How to tidy up the inside of your old PC - LBC#67

This build came in with frame-rate problems that I discovered were caused by an overheating CPU. The customer asked us to tidy it up as well, so here's a walk-through of how we did this one.
The objective here isn't to make a show-floor build, but to get it into a state you can show off without spending a load of money on specialist cables and accessories.
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[@Britec09]

Good job Graham

[@piggyspower4591]

Love these channels

[@mattf8535]

Ooo hello Britec! 👀

[@essambakhashwein]

My fav channel watching my fav channel

[@johnbos4637]

Those push pins were first used with socket 775 stock Intel CPU coolers. They were always very cheap and nasty and often fail after being released and pushed a few times. Over the years I've replaced a lot of the stock Intel coolers because of broken push pins. The non-latching push pin was definitely the cause of the CPU overheating since the heatsink would not have been fully pulled down and touching the top of the CPU.

[@Duvoncho]

Good old Sandy Bridge!.. My old chip is still alive and kicking in my daughter's Fortnite frankenstein box that I made for her. I'd consisdered putting it in a box frame on the wall (It really was a magnificent era) but I also love seeing how long it can be kept alive for. Great Stuff.

[@petewilliams6404]

I've been binging these videos recently, great channel. In depth knowledge coupled with a non-arrogant, pleasant mannerism. Easy watching.

[@mediumpete]

Brilliant video! I particularly love the dust bunnies flying everywhere when you pull off the cooler! High definition is great...

[@michaelthompson9798]

Great video Graham 🥰👍🏆! When dealing with these “Ketchup & Mustard” cables, I either just apply a little black pvc tape over the end of the exposed coloured cables near the motherboard OR use a black sharpie pen 🖊 for the same outcome 👍🎉🏆

[@wynard]

This was a very satisfying cleanup/maintenance, great job!

[@ianpluves]

Very informative video and very well explained. Ideal for those who are relatively new to diy repair like me. Thanks for sharing.

[@devonoved7]

Thanks for sharing Sir, Learning something new from you every post.

[@dantheman7357]

Excellent, and well explained............AS USUAL, thanks.

[@rocinante666]

Great stuff Graham

[@Retroornew]

really well presented an informative video Graham as always in fairness

[@RWL2012]

I like these "older computer" videos :)

[@Nico_335i_DCT]

Looks great now! Good job! Regards, Nico.

[@Moissanyte]

This channel really grew, good job man.

[@spacecy]

Loving the content Graham, keep it up brother.

[@jasonledrew7677]

Another recommendation for all new system cleaners, make sure the fans do not spin when applying compressed air! This will destroy bearings! Including fans inside your PSU, us an non metal object to prevent the fan from rotating :)

[@optimizelogicrepair2784]

So tidy! Job well done.

[@dwight2310]

good job mister adamant

[@kovacspis]

I loved the video, the approach, the explanations, same way as I do my repairs/overhauls/restores. Only thing I would have done different is the PSU being upside down. I would have put it to breath from the bottom, that way the cables would come out on the side closer to the cable management holes on the case too.

[@jasonledrew7677]

Agreed, I thought forsure he would comment on that. Extra heat just blowing across the entire system.

[@drupiROM]

40:27 That wallpaper. I'm glad more people are waiting for The Invincible, i hope it will be a good game. Have not read the book yet, might get to it until the game comes out. Great video btw. Hope you get to at least 500k subs. You deserve it.

[@MedievalFolkDance]

Agreed. Take pictures before you start unplugging things. Also, I found it helpful to have a tablet handy so you can look up manuals if you don't have them. Useful if, like myself, you consistently forget which front panel headers are which.

[@johncundiff7075]

Great videos Sir!

[@mgh439]

Thank you for the video. Great job.

[@JoeyDoesTech]

Found this really useful Graham, thankyou 😁

[@herrpez]

I had an i7 2600 with thermal paste that was just completely solid. Temps were totally fine. I theorize that as long as the heatsink remains undisturbed, the dry and crusty paste will be completely fine... but if it wiggles just a tiny bit and cannot (for obvious reasons) reflow the paste it's gonna be game over, and the only solution is to re-paste. I say this because I actually did re-paste mine (during a LONG overdue cleaning of the inside) and noticed no difference in temperatures. Don't take this to mean that I think re-pasting is bad though! All I want to do is throw my little anecdote into the data set. ;) Edit: Young master Graham addresses this around 12:20. :)

[@abrahamalviarez5870]

wow, that's a beautiful looking motherboard!

[@stevesmusic1862]

Glad to see someone else using a paint brush as well :)

[@josephravu5039]

Nice work, that. Thanks for the vid.

[@andrewcosten]

Great job

[@andy816896]

Nice tidy up, worth remembering those old i7's came with a box cooler. You only needed more for overclocking.....

[@leightaylor8069]

If you had mounted the PSU fan down then the main bundle of cables would be nearer the grommet freeing up some more length.

[@keithmiller9665]

Nice, thank you!

[@QuentinStephens]

Great and informative video as usual. A few things struck me: You should mention holding the fan blades when cleaning a fan to prevent damage to the motor. The front panel audio issue is well known and caused by EMI from the motherboard and power cables in a poor cable (as most of them are). Your customer should use the rear jacks where possible. If that's not possible, invest in a really long extension and route the cable right round the outside away from other cables. Might it have been possible to mount the SSD on the back and the 3.5" drive out of sight in the 5.25" bay and completely remove the 3.5" bay for an even cleaner look? You mentioned that the PSU had channels that were limited to 20A and you only plugged one cable into the GPU. With one 150W 8 pin and one 75W 6 pin power connectors you're pulling a normal maximum of 225W down that cable. At 12V that's only just shy of 20A - 18.75A, actually - and a little too close for my comfort. A surge could be bad news and I would suggest using the second separate power cable. This also allows ease of mind when replacing the GPU with a more power-hungry one.

[@RatBagDad]

There is no argument to be had over PSU placement. Whatever give best temps. Personally I mount down in my current case. But it A) has bags of clearance and isn't on the floor. B) has a case filter tray and C) most importantly, I care enough to clean regularly with an electric blower. - How you maintain will always win over how you mount, assuming one isn't negligent with their build effort.

[@StoutPika]

11:48 was my fav part of this video

[@PaulLemars01]

Lovely to watch the service. Me personally I would have replaced the cooler. A cheap replacement is about $25 and those pins go brittle and degrade with age. Replacement is cheap insurance.

[@philippenormandeau2676]

nice tiding up that's great

[@justinbuckley]

The glass panel you showed at 3:16 I believe still has the protective plastic on it, It can be a pain to get off but that's what it looks like

[@annihilatorg]

Thanks for the video. I never knew you could swap those plastic pins from Intel stock to aftermarket coolers like that. I've chucked more than one cooler for that particular failure, whoops. Always glad to see solid systems like this staying out of the trash.

[@noodle_Cx]

I have a think against throwing away pc electronics lol, I keep everything "just in case", you never know when you might need certain components and parts, like push pins ;)

[@Adamant_IT]

Yea doesn't always work, I was actually very surprised that these ones fitted. But 3rd party push-pin coolers are fairly uncommon, so I wasn't too fussed about making a big deal of it. I nearly cut it from the video, but glad it served as a tip to someone!

[@ste76539]

You've got two 2.5" hard drive mounts on the back. Also, the completely black glass side door is completely black for a reason, you wouldn't want to see the spaghetti of cables on that side!

[@edbeagle7929]

my case has tinted glass love the look with the rgb fans set to white hides some of the low end parts a bit

[@jkid8984]

I like to clean the RAM contacts with a Q-tip and IPA. Has fixed many odd BSODs.

[@therealcarbine15]

One thing. The second pcie power connector you didn't use is on a separate rail, better to connect two 12v trails to the gpu than use the pigtail.

[@Adamant_IT]

Yea, spare cables for this PSU will be long gone. It'll be fine, but I agree, connect a second cable if it's available. It would've been especially useful for this PSU because of it's split power rails.

[@davidbigwood8450]

Good job. Like videos like this.

[@liaminwales]

Id like to think the dust when you pulled of the CPU cooler off was the ghost of thermal paste escaping. Caned air is super expensive, I use a "giottos rocket air blaster" to puff out the dust. They tend to be sold for cleaning cameras but work on anything & cost about the same as 2 cans of air.

[@thomasdecker7976]

Great tutorial, and really useful for people on a tight budget. When you picked it up I thought you would just put in that stock Intel cooler, what you did was way more interesting though.

[@jamesvozar1]

it was never the cpu until...... :) good vibes man.

[@tsdobbi]

My buddy had an issue after having his PC for like 4 years his CPU started throttling every time he played a game. It was fine until recently. We tried all sorts of stuff. Cleaned it out, new case fans, new cpu heatsink fan. Removed the heatsink, cleaned and re-applied thermal paste, still no dice. Then he just went ahead and got a new and better CPU cooler and everything was golden then. Just surprising to me the old heatsink just stopped being able to cool his CPU.

[@shoffmann70]

Boy, that's a lot of dust! I would use a cordless leaf blower in the back yard to blow out the dusty PC cases.

[@koford]

i guess those thermal paste was bad in addition to one broken "pin" made the CPU go high.. fixing that seems to solve the "problem". All in all, giving this video a thumbs up.

[@EhEhEhEINSTEIN]

I had a z77 Sabertooth that I regret selling to this day.. Just a good looking board with all the modern features I wanted. Still have the level 10 gt it was in though!

[@SilentHillFetishist]

I like to install a center bottom fan. The psu cables go straight behind the wall and the height of the fan shroud makes some space to put the cables between.

[@stephanc7192]

Good video

[@DennisKyne]

Like the new intro.

[@MorDreadful]

Just a note on the ssd and drive tray issue you thnought you had. You mentioned the ssd mount you did not want to use as it shows it off and thought certain ssds only should go there, the 2.5" mount above the two drive trays. You have two on the back side also that would keep the ssd hidden, meaning that you didn't need to bother about which way round the drive tray should be, could have just left it empty. That would leave space for another 3./5 inch, one extra ssd 2.5" on the back where 2 can go (you didn't mention those), and the one in the front to show off an ssd with rgb if the customer wanted which is what I would have done. As for the PSU? I would have had the fan down regardless of some people not bothering about the dust filter as that is THEIR issue and rather have gone for ther practicality of cable length so as to not stretch the cables as much leaving more room for better cable management, this would have left ample cable length for the 8pin cpu and to route it better along with the 24 pin. I know you said you are not going to argue this point? this is not why I am saying it. I am saying it just to point out something that may have been overlooked. Customers not cleaning their dust filters is not your problem or issue and sometimes practicality of not over stretching cable is what should be done. This would also allow more length for installation of the cable, making it easier in the long run, with velcro cable ties, sorry, "Hook and Loop" cable ties, this becomes even more efficient. Do not concern yourself with how the customer treats their system and if they do not clean the filters and the pc gets hot? may be develops a short from dust, so be it, it is, after all is said and done, their pc. IF they bring it back? then you charge them again, you can point it out to them, bnut, if they never learn, they are the ones who have to keep spending the cash to fix their problems. I will notr argue about the PSU being upside down etc. I would arguie on cable length for not over stretching though which is ultimately, a valid point when concerning voltages and stretched wires and also connections on the board with wolder joints. The less strain all round the better. These are only points to consider and nothing else. This is merely what I consider and we can never stop learning etc. I am no newbie on this and have been doing these things since the 386/486 chips where the motherboards had jumper switches along with the HDDs and so on. When cpus at one point had no IHS on them such as the AMDF Athlon 2500 Barton cores which could potentially be 3200s that were clocked down to 2500 such ass the one I had, I believe I still have it with the board that it sat in. Yes, I have worked on PCs that had daughter boards to add expansion cards.

[@GPEART1]

It just goes to show that if the basics are out, then it leads to more problems. I was suspecting poor cooler mount with temps like that on 2nd gen i7, it is very easy to damage those pins when mounting the cooler.

[@catherinemorgan2741]

12:34 I see that one of the pegs is higher than others when you took it out i hate push pins wonder if it wasn't on prop as well

[@noodle_Cx]

I personally use a soft toothbrush for dust, as the brustles can go under fan blades or anywhere else, then a cloth for surfaces and you dont get dust flying everywhere like you would with blowing it out (unless you take it outside). I have allergies so I'm pretty careful while cleaning my pc.

[@Ed31003]

you should have named this one "how to make a "budget" PC look as good as expensive units - nice video

[@AllanBorch]

At first i saw that Cabinet opened, i thought: "Oh an old Thermaltake!"😂 I didn't notice the Bitfenix logo til more than halfway through!😂 -Because it looks very much (inside) like my "Versa N27 Snow"... It's definitely not a good case to build in, I've redone it more than 4 times... next time i think I'll go for a "011 Dynamic"!

[@j.p.h.8126]

Very nice job it looks alot better then before. How ever i would have moved the ssd to the back of the case and thrown away the ugly adapter. And i mite have repasted the nearly 7 year old GPU aswell. But i think that the customer will be very happy with this result. :)

[@ZanderKaneUK]

Corsair full tower case front panel audio cable are not long enough in my experience either Graham and I have had problems with front panel USB 3 cables with their bulky connectors not waiting to sit in connector when the cable length is stingy. The triangle on the HHD front connector does and doesn't matter, by that I mean if you plug it in the wrong way round the HHD light will be on when there is no activity and turn off when there is activity has been my experience.

[@Gassit]

I recently splashed out on a tube of Kryonaut thermal paste mainly to re paste my video card an MSI RTX 2081Ti Ventus. It didn't lower the temps at all, it still runs at 74 deg under 100% load but it considerably reduced the noise as the fans don't ramp up as high anymore and that was my main complaint with this card. It was horrendously loud before even under normal gaming loads but now its still audible but nowhere near as obnoxious.

[@SilentHillFetishist]

beatyful board

[@healy7882]

nice work, this case is so easy to cable manage whoever put that together was lazy.

[@bulletstrongholder644]

Tip: I use hair dryer set on max speed and element 0ff for cleaning, if you don't have the dryer some vacuum cleaners has blowing mode also you can use

[@dickdastardly4801]

Be careful with a vacuum cleaner as it has high static discharge. Proper Computer blowers and vacuums have static protection

[@danielodonnell8998]

very cool

[@TomsManShed]

Another great vid Graham...have you approached Tesco yet for a sponsorship deal :)

[@internetsurvivor]

I have a 3770k and play lots of Fortnite in 1080p at 120 fps which is very CPU intensive. Make sure post processing is set to low in game settings and just giving the CPU a bump up to 4.5ghz got me a huge reward in frames. Gammaxx 400 on the CPU keeps it at 77c and that Cooler Master is better than the Gammaxx. I would have slapped a couple front fans in that case as well and tore the GPU apart to repaste it since it's very ancient. My old R9 290x needed new paste years ago.

[@sleepingwarrior4618]

Sweet result. Nice when things just "work". All too often, you start fixing and 1 job....becomes 6!

[@dnakatomiuk]

Recommend the Westerns Digital 2TB 7,200rpm SATA HDD for storage just got one for £47 ebuyer, want to see the back of my case I have the MSI FORGE MAG 100R nice case but doesn't have the best room for the excess, this weekend I'm going to be tidying it up you've encourage me to do it. If their's one thing I wish they would upgrade is the front panel I/O cables and put them in a block because I have seen an old case years ago that had such a feat

[@changhsieh459]

Still using 3770k machine like this...was a pain finding a replacement motherboard... oem boards only take the non-k version.

[@---le7cy]

Just wondering, instead of graphics card power cables pulling down that card wich which seems to sag easily, why not use the 24 pin hole and make those cables hold a bit the card?

[@panman1964]

oooh it has pass through points for an external radiator :)

[@wkaibigan]

Did you check the front panel audio after everything else was done?

[@cluthz]

Very nice video, but there is one thing you really should correct. The PSU was a quad raid 550W, and you used a single PCIe daisy chained cable! The 280X was at stock a 250W GPU, it should not use daisy chained PCIe cables, especially on a quad rail PSU.

[@deminybs]

👍 Also PSU fan down ftw

[@ComputerTechNL]

I always do cpu + gpu with grizzly or mx-4 all things that need pads or thermal... And heatsinks ect.... To make 100% sure it will run fine in temps and sound.

[@loydheadrick1343]

Suggestion get a lazy Susan to use when you build or redo cables would make it easier to move around

[@1marcelfilms]

i like to run burn test + furmark at the same time so you can be 100% sure it will never crash

[@ottokite]

Very informative Graham, thanks. Does that PC have a missing IO shield too?

[@Adamant_IT]

Sadly yes. There are options for dealing with that, but I've not done the research to talk about it in a video yet. I know a chap who sources 3D printed "lattice" IO shields where you just cut out the required spaces, but I'm not sure if they're commercially available.

[@brianstreitberger2825]

Have you see the cans that you can refill with compressed air yourself?

[@rsuryase]

i7-2700K, that's what I have on my 10 year old Win7 PC. Hope he gets a new computer soon.

[@len9518]

What do you think of placing the power supply first, and connecting the cpu power cable, BEFORE mounting the heatsink, since in most cases there is very little room to connect it, with the heatsink in place, especially if there is a larger heatsink in place, that almost totally blocks access to the cpu header? Often there is almost no room to get your hand in there.

[@Adamant_IT]

Yup, smart move, I'm in a weird phase of not doing anything in any particular order at the moment. That being said, if you connect up EPS cable first, that means fitting the heatsink outside of the case isn't an option. So really you've just got to gauge which method you think is easier on your specific build. I've got slender hands, so I don't mind awkward plugs.

[@sentagustafsson7204]

well done ! but...what about the front audio ? did it work ? ^^

[@MrImATarget]

Good job on an older pc. You removed two retaining screws from the graphics card when you removed it but only installed one when replacing the card. Did you install the second screw later?

[@catherinemorgan2741]

looks like hole in back see the PSU if out first put HD cable that way pull tight and then put PSU back could that work

[@sheldonkupa9120]

I always take out RAM before mounting things, in particular psu and processor cooler. Is there a reason why u let it in generally? I love watching ur vids man! And appreciate your feel for aesthetics😄 Do your clients appreciete too?

[@Adamant_IT]

No specific reason. I'm fairly deft with my hands and can work in narrow spaces - but I often say to people "If something is in the way, then take it out."

[@kodessa]

that black panel is the equivalent of blacking out the taillights on a car.

[@ldenorio]

do you think the GPU should have been repasted? Also, they should redesign the HD power connectors

[@devonoved7]

Possible that the bum Heat Sink push pin was a cause of the overheating as well

[@leightaylor8069]

Interested that you didn't repaste the second time. Do you think there could be a problem with air bubbles and if not why not?

[@Adamant_IT]

In short, because there never is. A lot of people tend to be super paranoid about thermal paste, but outside of extreme overclocking or lab testing, it really makes little to no difference. Sure, now and then you'll get a bad mount - but you'll know when you've got a bad mount because the temps will be way outside of the expected values. If the numbers look fine, you're good to go.

[@Hollzer]

I hope manufacturers will standardize f_panel connector some day.

[@Adamant_IT]

It's in a weird Unspoken Agreement stage at the moment, where basically any mobo made in the last five years has the same FPanel pinout - but yea it's not strict, so case manufacturers need to split the wires just in case 😔

[@PLr1c3r]

Why is the north bridge hitting 142deg? seems like this might be a problem. I'm not familiar with Hardware Monitor but it's clearly running too hot imho. at 43:00

[@johng.1703]

20A @ 12V that is 240 Watts and using two cables so 3 of the 4 rails, that would be 480 Watts max draw. ah the good old days when you could have 4 240W rails with a max 550W combined load.

[@trollmeister69]

When cleaning with a paint brush don't you get static electricity?

[@Adamant_IT]

Not in the UK, humidity is too high here - but yea, if you're in a dry location where static is a thing, you'll need to be more delicate!

[@rigsbyrigged1831]

LOL... You had at least two 2.5" mounts for the ssd behind the MB (in the back of the case). That SSD could have just been mounted there. No cables through into the case at all.

[@catherinemorgan2741]

since cpu paste was old what about cleaning the gpu ther paste

[@bulletstrongholder644]

my case is 18 years old all I did was to group all power cables together and fit them underhand case and away from air flow