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How do you keep your rig clean?

Kevin_Walter
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Every room in my house is a wreck. But I care about the important things... mainly my electronics.

 

Recently had to send my GPU back to the manufacturer and opened up my case for the first time in 3 months. I was actually surprised with how little dust there was on most of the components, though the intake fan in the bottom of the case is completely caked on all of the fins. I'm glad the fan collected most of it, but it got me wondering how I can prevent most of the dust from entering to begin with, and how to go about cleaning what inevitably ends up choking the system anyway?

 

I heard some people use dryer sheets over their intakes... saying this works very well to collect most of the dust as long as you maintain positive pressure in the case. I'm not sure I have positive pressure (I'd imagine the entire inside of my rig would be far dustier by now if I didn't), but I'm planning on trying this out myself.

 

But besides compressed air... what is the best way of cleaning out what's already in there? There's only so much a can of compressed air can do.

"A picture is starting to form here... I wonder if it's accurate? Some pieces don't quite seem to fit. Or maybe I just don't like the way it looks."

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I don't. 

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1. Buy a case with dust filters everywhere

 

2. if 1 is not true, buy dust filters. 

"Common sense is not so common." -Voltaire

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Dust filters.

Compressed air.

n0ah1897, on 05 Mar 2014 - 2:08 PM, said:  "Computers are like girls. It's whats in the inside that matters.  I don't know about you, but I like my girls like I like my cases. Just as beautiful on the inside as the outside."

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compressed air, always make sure you dont make any fans spin as they can fry your mobo if they turn to fast

ITX Monster: CPU: I5 4690K GPU: MSI 970 4G Mobo: Asus Formula VI Impact RAM: Kingston 8 GB 1600MHz PSU: Corsair RM 650 SSD: Crucial MX100 512 GB HDD: laptop drive 1TB Keyboard: logitech G710+ Mouse: Steelseries Rival Monitor: LG IPS 23" Case: Corsair 250D Cooling: H100i

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The ensure positive pressure, you just need more intake fans than exhaust. Or at least the intake fans need to be drawing more air than the exhausts. For example my case has two intake fans in the front and one exhaust in the back.

 

To remove dust you can of course use air but also a soft brush is helpful, especially on PCBs.

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I've got a bunch of dust in my system, I intend to clean it out some day.

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water hose

msi z97m gaming - i5 4690k @4.4ghz 1.2V - corsair h110 - powercolor r9 290x pcs+ - 8GB corsair vengeance dual channel @2133mhz - thermaltake smart power se 730watts - intel 530 series 240GB ssd - seagate 1tb 7200rpm - corsiar obsidian 350D - 2x enermax tb silence 140mm - logitech x-530 - sony mdr xb600 - medion 24'' 1080P - cm storm quickfire tk white edition with cherry mx red - cheap but awesome mouse #GloriousPaintMasterRace

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dust filters, and lots of them, i have quite good net air displacement and positive pressure so im most dust free.

Main: AMD Athlon X4 750K| Coolermaster Hyper TX3 EVO | Gigabyte GA-F2A75M-HD2 | 8GB Kingston 1333mhz | WD Caviar Green 1tb | Coolermaster N200 | OCZ coreXstream 500w | Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 2GB | |Kingston 3k ssd 128gb |

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Just go for the dusty look.  I hear the chicks dig it.

Case: NZXT H500i. Motherboard: Asus Prime Z390-A. CPU: i7 9700k OC @ 5.0GHz. GPU: EVGA 2080 FTW3 CPU Cooler: NZXT X62. Memory: G. Skill Ripjaws 32Gb 3200mhz. Storage: 1TB Samsung 840 EVO SSD /  120GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD  /  WD Caviar Black 3TB / WD Caviar Green 4TB. . PSU: Corsair AX760. Monitor: 2x Acer XB270HU. Keyboard: Corsair K70 RGB. Mouse: Corsair Glaive. 

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clean room clean computer nuf said 

l Intel Core i7 4790K @ 4.5Ghz l Asus VII Ranger ROG l MSI GTX 970 @ 1555MHz l 


PC PART PICKER

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My case has 3 intake fans and 2 exhausts. (2 fans push/pull on 120mm radiator exhausting air, a big top exhaust fan, 2 side intakes, and a front intake.)

 

The intakes have dust filters and I clean the one on the front every couple weeks or so. I've only cleaned the side intake filters once since I got the case. (Partially because I have to take the fans off to get the filters and partially because the side attracts a lot less dust than the front fan.)

 

With my old computers I used to just vacuum it every once in a while. I never broke anything doing that..

NZXT Phantom|FX-8320 @4.4GHz|Gigabyte 970A-UD3P|240GB SSD|2x 500GB HDD|16GB RAM|2x AMD MSI R9 270|2x 1080p IPS|Win 10

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I have two 120mm and two 140mm fans. One each for intake/exhaust. Though I'm sure I maintain positive pressure simply because I only had 3 fan headers (not counting CPU) on my motherboard so the 120mm intake is connected via molex and runs at 100% speed the whole time. I plan on getting a couple more fans (still have one 120mm and one 140mm space in my case).

 

I'm just surprised that the 140mm intake collected so much dust while the rest of the components inside my case remained relatively clean.

"A picture is starting to form here... I wonder if it's accurate? Some pieces don't quite seem to fit. Or maybe I just don't like the way it looks."

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Mine really doesn't get dusty. Most of the flooring in my house is wood, my desktop goes on top of the desk and there is very little dust in the room I am in.

 

I don't think I have ever had to clean one out

Desktop - Corsair 300r i7 4770k H100i MSI 780ti 16GB Vengeance Pro 2400mhz Crucial MX100 512gb Samsung Evo 250gb 2 TB WD Green, AOC Q2770PQU 1440p 27" monitor Laptop Clevo W110er - 11.6" 768p, i5 3230m, 650m GT 2gb, OCZ vertex 4 256gb,  4gb ram, Server: Fractal Define Mini, MSI Z78-G43, Intel G3220, 8GB Corsair Vengeance, 4x 3tb WD Reds in Raid 10, Phone Oppo Reno 10x 256gb , Camera Sony A7iii

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Every room in my house is a wreck. But I care about the important things... mainly my electronics.

 

Recently had to send my GPU back to the manufacturer and opened up my case for the first time in 3 months. I was actually surprised with how little dust there was on most of the components, though the intake fan in the bottom of the case is completely caked on all of the fins. I'm glad the fan collected most of it, but it got me wondering how I can prevent most of the dust from entering to begin with, and how to go about cleaning what inevitably ends up choking the system anyway?

 

I heard some people use dryer sheets over their intakes... saying this works very well to collect most of the dust as long as you maintain positive pressure in the case. I'm not sure I have positive pressure (I'd imagine the entire inside of my rig would be far dustier by now if I didn't), but I'm planning on trying this out myself.

 

But besides compressed air... what is the best way of cleaning out what's already in there? There's only so much a can of compressed air can do.

 

 

Get a very thin piece of foam or mesh and put that in front of your fans. Helps A LOT

 

Edit: Only the intake ones on the panels of your case

Case: Carbide 300R

CPU: i5 4690K @ 3.90GHz

RAM: 8GB DDR3

Mobo: MSI Z97-G45 Gaming

GPU: R9 290 Tri-X

PSU: EVGA SUPERNOVA NEX650G

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Headset: Vengeance 1500 V2

Mouse: R.A.T 5

Monitor: LG 24EN33

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I Clean my Rigs inside and out once a week, every Sunday.

My Sig Rig: "X79 (3970X) -Midas"http://pcpartpicker.com/p/wsjGt6"  "Midas" Build Log - https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/59768-build-log-in-progress-code-name-midas/


"The Riddler" Custom Watercooled H440 Build Log ( in collaboration with my wife @ _TechPuppet_ ) - http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/149652-green-h440-special-edition-the-riddler-almost-there/


*Riptide Customs* " We sleeve PSU cables "

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like this:

scrub scrub scrub scrub scrub

LMAO, thats a good one. That just made my day :D

My Sig Rig: "X79 (3970X) -Midas"http://pcpartpicker.com/p/wsjGt6"  "Midas" Build Log - https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/59768-build-log-in-progress-code-name-midas/


"The Riddler" Custom Watercooled H440 Build Log ( in collaboration with my wife @ _TechPuppet_ ) - http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/149652-green-h440-special-edition-the-riddler-almost-there/


*Riptide Customs* " We sleeve PSU cables "

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i used compressed air every 1-2 weeks.

Specs: Cpu: i7-4790k@4.5ghz 1.19v Cooler: H100i Motherboard: Msi z97 g55 SLI  Ram: Kingston HyperX Black 16gb 1600mhz GPU: XFX R9 290X Core Edition PSU: Corsair HX850  Case: Fractal Design Define R4 Storage: Force series 3 120gb ssd, sandisk ultra 256gb ssd, 1tb blue drive  Keyboard: Rosewill RK9100x Mouse: DeathAdder  Monitors: 3 22 inch on a triple monitor mount

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Spit, then boot polish, then piss to wash it all off.

Le Bastardo+ 

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