Spring Clean your PC – 4075 days old

[Alakazam]

Just a reminder, after a long hard winter, spring cleaning is just around the corner and your PC should not be left out. It is truly amazing what will accumulate on the fan blades, grills, heatsinks, and in general the inside of your case.

The fact remains that the average casual computer user spends 1 to 3 hours at the comp each day. Those of us that are on longer or run 24/7 need to be even more vigilant. All those hours converted into Air Flow means that for all the time your fans are running, they are transfering tremendous amounts of air through the system. Along with this AIR also comes dust and particles that clog the arteries of fans and heatsinks.

If you've been putting off this chore, now's the time to get cracking on this simple project. There is a short article at machinax about how to clean the mess up, it reminded me to get busy myself. Most of us do this on a fairly regular basis, but if not, your computer's insides probably look like this.

[Lonnie]

Article is fine & dandy, but I can't get screws off - have always let techs at Best Buy do that...too hard for me to manipulate the dang thing (case)...
Any other ideas?

[AmStoned]

Scanned the article the other day. I would not use a damn vacuum to clean that system. My weapons of choice for cleaning fans and case are compressed air, damped paper towel, and used tooth brush.

Damn, that's dirty intake grill, which reminds me, I need to take out the grills on my other Antec case. Freaking grills... man, I hate grills. If you know how to arrange your wires properly, you wouldn't need to waste extra dollars on grills. :stoner:

[Emmkaye]

Yup, Zammy that's an upsetting picture...makes me want to get to work on my system.

Like your AVY-really neat!


Emms

[miller]

Speaking of cleaning and keeping dust out of your case. I highly recommend fan filters like the ones I have on the my radiator fans it keeps A LOT of dust out after a week of using them im really surprised at how much dust is on them, and more importantly how much dust was kept out of my case. And they really dont restrict airflow as much as you would think.

[Techvillage]

Hi Miller - can you take a piccy of them with your DC and post so we can see - are they made of foam?

[floppybootstomp]

Funny you should mention it, I done that very thing a coupla days ago. I used a vacum cleaner, (with brush attachment) a 1" paintbrush to loosen dust, Amberclens foaming cleaner and, I hope, a keen eye

There was a fair bit of crap in there, hadn't been there for 4 months or so, but it wasn't too bad.

While I was there, whipped out the cable ties and tied all loose cables up to the top of the case. Got me's a clean air flow now

[miller]

Sure Tech here ya go...you can see all the dust that has collected on the filter itself and this is just after a week or running the system.

[ImaginAsian]

Hey Miller, you say the fitler doesn't restrict that much airflow? The ones I had that came stock with the Liteon FS020 were crap...they basically cutoff airflow of my front intake which was a Panasonic L1A 120mm 69cfm. How much airflow do you think your filters reduce?

Hey Zammy...great reminder for everyone, ESPECIALLY for those who have negative pressure airflow cases; which would be pratically everybody here. Negative pressure means more airflow is being sucked out then blown in. In these cases, the dust will attract into the case and the openings much more then a Positive Airflow design.

My case is extreme Positive Airflow which minimizes the amount of dust in the case. I have to clean my case about once every 3 months.

[whipat]

Thanks Zammy,

2 down and 2 to go, I hate doing this.

Compressed air, paper towel and toothbrush for me,too

Fine minds think alike! lol

:fjoy: Pat

[Alakazam]

Basically, that's what I use too. Add in some cotton swabs and alcohol for a complete toolkit, LOL. Might as well take the mouse apart at the same time. When I saw the article, it reminded me that it had been awhile for me too. I don't use a vacuum either but I have seen those little ones just for computers, I wonder if they're powerful enough to get anything out of the fins on heatsinks.

[AmStoned]

Damn, knew I missed something. How could I have missed the Q-Tips.

Anyway, I still don't get this freaking positive airflow thing. It's like you're sucking huge amount of dust into your system, yet only a peep hole to let them out. I don't see the dust getting squeeze out, but instead trap in the system. Example would be installing twin turbo in your car w/o upgrading the exhaust system. It's like you have a load of energy that wants to get out, but there's only a small opening, so the energy that can't escape will push back against those that are coming out. If you do that in the real world, get ready to rebuilt the whole engine block and everything that's connected to turbo chargers. But yeah, I'm totally bummed on this damn airflow shit. It's all about negative for me. What ever comes in is guaranteed to go back out at 2 or 3 times the rate.

[floppybootstomp]

Ah yes, the mouse. Curious as to how you folks clean yours.

I have a Logitech ball mouse on this setup, I usually undo the one screw and take it apart.

Brush out any debris that's found it's way inside then use a scriber to remove those three little rings of crud that usually accumulate round each roller. Then clean them off with cotton buds and meths or alcohol.

And finally wash the ball itself in warm soapy water and dry off.

Voila! 'New' mouse time

[ImaginAsian]

Hehe I don't have that problem with my optical mouse...No cleaning to do

Airflow 101 time....

It's goes against what you think. Positive airflow appears to be the one sucking in all the dust while negative airflow seems to pull them out. But in reality, a negative airflow design sets up each opening/crevice of case to act like a suction because you create negative pressure which acts like a vaccum. In a positive airflow, the air is constantly being agitated and pushed from the positive pressure this prevents these openings from sucking. Rather they act as a "blower" and don't allow dust to enter through them.

Take a look at any OEM case...they all use negative airflow. Now take a look at the crevices and openings, especially near the front grilles, floppy drive, cd-rom's. They will be caked with dust because of this effect. If you put your finger near these holes, you should be able to feel the suction effect.

The areas where positive airflow will have dust is primarily near the entry points of the fans into the case...that's about it. In a good + airflow design, you can actually feel the air being pushed out of the little holes/crevices.

[miller]

Well im not totally sure how much these filters resctrict but it must not be that much since when I run the system without the filters my temps stay exactly the same as with the filters.

[floppybootstomp]

IA: I was thinking about getting an optical mouse as I typed that post, funnily enough. I went out this morning to get a new keyboard - my one's 3 years old, some of the key legends are worn off and it's getting intermittent on some keys - but they didn't have any of the ones I wanted in stock anywhere.

Whilst in one store I looked at the Logitech cordless/optical mouse, felt good, although I'd rather have a middle button than a scroll wheel.

It cost £50.00, roughly about $42.00, they any good? Anybody know? Are they OK for gaming?

And keeping this thread on topic, ever taken your keyboard apart and seen all the debris in there? I had a whole nest of squirrels living in one of 'em

[Mad dog]

Another reason why postive pressure cases don't get as much dust in them as negative ones is that although you are proably sucking in more dust, that dust never actually geta a chance to settle in tthe case, it gets cought in the airflow of the case and sucked right out with the hot air. It will get pulled out of the airflow in some areas such as the HSF where the airflow is distruted and slowed downand you'll also find little patches of dust in between your RAM slots. When dust is sucked in through crevices it is done so slowly and as soon as it enters the case, it settles down in the corner and just starts to accumulate.

For cleaning i prefer the use of an anti static brush (available from a photographic store) and also the power of my lungs