How often do you clean your PC?

[Msuni]

So i have a air compressor that I use to clean my PC and like a week after cleaning it theres dust inside the case again. I was just curious how often other people clean their PCs and if anyone had any 'tips' for doing so.  

All replies are much appreciated. 

[Vishera]

I clean the dust filters twice a week,

And the inside of my PC twice a year 

I use a hair dryer on cold mode,Works pretty well.

[TetraSky]

My case has magnetic dust filters. I clean those out once a month or so because I don't live in a massively dusty environment. 

As for dusting the entire PC... I dunno, maybe once in a year and a half. Whenever I feel like temps are getting high.

[ARikozuM]

Only when I do swaps to internal drives, so about once a year.

[Hawick]

Once a year maybe. My room's dusty as hell so I should clean it every quarter year honestly but I'm too lazy.

[Ergroilnin]

I never cleaned my PCs between getting new ones when I was buying prebuilts as those were "black boxes", no glass panels etc, so I did not see the dust and they were running just fine and by the time the dust built up so much it was really affecting temps, the components were obsolete for my use case so I never felt like I needed to.

 

Now that I have my build in NZXT 700 and on my table, I do clean it like twice - thrice a year, because I just cannot deal with seeing all the dust built up inside anymore.

 

However I do that purely out of my own volition, I do not see temps rise up and clean up the PC because of that. It is simply an aesthetical thing,

 

But I will outright admit, that I am a lazy fuck and while I do wish to have at least one custom water cooled rig in my life (all the prebuilts and even the built I have right now are running solely on air coolers), I am worried about the extra effort I would have to put in if I actually went the custom water cooling. I mean yes, if I buy a high quality fittings, tubes etc. and only use distilled water with inhabitants, I would probably not have to take care of the rig at least for a year or so, but still it is something that is stopping me from going that route (other than finances obviously).

[PlayStation 2]

Genuinely not often. It basically happens whenever I feel like swapping hardware to a half-decent extent.

[Guest]

not often enough...  same goes for my keyboard :-S

 

[flibberdipper]

I just brush off the side panel's intake when I bring it to a friends house. Only clean the inside like twice a year since I can't be fucked to keep it spotless.

[HanZie82]

Dust filters?
Cleaning?

What are all these strange words you people talking about?!?

[rwncop]

I clean out my pc every 6 - 12 months

[theking75010]

As I got a glass panel, I just clean it every time there is a noticeable amount of dust in it (approximatively every 2-3 weeks)

[Snadzies]

Maybe once a year, if that.

So long as my temps are good I let it be.

[Msuni]

7 hours ago, Snadzies said:

Maybe once a year, if that.

So long as my temps are good I let it be.

Is that a good idea? Wouldn't the dust get into you system and ruin it?

[Dedayog]

Just now, Msuni said:

Is that a good idea? Wouldn't the dust get into you system and ruin it?

Dust itself doesn't hurt a PC.  It's when there is a blanket of dust covering fans and heatsink fins, etc.

 

It takes a lot of dust to actually hurt a PC.  

 

I vacuum my filters when I clean my house, about every 2 weeks.  For the interior, about every 6 months.

[Msuni]

Just now, jstudrawa said:

Dust itself doesn't hurt a PC.  It's when there is a blanket of dust covering fans and heatsink fins, etc.

 

It takes a lot of dust to actually hurt a PC.  

 

I vacuum my filters when I clean my house, about every 2 weeks.  For the interior, about every 6 months.

Ohhhh, i was under the assumption that dust itself, in small quantities, just gets into you components and causes problems lol

[Dedayog]

Just now, Msuni said:

Ohhhh, i was under the assumption that dust itself, in small quantities, just gets into you components and causes problems lol

No.  There are very few components that aren't sealed or soldered in some way.  Even with old HDDs and moving parts, dust particles are too large to fit under the needle and get in the way of reading.

 

[Mbowen]

On 8/18/2019 at 11:36 AM, Msuni said:

So i have a air compressor that I use to clean my PC and like a week after cleaning it theres dust inside the case again. I was just curious how often other people clean their PCs and if anyone had any 'tips' for doing so.  

All replies are much appreciated. 

It depends on your environment to be honest. I'm in a pet and smoke free apartment so I only really need to do it maybe twice a year. But usually when I'm doing maintenance or upgrades I have time to do it as well. So pretty much every 6 months or so.

[rheyL]

I only clean my pc once a year or if there is a new part/s to be replace. 

my cats are not allowed to enter my gaming room.

[Brennan Price]

I've just built my PC after not having one for a little while... I'll get back to you on that one... 

 

In all seriousness though, I'm an IT technician and already deal with cleaning a lot of computers at work, plus I have a second job as well... I can't really be bothered to clean my rig when I get home, it just... Works. Until I see the temps raise in which point I will probably change thermal paste and clean certain aspects of my PC to regain good temps. 

 

Very rarely do I do a full clean up however... Just use an air compressor from work to get rid of most of the dust...

[HanZie82]

On 8/20/2019 at 8:55 PM, Mbowen said:

It depends on your environment to be honest. I'm in a pet and smoke free apartment so I only really need to do it maybe twice a year. But usually when I'm doing maintenance or upgrades I have time to do it as well. So pretty much every 6 months or so.

Hehehe, i live in a place with a cat and wheres plenty of smoking being done. Still dont clean it that often.
I blow it out every other year or so.

[Tiffanysinyee]

On 8/18/2019 at 8:36 AM, Msuni said:

So i have a air compressor that I use to clean my PC and like a week after cleaning it theres dust inside the case again. I was just curious how often other people clean their PCs and if anyone had any 'tips' for doing so.  

All replies are much appreciated. 

What if dust already stick to the board, can air compressor be used to remove them?