Cleaning Your Rig

Every now and then, I use a dry cloth and a mini vacuum to clean the dust off of my computer. However, I've never done a thorough job. I usually just wipe and suck up the dust from easily accessible parts of the computer, like the top of the video card, the top of the PSU, the front grill, etc. However, I just recently opened up my computer and took a really good look in it. There's a lot of dust on the fan blades of all of the fans. They're completely covered. I just manually removed some of the dust from the fan blades on the fan right above the video card. However, it's too difficult to really get into the crevices; the space is too small. So, in order to do a thorough cleaning, do I have to take apart the computer? I really don't want to do that. My mini vacuum isn't powerful enough to pull dust off of the surfaces if it hasn't been loosened. What do you guys do? Also, can dust lead to hardware failure? I hope not.

Here's an image to give you an idea of how dusty it is.This was taken a few months ago, so it's a little more dusty at the moment. Should I be concerned?

I don't think you have anything to worry about. I open mine up every month and a half to 2 months to clean it. If you get a can of compressed air, that will break all that crap free. Then you can hit it with the vacuum again.

The most effective way of getting rid of dust is with a can of compressed air. A short blast of that will clear out any dust in its way.

Is it dangerous if too much dust gets on the GPU? It's exposed and is right underneath a dusty fan.

I don't think you have anything to worry about. I open mine up every month and a half to 2 months to clean it. If you get a can of compressed air, that will break all that crap free. Then you can hit it with the vacuum again.

hartsickdiscipl

ah yes ze compress air can.. where would we be without you..

seriously though compressed air for fans, heatsinks and other ahrd to reach places.

however i would never EVER clean the pcb's themselves the baords for your nic's, motherboard, gpu etc.. should never get touched with anything beyond air and even then thats not to be done at close range.

hdd and dvd-rom are built to last id be mostly unafraid fo dustage there.

finally cabling can just be cleaned with a dry cloth

id never treat a pc with a mini-vaccum or any device that sucks to be honest you run the risk of breaking parts. but each to his own..

I find a paintbrush works well for cleaning fans.

and heatsinks

I used a can or air before and it was crap! I find the best way by far is to use a paint brush to gently brush all the dust out,,,just make sure you turn your PC off first :) OR if you could get a machine which pumps out compressed air I am sure that would be better.

I'm afraid to use a compressed air canister because if you tilt it the wrong way or shake it too much, it will spray out liquid.

I'm afraid to use a compressed air canister because if you tilt it the wrong way or shake it too much, it will spray out liquid.

BluRayHiDef

I think its liquid nitrogen to compress all the air.

Not sure tho

I'm afraid to use a compressed air canister because if you tilt it the wrong way or shake it too much, it will spray out liquid.

BluRayHiDef

Don't even worry about it. I've been using it for years, never had a problem.

I'm afraid to use a compressed air canister because if you tilt it the wrong way or shake it too much, it will spray out liquid.

BluRayHiDef

Dont turn it upside down

Is it dangerous if too much dust gets on the GPU? It's exposed and is right underneath a dusty fan.

BluRayHiDef

I'm afraid to use a compressed air canister because if you tilt it the wrong way or shake it too much, it will spray out liquid.

BluRayHiDef

i get dust off via a local pc retailer up here for about 10 bucks. as the nearest costco is miles away and the stuff they sell at walmart is chunks..

atm my cleaning kit includes some dust off, a 2litre of isopropyl alcohol (for cleaing card leads, cases, work tables, mice/keyboards and other periphreals), and some proper lcd cleaner

q-tips are a bit of a side show i do a good enough job with what i have...

Use a mini leaf blower.