Best electronic can of air?

[Kharn]

Can's of air, good not too violent air discharge.
Compressors, Good if your careful or know what your doing with them, doing them with a professional one or just one with decent output can knock cap's off if your a idiot (I have seen it done, by a mechanic a loooooong time ago but still risky).

A Vacuum and a natural paint brush in the 1 - 2in size range is ideal for no geeky users.

At least that's my penny worth's on the subject.

 

[PP Mguire]

Can's of air, good not too violent air discharge.
Compressors, Good if your careful or know what your doing with them, doing them with a professional one or just one with decent output can knock cap's off if your a idiot (I have seen it done, by a mechanic a loooooong time ago but still risky).

A Vacuum and a natural paint brush in the 1 - 2in size range is ideal for no geeky users.

At least that's my penny worth's on the subject.

Yea I stopped using a compressor because I blew a cap off a DFI Lanparty board which cost me a pretty penny. Went back to vac job. I don't put the plastic near the parts so not sure how any static (if produced) could actually hit the piece. My bristle end is about 3" long.

 

[Joe C]

power washing your board at a car wash will remove the caps too
Obviously most (but not all) air compressors have some type of a regulator to adjust your output air pressure. I can not recommend that anybody use an air compressor without some type of regulation.

If your getting any type of residue from using those little cans of air then something is not right

.

 

[PP Mguire]

power washing your board at a car wash will remove the caps too
Obviously most (but not all) air compressors have some type of a regulator to adjust your output air pressure. I can not recommend that anybody use an air compressor without some type of regulation.

If your getting any type of residue from using those little cans of air then something is not right

.

On a more serious note you can literally wash your board and let it dry for about 48 hours and it'll be perfectly fine. By wash I mean soap and water with a soft bristle dish washing brush. I did that to my old eVGA P55 FTW+ after a burned it up from some phase change action. Had to get the eraser residue off the board and grease out of the socket. THen I find out from KP that that stuff really isn't necessary.

One of those time and place things. My family always keep their house exceptionally warm and the extreme cold air coming out would cause condensation which mixed with the cig smoke dust. When you finally got it off it left an odd residue on the board and fans.

 

[Joe C]

Cigarette smoke does make for a nasty residue....I quit smoking about 6yrs ago myself, and I smoked for over thirty years. (I'm an old fart and if you can quit, I recommend that you make every effort to do it)
Personally It doesn't matter to me one way or the other if you use a vacuum, but I learned a long time ago that your not supposed to do that. If you just google it, you'll find a multiple list web sites like Computer Hope that also advises against using a vac to clean out your pc

 

[PP Mguire]

Cigarette smoke does make for a nasty residue....I quit smoking about 6yrs ago myself, and I smoked for over thirty years. (I'm an old fart and if you can quit, I recommend that you make every effort to do it)
Personally It doesn't matter to me one way or the other if you use a vacuum, but I learned a long time ago that your not supposed to do that. If you just google it, you'll find a multiple list web sites like Computer Hope that also advises against using a vac to clean out your pc

Everybody and their brother advise against it but I haven't met anybody personally who has had an issue with it. Considering the fact that I've used the same technique for 14 years (literally), I'll stick with it. It's one of those things like standing in a field you're more likely to get zapped by lightning. People know the science behind it, but the odds of it really happening is slim to none. It also varies greatly on the type of tubing used as well as the end. Most people want to think I'm putting the plastic tube end on my parts, but that doesn't make sense at all. Another thing to consider is if it was that bad I wouldn't have been able to buy an electronic fine cleansing kit for it. It came with a large tube to small tube adapter and several fine bristle ended brushes. I used to think twice about it until I saw my dads best friend who (at the time) worked at Foxconn cleaning dust off million dollar machines with a similar setup I have today.

As to smoking, yea I don't personally smoke but my 3 family members were serious chain smokers. The time period I'm speaking of my dad was alive and I used to give him parts whenever I upgraded. I would give him something and a month later when I upgraded him again I would get the part back and it would be covered in this nasty dark brown dust that was literally caked on. I would use canned air to break it up and then use the vac to suck it up and that's when I noticed the residue. First time I saw it was on my DFI Lanparty SLI-DR. The combination finally killed the chipset fan.