've scratched the side panels before just by letting it rest on its own on a floor. Something like the picture below.

@redxps630 mentioned the PSU swing arm. Once you push up the 2 tabs on the back of the machine, and swing the PSU arm up, you'll see something like this:

Most of the dust will accumulate near intake and output vents, and nook/ crannies where components meet. Give your aircan a few blasts away from the target first to get a feel of the airstream shape, strength, and hopefully ZERO humidity. Once ready, start with short blasts about 0.5-1 second each on the most obvious dust bunnies. Observe how they move around. After that it's a matter of using the airstream to guide the dustballs out of the chassis.

Not sure if it applies to everyone but its best to take photos of before opening/ disassembling something so that it serves as a guide on how to put it back together. It's gotten me out of trouble many times. 

Ok I’ll try, it scares me to open my pc that much, cuz i feel like my pc could get damaged and I would be . 

There is not too much visibile dust, if i shine a flashlight i can see little particles of dust but there does not seem to be much, and i cannot see much dust without a camera. 

These images are some of the pictures of where the dust is, it can only be seen with a camera flashlight, i cant really see it without. 

I’m thinking about just opening the one side door and cleaning that part with the compressed air 

^ this fan right here is on the side where the door opens 

I was thinking about just opening this side door and spraying the dust out of it as best as a I can.

please let me know what i should do, and if its safe enough for me to open my pc and put it back where it was because I’ve never done that before.

@GTS81 well said and much better than my reply.

If I were you I would just leave it untouched.  You do not need to dust it at this point. Do keep it off the floor if not already done.