Deep Clean

A happy time was spent in the garage today, removing all the innards from the hundred dollar computer I bought on Sunday and giving everything a real deep clean. I was reminded about the attention to detail my good friend Graeme used to give when detailing his Honda Accord on Saturdays back in Ontario, and I said to Karen that computers are my equivalent of a type of cleaning OCD and it is not a chore, just rewarding fun. I just don't wear wellies when doing this stuff, just socks and sandles, the West coast way.

Side panels, front panel, front and rear fans, all corners blown out with compressed air and then a paintbrush to get all the skin cells, dust, DNA and boogers out from crevices. Then a wash down with a soapy flannel and left to dry outside by the car, which also will be having some soapy water waved near it in the next few weeks, weather permitting. I have also ordered some cheap front seat covers from Amazon, so I may do a blog entry of how well/badly that goes.

Opening the garage door reminded me that Spring is just around the corner, it wasn't a really cold day and there was a little sunshine, great day for blowing out the cobwebs. I finished up the deep clean and the next steps will be to reassemble the fans to the front and back, then install the ASUS Z170 motherboard from the build I did last week, it is a repeat of effort, but I think it will go well in this Corsair case.

There is something very special about these older Corsair and Cooler Master ATX computer cases, the gauge of the metal is a lot thicker than the modern ones, sure they are heavier, but I see that as a positive and want to have my personal computers in a solid housing. In the next few years I expect to buy a few more of these type of bargain units, there may be quite an influx of them around the end of 2025 when support for Windows 10 ends. It is interesting that on the last day of January, Microsoft announced that they are not selling licenses any more, the writing is on the wall for all of us who love Windows 10.

Windows 11 has (apparently) hardware demands that cannot be met by older motherboards and CPUs, even those from just five years ago, so I expect that there will be quite a few bargains in the used market as the deadline looms, and slowly my personal computers will improve, but will still very much be considered "old" tech.

There will be an unseen musical chairs moment as I deconstruct the very recent Rosewill Intel i5-6600k build and move it into this preferred case. I was going to do a blog about it but other things, mainly a new starter motor on the car, became a priority.