Cleaning and maintaining your rig

[Rohanddave]

How often would you recommend cleaning your rig? 

Any tips on how to clean a rig and how to keep it in perfect condition? 

[Arika]

depends on how clean your room is and where your PC is located. i only clean it when i see a build up of dust, which is about once every 4-6 months.

[Moonzy]

6 minutes ago, Rohanddave said:

How often would you recommend cleaning your rig?

every 3-6 months

dust + clean format, gets rid of hardware and software dusts

 

6 minutes ago, Rohanddave said:

How often would you clean your rig?

every 2-3 years i know

 

7 minutes ago, Rohanddave said:

Any tips on how to clean a rig

dont vacuum it, using high powered hair dryer (i use salon hair dryer) on cold air settings helps a lot, compressed air is kinda bad for the environment so i recommend against it

and do it outside. never in the room.

soft brush can help but be careful with it

 

9 minutes ago, Rohanddave said:

how to keep it in perfect condition?

dust is a bish...

[HanZie82]

21 minutes ago, Rohanddave said:

How often would you recommend cleaning your rig? 

Any tips on how to clean a rig and how to keep it in perfect condition? 

Put it in plastic bag and dont use it. For perfect condition.
Else just dust it out once a year. Or more if you are a clean freak. (edit: also more when you have pets, cus hairs go everywhere)

 

Use pressurized air (NO VACUUM CLEANER!!!!) for the dust, and a moist clean towel for the harder to get stuff. But make sure for either the power is off.
(Personally i would leave in the power cable as that will ground the whole system if using proper wiring in the house. )

 

 

11 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

compressed air is kinda bad for the environment so i recommend against it

That is not true! Compressed air is just air, but compressed.
Its when you get it out of a can where the harm comes, as they use other gasses for the pressure and such.

 

[Mark Kaine]

once a month at least 

 

vacuum for the fans (from the outside) and the cables in the backside which is essentially also the air intake... 

 

compucleaner (basically a mini leafeblower) 

 

damp (!) microfiber cloth 

 

very soft anti dust microfiber cloth 

 

small brush (if needed) 

 

 

5 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

every 2-3 years 

 

[Moonzy]

6 minutes ago, HanZie82 said:

That is not true! Compressed air is just air, but compressed.
Its when you get it out of a can where the harm comes, as they use other gasses for the pressure and such.

yea i meant those in cans

[HanZie82]

2 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

once a month at least 

 

vacuum for the fans (from the outside) and the cables in the backside which is essentially also the air intake... 

 

compucleaner (basically a mini leafeblower) 

 

damp (!) microfiber cloth 

 

very soft anti dust microfiber cloth 

 

small brush (if needed)

Damn, this makes it sound like cleaning is your hobby as well.

[Moonzy]

2 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

in my defense, it never got that much dust in it

 

because i never clean my room, so the dust stays on the floor! in awe of my 300 iq play right here

[KageSong]

3 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

in my defense, it never got that much dust in it

 

because i never clean my room, so the dust stays on the floor! in awe of my 300 iq play right here

Thanks for the new excuse for my mess.

[Blademaster91]

Clean your PC every few months if you want to keep things looking new.

I would recommend an electric duster, a datavac for example, much stronger than canned air so you need to hold fans down and be careful not to aim it at capacitors on the motherboard.

[Mark Kaine]

14 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

because i never clean my room, so the dust stays on the floor!

a viable alternative... o.o

[HanZie82]

4 minutes ago, Blademaster91 said:

Clean your PC every few months if you want to keep things looking new.

I would recommend an electric duster, a datavac for example, much stronger than canned air so you need to hold fans down and be careful not to aim it at capacitors on the motherboard.

DO NOT USE VACUUM CLEANERS INSIDE COMPUTERS!
I cannot stress this hard enough.

 

The dust entering the nozzle of the vacuum cleaner will creat HUUGE static charges (no matter if static free plastics) and these charges can AND WILL kill hardware.

So use at your own risk, and yes the risk is high. Altho It has gotten much better now then years ago.

[Mark Kaine]

24 minutes ago, HanZie82 said:

Personally i would leave in the power cable as that will ground the whole system

that is however not recommended at all and a good way to fry your system or yourself ... 

 

 

26 minutes ago, HanZie82 said:

NO VACUUM CLEANER!!!

vacuum cleaner should be fine for most things tho (maybe not the pcbs...) 

 

if someone's worried about ESD there are also ESD safe vacuum cleaners... personally I wouldn't use a vacuum inside the case tho as I'd be scared to knock out some capacitors or something... 

 

 

definitely safe to use from the outside for air intakes, fans and stuff... 

 

[CommanderAlex]

I clean my bottom filter before every startup of the day. I clean the rest of the rig about once a month or until I start seeing dust rings around the fans. I use Q-Tips to get in between the fan blades on the graphics card, and wrap my finger in a microfiber cloth to clean the fan blades on all fans. I remove the bottom fans from my computer as those are the dustiest fans I always see. For the system as a whole and the heatsinks of the CPU/GPU, I use a shopvac with the hose on the exhausting side for air pressure. To remove any dust inside the case. I used to use a 20 gallon oiled air compressor that is 40 yrs old and the downside is the pump is leaking a small amount of oil into the compressed air/tank and well as condensation, but more of a problem in the summer with high humidity. 

[HanZie82]

4 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

if someone's worried about ESD there are also ESD safe vacuum cleaners... personally I wouldn't use a vacuum inside the case tho as I'd be scared to knock out some capacitors or something...

This is just not true. the ESD safe stuff is less likely to transmit the charges but they DO NOT prevent them.

 

4 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

definitely safe to use from the outside for air intakes, fans and stuff...

That is perfectly fine to use a vacuum cleaner on. But on PCB's you will kill it if you do it enough...

[Blademaster91]

9 minutes ago, HanZie82 said:

DO NOT USE VACUUM CLEANERS INSIDE COMPUTERS!
I cannot stress this hard enough.

 

The dust entering the nozzle of the vacuum cleaner will creat HUUGE static charges (no matter if static free plastics) and these charges can AND WILL kill hardware.

So use at your own risk, and yes the risk is high. Altho It has gotten much better now then years ago.

Theres ESD safe electric dusters, I wouldn't recommend a vacuum as those create a lot of static.

But i've never had any problems using an electric duster. Also being grounded with an ESD strap or touching the case helps prevent hitting anything with static.

[Guest]

Clean.... Computer?

 

Is that how you get your computer to feel like it came from the factory & not be yellow and sticky? Or.... Is that just how computers get old? 

[freeagent]

I use a data vac. It’s like.. 100 cans of air? Probably more. Works great. I live a life free of filters.