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General Guide to Cleaning PC?

neospriss

I've been seeing a few more "Guide"-type videos from the guys at LMG and I starting thinking that I spent a good amount of money on my gaming system but I don't think I properly clean it (both from a hardware and software point of view).

 

I do regular maintenance on my car so I'm guessing I should be doing maintenance on my computer as well.

 

What types of regular maintenance should I be doing on my PC to make sure I get the most out of my components?  General Tips/products that make cleaning easier? Data cleaning (Defrag, etc) tips/free programs that work (or to avoid).

 

(If there is already a good thread, link it because I did a quick search and didn't see anything)

 

 

 

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Hardware wise, just use an Air Can and get rid of dust on the fans etc like every 1 or 2 months.

Software wise I'm not sure, You can maybe use CCleaner or something

Hello

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DO NOT DEFRAG AN SSD. You can defrag a HDD though, as Tahirmia said a can of air will do most of the work for you in terms of physically cleaning, you can also clear stubborn dust marks like on the edge of fan blades with cotton buds/q-tips, just hold the fan steady with one hand and clean it with the other

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14 minutes ago, neospriss said:

What types of regular maintenance should I be doing on my PC to make sure I get the most out of my components? General Tips/products that make cleaning easier? Data cleaning (Defrag, etc) tips/free programs that work (or to avoid).

The most you'll need to do is give the hardware a dusting once in a while. However, dusting in this case needs to be done with air blowers of some sort since wiping the hardware down could cause static build-up. While you can buy cans of compressed air, I recommend something like a DataVac. If you want to avoid needing to dust frequently, buy some dust filters for your intake fans. I recommend magnetic filters, assuming you have a steel-bodied case, since it's easy to get them on and off. I also recommend setting the fan configuration for more intake than exhaust to create positive pressure in the case, which should help keep dust out.

 

On the software side, you can get by using Windows' built in Disk Cleanup utility if you right click on a drive and select "Properties." This removes files that are certainly safe to remove. If you need a more thorough cleaning, like finding files that are taking up space, the app WinDirStat is a good one to get a view of the drive.

 

You also don't need to manually defrag these days anymore. Windows will do it automatically on drives that could use it in the background.

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