PC Hygiene - Dusting
 

I just dusted the insides of my PC using a cloth and a vacuum cleaner and it was very effective. It's very hot today (about 37 C or 100F) and compared to this morning, after getting all the gunk and shit out of the heatsink, the temperatures seems to be about 4-5 degrees (celcius) cooler under load and a little more (about 7) than that when idle. I think my PC was overheating a bit before and sometimes powered down especially when temps got around 40 or so (we don't have air conditioning :P)

So just a small dusting excercise seems to have improved my PC performance quite a bit. SO if you haven't dusted in a while, now might be a good time! :)

Also, are there any other common PC Hygiene/cleaning tips. Things i could do that i haven't thought of?

Thanks :)

I was running anywhere from 25-30C a week ago. Since then I added another fan to the front of my case and it lowered my temp to 19C! Been running there ever since. Of course it isn't 100 degrees outside either. Another tip for you if you haven’t thought of it already, put your box on the floor where it's coolest because as we all know, hot air rises.

Oh, removing dust definately improves air circulation. After all, air + dust gets sucked into holes in the computer, the air goes on, the dust settles down in that hole, restricting air-flow, etc...

I use compressed air to remove the dust from my computer every now and then. It reduces temperatures and sound levels.

I remember reading somewhere that using a vaccum inside sensitive electronic equipment, such as PCs, in unsafe because of static electricity. Anyone care to confirm or denounce that?

yea man.. using a vacumm is VERY bad.. they're made off of static electricity.. and put it this way.. it could take anything from as low as about 10volts to fry a cpu.. and the average shock that you can SEE the spark is around 15,000volts!.. but yea best thing for cleaning a comp is canned air.. its your best friend for that type of cleaning..

another little thing that i found for keeping dust out.. filters for your fans.. you can go buy custom made ones for fans.. or just take a simple bounce sheet for doing laundry and tape it infront of your fans.. may not look all that hot.. but it keeps your system dust free.. and its cheap too..

Dust filters for your fans will work to keep the case clean, but will decrease the amount of airflow going through the machine. So you'll also need to clean the filters frequently so that airflow doesn't get clogged up with dust. At least you'll be cleaning only the filiters, and not the whole machine.

I've found that small dust bunnies really start to build up in my cpu heatsink - usually I have to resort in taking the fan off it and then using plastic tweezers to get all of them out.

I've also read that panty hose works as well, although, I've never tried it personally. If you're looking to improve airflow you can also cut the grating around the fans on the back of you're pc. It's only there to keep you from whacking off your fingers anyway. No harm done as long as you're careful when exploring back there. You can also enlarge the airflow vents on the front of the case. I enlarged the two little slots on the front facing and my temperatures dropped a bit. Nothing remarkable, but every little bit helps, right?

A friend of mine bought himself a brand new computer, ran it for about six months then on a whim decided to clean it out himself using a tube sock.

Needless to say he shorted out just about everything he bumped into and turned his brand new toy into a really expensive paperweight. He managed to convince those in charge that he had nothing to do with it and they repaired it for him.

Also, using one of those filters creates a lot of noise. At least for me it did. You have to weight whether you want more noise or have to dust every once in a while.

Yeah, pantyhose work well.

When doing a complete cleaning. (every 6 months or so) I strip down my system so i can get in the tight spaces and between the fins on the HS. Replace the thermal compound and such. Other than that I just hit it with the compressed air and blow it out and around. Take off the fan filters and hit them with soap and water, dry it and put it back in.

You can get some very silent, but quality fans for computers. Go to:

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/tecar.html

and have a listen. That page hasn't been updated in a while, but is still useful. I have used Sunon fans before, and I find them to be very quiet.