Other Cleaning out a pc

Hello,

We've had the family pc for years now - i opened it up today and nearly died at the site of the ammout of dust! It's got into everything.

Is there a cheap / effective way of doing this.

Thanks

 

Use air spray cans and a vaccum cleaner! (be very careful)

 

I realized that buying those compressed air was a waste of money, I just go straight to using the vacuum and let the vacuum suck all the suck off the fans, corners, heatsink. I let the vacuum's suction spin some of the fans around for a good 30 seconds, the fans spin really really fast taking out all the dust under them, Works better than a compressed can of air IMO.

 

So a vaccum is better than compressed air, what do you mean by be very careful?

 

Ok.

I meant use the vacuum cleaner first, then try some compressed air for any dust remaining.

When using the vacuum cleaner, be VERY careful not to hit anything with the nozzle, you could potentially break small capacitor stuff and have the vacuum cleaner suck it up! YUM!

Use the brush nozzle gently, and (if your vac cleaner has it) use low power.

 

Is it worth buying compressed air?

 

I vacuumed a bit off my gfx card and it never worked again

 

Yep, don't touch any components with the nozzle of the vacuum cleaner (could possibly physically damage them or release a static charge through them).

I've been cleaning my PC's with a vacuum for all the time, and still working fine.

Get the most of the dust out with the vacuum, and if something is still remaining, blow them out with compressed air (as O O 7 said).

Oh, and you might want to check out the PSU, it's propably full of dust aswell. Just remember not to touch anything inside it.

 

Do you recomend getting compressed air to get into them little places - were would i get it from?

 

Buy an anti-static vacum and then you wont have to worry about frying the parts.

 

Compressed air can be bought from PC or camera shops, even PC World & Maplin.

 

I use compressed air- either from a can or an air compressor.

 

How much is a can.

 

I would forget wasting money on the compressed air, unless you want to clean your keyboard, doing the keyboard with a vacuum normally results in a few keys disappearing! I used to clean my PC every summer with the vacuum, never once had any problems.

 

I go the compressed air route myself, I would clean out the inside of my comp. every 2-3 months, so I would get a few goes out of a can, so quite happy with that, wouldn't be too keen using a vacuum cleaner on my PC Case (because of static mostly), but each to their own..
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KINKYPORN cam

 

jbloggs. how much is a can.

 

They cost a maximum of $10.

 

I use the canned air about every month or two at the most. While we are discussing this cleaning stuff, is it better to keep PCs on the floor or up higher to stay away from the house heat and air flow?

john

 

$10 is around £5 i think as im in the uk, anyone know shops in the uk that sell it.

As for pc placement im not sure probably better off the floor maybe on a desk but not high up - heat rises and you wouldn't want it to fall - maybe 0.5m or so off the floor?

 

I'd use a stiff paint brush, a room fan, compressed air (from your lungs ) and if necessary a can of proper compressed air.

JHanlon, If you put it on a desk it should stay more dust-free, unless the dust is in your ceiling But in a carpeted room probs best to be on the desk rather than the floor.
Also, there is probably greater airflow potential (read: exhaust from case) on top of a desk.

MarkW7 - try a DIY shop or most computer shops.
Also, you don't really have to worry about rising hot air unless it is seriously hot. Height in the room (purely for temperature change) probably won't make any difference to ambient temperature, or maybe 2*C if you live in a tower, in the summer