It’s Spring cleaning time again, but while you’re busy dealing with all the clutter that’s accumulated over your house in the last year, you might forget about one very thing you’ve neglected to clean. If you’ve gone a while without opening up your computer case to deal with all of dust bunnies that have made themselves at home there, then it is definitely time.
You may not realize it, but excessive dust can build up on components in your case and end up causing a lot of problems. It can clog fans and cover heat sinks and cause your computer’s internal temperature to rise dramatically. This could mean getting lower performance out of your machine, or if the problem is really severe, it could end up causing real damage to your processor or GPU.
If you’ve never popped the side panel off of your computer to give it a thorough cleaning, then we’ve got a few tips to make the process a little bit easier for you. All you’re going to need is a can of computer duster, a vacuum, and a micro fiber cloth. The whole process is relatively simple and should only take you about 30 minutes to complete. To start off, unplug your computer and get yourself set up in a place that will be easy to clean up the dust that will get blown out of your computer.
To begin, use a vacuum attachment and suck as much dust out of the air intake on the outside of your PC as possible. This is the place that the majority of dust enters your computer, and will be the first place that will get clogged. You should also pass the vacuum over any USB or other ports on the outside of case to remove any dust that may have accumulated.
Next, You’ll want to remove your side panel, and use the vacuum attachment to suck up any large dust bunnies that are inside of your case. If you haven’t cleaned your PC before or have a pet, there could be a significant amount of build up.
Before continuing and beginning to clean individual components, you should touch some piece of metal near you in order to dissipate any static electricity that you might have built up, as this could damage some of your components. After that, you can spray your heat sinks, fans, and other components with the compressed air in order to remove any dust that has settled on them. If there is any particularly stubborn dust, you can use your microfiber cloth to gently remove it, then wipe down the inside of your case for any dust that was dislodged by the computer duster.
Once, you’re finished with this process you can put your side panel back on, and your computer should run significantly cooler. We also have a few other tips that we have for you in order to prevent dust build up in the first place. First, we recommend that everyone install filters for their air intake. They are very inexpensive and easy to clean, and they can save you a lot of work in the long run by preventing dust bunnies from nesting on your components in the first place. Next, we recommend that you do not place your PC on the floor. While you may like the look of it, your computer will accumulate much less dust if you keep it sitting on your desk. Finally, don’t forget to repeat this process a couple times a year in order to prevent damaging your cooling fans.