How Often Do You / Should You Clean Your PC

[Jack Chunks]

Hey I was wondering how often you guys clean your PC's and to what extent, I recently got a new PC and I can see some dust build up on some of my dust filters etc after about a month of usage (it's very minimal) but it's there and I'm wondering how often I should clean it and how often you guys clean yours. Please let me know and any details thorough or not are appreciated.

[WereCat]

I fully cleaned mine after 3 years. I use dust filters so there was barely any need to do that anyways.

[Megah3rtz]

I clean mine about whenever I feel like it. How often should you? depends on how dusty it gets. 

[Taswell]

idk i usaually take a look at mine every 3-4 months, but my pc is on the floor so it gets dirty faster

[A Silver]

3 minutes ago, Megah3rtz said:

I clean mine about whenever I feel like it. How often should you? depends on how dusty it gets. 

Depends on how dusty it gets. My pc gets quite dusty so i should really do it every two or three months but it is up to you.

[shadowbyte]

whenever I get bored or move my PC for some reason

[Mike87]

latest when you have high temperatures in your rig  

[Heesleemer]

clean your room/area well... won't have to clean your pc nearly as much

[Misinthe]

For me, it depends where you live, I used to live in a very dry place so there was a lot of dust in the air, so I did every 6 months or so. I moved to a better climate and now I do like once a year. As how much I cleaned it, I take everything out, and use canned air to clean each part, then I reapply the thermal paste on the CPU, I like to keep fresh paste at all times. This is specially bothersome with my laptop, but that's how you keep things working nicely.

[Praesi]

I use Dusfilters.

I clean it every 6 Month. I dismantle it completly, clean everything and put it back together.

[Rodniz]

How much should i: I should atleast clean the dust filters every 3-6 months

How much do i: Probably once a year. Not very much tho.

[samcool55]

That really depends.

I for example haven't cleaned mine in over a year (not even the dust filters) and it's still fine, i don't understand how it manages to stay this clean but whatever.

 

Exact same case, similar internals, different house and the filters need to be cleaned at least once every 6 months and a complete clean at least once a year.

 

The same computer also managed to get the PSU dust filter so clogged up the psu kept overheating, yea...

So from clean to too dusty and overheating in less than 6 months, that proved me it really depends where the pc lives...

[Litargirio]

I clean mine when it gets dirty. I don't do it every X weeks, I just watch the inside through the side panel and remove the dust when it appears to be too filthy.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

I do a regular clean every 6-12 months and a complete overhaul (completely strip the system back to bare chassis and rebuild) every 36 months.

[Sprawlie]

Just look at the dust filters, if they seem to be visibly dusty, I pop em off and used compress air to clean them.

 

once in a blue moon, i'll take some compressed air to the internals. But with good airflow balance, there's very little dust inside

 

[Wolther]

Every ~6 months, unless I get a new part I just take the time to clean since it's already open anyways 

[Mug]

I don't have a dust filter and I don't clean my case. I do however pick at the massive balls of dust that build up. The biggest one I found was 3cm in diameter.

[Guest]

I usually take the GPU out and wipe the inside down every 6 months or so. My room is fairly dusty, and I don't like the thin visible layer of dust. 

 

Dust filters get cleaned every 3-4 weeks (I clean them when I deep clean the rest of my room)

[Hip]

If I take a look and see dust inside I clean it.

I would say every 6 months from inside is necessary, but it depends on the filters as the guys above mentioned.

 

[kaiju_wars]

I dust it off maybe every two or three months... depending on my mood.

[JoeCoke]

Depends on how much dust filtering you have and what conditions the case is subjected to. My ancient CM elite 430 has like no dust filters so I find myself cleaning it a few times a year. Really, I only do it because it looks bad when it's dusty because it has a window. It being dirty has never really affected my temps. If you don't care how it looks, just check your temps every now and then. If it's running hotter than usual then clean it and reapply thermal paste. But again, it just depends on the variables I mentioned. Personally I'd recommend cleaning it at least once a year.

[MegaDave91]

I clean mine every 2-3 months with my DataVac. Only a thin film of dust accumulates in this time. 

[TheLagDidIt]

whenever you possibly see it building up on the cpu or gpu cooler, otherwise it will generally not affect performance unless it is jamming a fan

[Eaglerino]

I clean mine whenever I unplug something and realize it's dusty, which isn't very often. I have a Windows 95 computer from 1995 that I've only ever cleaned once so I'm not that worried about it

[Rolfejc]

Probably around 6 months or so. I opened up my PC a few days ago and there is already a small layer of dust on the GPU lol.