Need help with 2 or 3 year old gaming pc

[interlaced]

I spent around a thousand dollars in parts on this computer back in 2012 maybe 2013? I was going to use it for gaming but never got around to buying a graphics card, then just all around quit using it for around a year. I opened it up yesterday to blow all of the dust out and try to hook it all back up and noticed that the dust is hard as a rock stuck to my heat sink and that the heatsink moves around fairly freely. I have a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo heatsink on a Intel Core i5-3570k and now when I turn it on I also noticed the fan makes a really loud clicking noise and I can't figure out why. I've made sure it wasn't hitting any wires or anything of that sort and it still does it. So my question is would I be able to replace the heatsink fan with something like a corsair sp120 fan? And why would my heatsink be loose from just sitting there? Should I unmount it and apply more thermal paste or should I get a new one all together? I'd like to start working on my computer again but don't know if it's worth keeping the current parts or just upgrading. I have a Corsair 400r case, Intel Core i5-370k processor, Samsung 830 128gb SSD, Corsair Vengeance LP 8gb ram, Corsair CX600 pay, and a ASRock z77 Extreme 4 motherboard.

 

[Shneiky]

If you got all the dust out - then you are going good in the right direction. You can replace the 212 Fan, but I would advise to just oil it. When you take the fan out, you can lift the back sticker and pour few drops of oil. Do not use WD-40 or something similar - that is not oil! The best thing you can get is sewing machine oil - it is yellowish and quite liquid. This should fix that problem.

Your CPU, motherboard, RAM, SSD are all very good and they are worth keeping. I would advise a change of PSU though. Depending on what video card you wish to buy - you can then decide on the PSU. I would advise to wait for 2 moths or so, to see the new AMD 300 generation. It it supposedly going to introduce superior performance compared to current nVidia video cards. Even if the new 300 generation is not that impressive, it will at least take the prices of nVidia video cards down.

P.S. if you still have dust on your 212 Evo, you can take out the heatsink and wash it under the sink with warm water. Then you need to leave it dry. You would need to clean all of the old thermal paste with pure spirit and apply new paste when reseating the cooler. Using old thermal paste or reusing thermal paste will lead to sky high temperatures.

 

[DarkSable]

Yes you can replace the fan, but do so with a PWM fan.

I would probably remount the cooler with new thermal paste, yes.

As for upgrading, that's a silly idea - you've still got the barebones there for a computer far nicer than a lot out there.

 

[Lag]

Well, you can definitely keep your current parts, as they are not that outdated. The reason your heatsink is loose is because of how the mounting system is designed. the screws on the backplate will get loose after a while due to the pressure from the weight of the heatsink. I would probably replace the fan, I have added an Corsair SP120 PWM myself. just use the extra clips that you got with the heatsink, and screw them on with those small black screws that also comes with the clips, and you will be good to go. Oh, and I would also clean off the dust current thermal paste and apply a new fresh pea sized dot.
How expensive is the corsair fan? if the fan costs more than a new heatsink, buy a new heatsink.

 

[geofelt]

Your parts are very good and well worth fixing up.

1. Remove the cooler, and clean it off.
Rubbing alcohol will remove the old paste from the cooler and cpu.
Reinstall with new paste.
The cooler should not be moving at all. You need to find out why it does. Perhaps reread the instructions.
If in doubt, buy a new cooler. The mounts that noctua uses are easy to install and their coolers and fans are really good. here is a good replacement:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608040

2. A replacement 120mm fan should not be a big deal. Possibly sitting around has warped something.

 

[interlaced]

I'm not sure how much the fan is I just remember seeing it at a local tigerdirect. I'm thinking it was like 12$ for one and 20+ tax for 2. And yeah there's still a lot of dust in there. I have a high powered compressor and it wouldn't get hardly any of the dust. I mean it definitely cleaned it up a bit but the dust is literally stuck to most of the case / heatsink. I have an old house and dust builds up almost too quick to handle.

 

[Lag]

12$ is worth it if the original fan is broken, because a new cooler will cost over twice as much.

 

[geofelt]

I think you should take it all apart and do a good cleaning job.
Use some alcohol and a cloth to scrub it all clean.

 

[DarkSable]

I have an old house and dust builds up almost too quick to handle.

Just as a side note, I have the exact same problem... I've seen a few custom builds set up as miniature clean rooms - that could definitely be a possibility, if you're willing to do a little work.

 

[geofelt]

To keep dust out of your pc, you need to set up a positive pressure airflow.
That will have a couple of fans drawing in cool air from the front behind a washable air filter.
You let the heated air exhaust wherever it may. There should be more intake pressure than exhaust.

 

[interlaced]

Would it be worth buying a corsair water cooling unit or just stick with my Evo and replace the fan? I really want to make some useful upgrades and start using my computer again. I love using Photoshop and gaming so I don't know what would be best to upgrade. I've kinda fallen behind in my computer knowledge since I haven't been researching and keeping up to date for the past 2 or 3 years. I will try to take off the heatsink this week sometime and see if I can remove the thick clumped up dust on the fins since it wouldn't come off with a compressor. I was thinking about getting a new SSD, cooler and maybe a case of those upgrades are worth it? Maybe a new psu that's modular so I can keep it a little more tidy. Please leave any suggestions you'd do if you were me. I still need a graphics card but currently have an Xbox one so the graphics card can wait till I have more money. Sorry for the late reply, I have to use my phone to check for replies and don't get any notifications when I get replies. Thanks again everyone

 

[geofelt]

My canned rant on liquid cooling:
------------------------start of rant-------------------
You buy a liquid cooler to be able to extract an extra multiplier or two out of your OC.
How much do you really need?
I do not much like all in one liquid coolers when a good air cooler like a Noctua NH-D15 or phanteks can do the job just as well.
A liquid cooler will be expensive, noisy, less reliable, and will not cool any better
in a well ventilated case.
Liquid cooling is really air cooling, it just puts the heat exchange in a different place.
The orientation of the radiator will cause a problem.
If you orient it to take in cool air from the outside, you will cool the cpu better, but the hot air then circulates inside the case heating up the graphics card and motherboard.
If you orient it to exhaust(which I think is better) , then your cpu cooling will be less effective because it uses pre heated case air.
And... I have read too many tales of woe when a liquid cooler leaks.
google "H100 leak"
-----------------------end of rant--------------------------

Your cooler will do just fine.
Clean it off and apply new paste.

After you get all going again, you can better determine what you need.
A SSD is one of the most satisfying upgrades you can make.
Look a Samsung or intel which have good free ssd migration utilities.

 

[DarkSable]

^ Yes, except for custom watercooling, which gives you far more surface area than any air cooler can, is far far quieter, has none of the reliability issues of an all in one, cools better than any other option... and is expensive as heck.