Time for some computer hardware changes

This computer of mine has passed the 6 year mark and it’s time for another round of upgrades and replacements.

When I put in the new power supply, I didn’t exactly do a great job of routing cables. I want to get in there and try to tidy some of that cable mess up.

I noticed a few days ago that CPU temperatures were running a good bit higher than usual, around 50°C at idle and as high as 90°C under load (according to gkrellm). It’s got one of those closed loop liquid CPU coolers which as far as I can see hasn’t leaked. The fans and radiator get a good cleaning out at least a couple times a year, and the air being exhausted is definitely warm. I’ll start with taking the cooler off, cleaning it and the CPU off and applying some new thermal paste. Hopefully that will help things. If that doesn’t work, it might be time to replace the cooler.

The MX1100 mouse that came with my old Logitech Wave keyboard finally seems to have bit the dust now. Fortunately I was able to scrounge up a spare mouse from the junk box to use while I search for a replacement. The MX1100 will be tough to replace though. I  really liked the feel and weight of it.

I’ve been seriously considering replacing (or maybe adding…I think I might have a free SATA port or two left) an SSD drive. It would be a good opportunity to re-do the disk layout on the computer and rearrange things. I’ve been wanting to start off with a fresh new home directory to get rid of some of the dead weight that’s accumulated in there over the past dozen or so Fedora releases.

The computer maintenance work will have to wait until we move into the new house. Everything will be disconnected anyway, and it will be a good time to give the computer a thorough cleaning before getting it all set up again.