Cleaning Your Case
As soon as you open your case, you will probably see empty areas occupied by dust and other debris. This is normal and easy to clean. Ensure you are in a well-ventilated space and usecompressed airto remove the largest chunks of dust from within the case first. Certain areas like empty hard drive bays or bunches of cables can have significant dirt buildup. If you can, remove cable ties or empty drive bays to clean behind them more easily.
Cleaning Fans
While responsible for cooling your computer,fansare also the leading cause of dirt and dust entering your PC. Debris hitches a ride with cold intake air and attaches itself to fans and any other component it can touch.
Compressed air can usually remove most dirt from case fans. Holding the fan when you spray it with compressed air protects the fan's bearings, preventing it from rotating faster than designed and damaging itself.
Sometimes, compressed air may not be enough to get the job done. That is where cotton swabs come in handy. Using a fresh cotton swab, carefully dislodge any dirt from the fans that the compressed air could not free. Once you have removed all significant dust buildup from the fans, hit the entire area with air again to remove the fallen dust that was just cleaned off the fan.
Cleaning Your PSU
As mentioned before, the most crucial part of cleaning apower supplyis removing and adequately cleaning the dust filter before attempting to clean the rest of the device. Most components of a power supply are concealed within the part, so there is little you can do besides cleaning the dust cover.
Using intermittent bursts, you can use compressed air to push dust from inside of the power supply out where the dust cover would normally be.Never use any cleaning solution on or near a power supply. You can use isopropyl alcohol to remove any stickers on the device, but apply it carefully using a cotton swab and do not let it run.
Cleaning Your Graphics Card/GPU
These days, mostgraphics cardshave a set of two or even three fans to help keep them cool. While this is fantastic for gaming and other professional tasks, it creates more moving air in your system and thus spreads more dust and debris. There are two ways you could go about cleaning your graphics card:
- Remove and Clean- Carefully unplug your graphics card from its PCI slot and hold it securely in one hand. Using compressed air, clean around the GPU's heatsink and ports, taking care to remove all debris. Remember to hold the fans as you dust them to avoid damaging your graphics card. You may notice some dust kick out of your GPU once you reinstall it and power it on, but that is normal and easily cleaned with another quick burst of compressed air.
- Without Removing- If you can place your PC on its side, you can clean your graphics card efficiently without the need to remove it. As long as you can comfortably see and access the fans on your card, you can properly clean your GPU. Using controlled bursts of air, remove significant dirt build up from on and around your graphics card. Amicrofiber clothcan help to collect large fallen chunks of dust between blasts of air.
