Thoroughly dusting out your PC.

[enthusiast1917]

Hi, i recently got myself a can of compressed air to dust out my pc...thing is, it doesnt completely eliminate dust from the inside of my rig. it kind of pushes it around and settles back. i was told NOT to use a vacuum cleaner to get all this gunk out...and theres dust bunnies in the nooks and crannies behind/between my components etc...I was wondering if i should disassemble my PC and PC fans and wipe it down with a damp cloth? and give water-sensitive parts like the sound card a better spraying of air? possibly rinse my fans with water? (ive tried to spray air into the fans, the dust is CAKED! wont come off) would there be any harm in what im doing? pls give advice!

 

[WCAS]

A good thing to do is lay your comp on its side were the open panel is up. Then spray from the side to where the dust swirls up. Since dust is caked it would be a good idea to take heat sinks off and spray them directly. the heat sinks that have fans you could take the fans off and spray both parts.

Edit: Messing with a damp cloth could be more trouble than its worth from my experience.

That's how I've always gone about it.

 

[SYL\X/3K]

what i do is leave my vacuum running while i spray with the can of air ; sucking anything floating around

AND no dont wash your fan in water because it will short circuit , clean it with a wet towel around the rim of the fan, and the blades

 

[nu2duo]

What I have done with my current case is to take off both sides of the case. If possible, take off the top of case too.
I probably clean out my case once every 2 months. Get pretty dusty in there!

 

[bonoz]

I think it's good to do it frequently, so that it doesn't build it. But anyone every thought of buying an air compressor tank?

 

[Phantom118]

Thats what I use, its great, unlimited supply of compressed air.

 

[QuaziBee]

What I have done and what I do. I'm not saying you should too but this is what I do.

Take case to garage, remove panels, plug in leaf blower, blow.
Remove stubborn dust caked items: fans, screens, hs. Wash them in the sink with no soap. (this is better if you have filtered water as there is no ionic residue). This will not harm your components aslong as you allow them to dry before you reinstall them. You can do all kinds of stupid stuff to fans and they will be fine. (sub note on this later). Have a qTip ready for heatsinks.

All this works and aslong as your components are dry when you put em back in you can't hurt anything. You could always submerge your rig into some deionized water and you would never have to worry about dust again! but its kina expensive. You can also use distilled water if you seal the CPU seat. You will need a water filter or replace it somewhat often if you go this route.

As for the stupid / fun things do to with fans. I used to attend a monthly LAN party in Orlando and this guy had a pool. One month we came up with the idea to have a boat race! The only rules is that your boat had to be made completly of computer parts (minus batteries). People build monstrocities with all kinds of fan compelations. I mean HUGE boat type things with fans blowing them across the water. (spoiler alert) The guy that won had taken the shell of a cdrom case, hammered it into a boat type hull and attached a single 40mm fan to the back half way in the water (the physics of this i will not explain but it works better than fully submerging it.). The thing flew across the water with unrelenting speed.

This is a must try for your next lan party, assuming you have a pool.

 

[enthusiast1917]

i think i shall try that for my fans!. thanks for the info. i dont think ill submerge my PC in water, no matter how deionized it is though . ill use my compressed air for my motherboard, video card...etc using a vacuum to suck up the floating bits, and get the dust-caked fans a rinse. Thanks for all your help.

 

[QuaziBee]

There are special anti-static vacumes you can use for this purpose. I never needed to know where to get one so I couldn't tell you without some googleing.