Try to imagine that one day your top-notch PC had suddenly shut down and you felt the smell of burnt wires. You had done all the diagnostics and understood that motherboard is fried because there was a ton of dust. Of course, you’re in need of buying a new one. But there are some tips about PC maintenance so that nightmare won’t happen. And the main conclusion for those tips is “Clean it from the inside, but do it carefully”. So, with our friends from itechcluster.com we made a short guide for you on how to clean your PC with some proper tools.
How to do the proper PC maintenance?
So, you need to clean your computer to be sure that there’s no dust anywhere. But you need to do it properly, so you won’t do more damage. And there are a lot of ways of doing so – from causing physical damage to creating more static buildup than it was created by dust. Thus you need to do it right. And first thing that you need to do is to disassemble your PC case.
Preparations
That’s the easiest part, so only thing that you need to remember is to turn off the power and detach power cable. The next thing you need to do before cleaning is to properly disassemble and detach all the hardware that’s inside. Be careful and read some guides beforehand so you won’t cause any possible damage. And that’s the deal. Now you can do some cleaning.
Tools
To clean your PC up you’ll need only two tools — an air blower to get rid of the dust everywhere and an anti-static brush to do the precise cleaning. You should remember that basic air compressors won’t fit – they’re too powerful to do the thing. The same goes for any other brushes except anti-static ones because they’ll cause an additional static buildup on a hardware.
Any other tools are prohibited because there’s a possibility to cause damage. One exception is using an air can as a cheap alternative to air blower. Don’t even think about using a wraps – it’ll leave threads on the hardware thus becoming a cause for a short circuits.
Pros and cons of using air blowers
As for specific air compressors, they’re almost the same as basic ones but obviously less powerful and more compact. You can look through top models over internet, while we’ll give you a short summary on them. This thing will create an airstream that’s able to throw all the dust away without any issues, And there’s a shortlist of pros and cons:
- Portable air compressors won’t harm your hardware, even though it works somewhat like the reversed vacuum cleaner. And even meaning that portable dust blowers are not too powerful, it’s important to keep the distance from the aired surface.
- Blowers are cheap. Being really cheap and reusable. Being mechanical and rechargeable, those tools are really a lifesaver not only for PC cleaning.
- Air compressors are safe. Compared to its counterparts — air cans, blowers can’t blow. Literally, there are no such components that could possibly explode.
- Dust blowers are compact. Really, some models could easily fit your pocket even with charger. But be careful so you won’t break it when you o so.
- Despite being low-powered, air blowers also can work only up to 30 minutes without recharging. And that’s applied only to the most advanced models.
- Recharging time of an air blower is somewhat insane. It could take up to 3 hours for 15 minutes of work. Of course, almost no air compressor could be used safely while charging.
- Air compressors are not too useful for cleaning your PC without a special nozzles. Flexible tubes will also come in handy. And not every blower comes with them included.
Tips on PC maintenance and placement
First advice is somewhat basic — you need to do the cleaning at least twice in a year. But that’s an absolute minimum, and it’s obviously better to clean it from dust at least every 3 months. You don’t need to do it more often than that, because it won’t be too much of the dust if you properly cleaned everything.
Another advice is that the cleanest place is not the one where you’re cleaning often, but the one where there’s less dirt and dust. Of course, it’s impossible to keep your PC dust-free, but you can place it where it won’t be gathering it. So, place it that way, so its outer fans won’t be facing walls – thus fans won’t catch the dust from those walls, throwing it inside. Of course if you have an enclosed compartment for your PC, than try to place it the same way. Or change it so it’ll be somewhat larger.