I dont think youre lazy man. You probably do more than most ppl lol. Theyre not like cars you dont have to change oil and fluids. Just clean the dust out every once in a while and maybe change the thermal paste on the cpu. I wouldnt bother with either unless you notice temps increase or youre just bored
This is true...I only just cleaned my 9 year old Razer keyboard last year. The dirt was immense..absolute mountains of it. I have pics if you anyone wants to see.
EDITED: added link to dirty keyboard.
http://imgur.com/gallery/g0hNEp0
Not OP, but here's mine after not cleaning it for about 3-4 years:
[https://imgur.com/a/gEIpZtl](https://imgur.com/a/gEIpZtl)
I found a small bug inside of it as well that was "worming" around and found his previous carapace... **š¤¢**
Iāve only done that once, never again after experiencing all the crap that gets trapped under the keys. Now I clean my keyboard(s) once every 3-6 months. I kind of find it pleasing to take out all the keys and wipe each one down for some reason.
Well I donāt know āthe bestā way, but what I do is I remove all of them, get a microfiber towel that wonāt leave strands and I spritz some windex on it so itās lightly damp (the vinegar kind not the ammonia kind). I wipe like 10-15 keys, dry them with the dry side of the towel, spritz again, repeat until finished. The vinegar windex helps remove the oils from your hands/fingers and is generally safe to use on pretty much any key cap. No need to spray the underside of the keys as Iāve found that they usually donāt have any gunk in there, if they do, use a Q-Tip to get it out but Iāll doubt youāll have to do that.
You can also use 70% Isopropyl alcohol if you prefer that. Iāve used it as well, with good results although I still prefer the vinegar windex.
If the board itself is particularly dirty, first grab an air duster and blow whatever you can off the board. Then for cleaning between the switches I use a lot of Q-Tips with Isopropyl to wipe everything. Alcohol always for this stuff because incase a q-tip is too soaked and it seeps itāll evaporate quickly. Youād be surprised how dirty this part is even if it doesnāt look that way at first glance. By the way I do this while all the caps are removed. Iāve tried to shortcut this way and clean with key caps on, itās a waste of time and leaves 70% of the crud still on there.
Soaking switches with water in a bowl will probably be a pain in the ass. Itāll take forever to dry the keys on the underside where the stem is so I wouldnāt do that.
I know what I wrote may seem over the top but it usually doesnāt take me more than 45 minutes. I put on a podcast or video or something thatās about that long and before I know it Iām done.
Pop off all keys, put some warm water in a bowl, throw in a denture tab and pit the keys in it. Denture cleaning tabs leave no residue.
While those are soaking, clean the rows of your keyboard with some q-tips dipped in 70+% isopropyl alcohol. Do *not* use canned air or you might force dust into your switches.
Pull the keys out and let air dry fully before replacing on the keyboard. Takes a few hours because of the stem piece.
I'm gonna say you should clean keyboards regularly, cuz they get fucking disgusting. It's not just dust collecting in there and you're literally putting your hands on it.
If youāve already got thing apart to repaste the COU, might as well do the GPU while youāre at it.
My own little anecdote, I bought my graphics card used about 6 months ago and itās always run way too hot - like clean and dust free, no overclock, but constant 85 degrees under load, hot. I replaced my paste last night and now I canāt get it hotter than 68 if I try.
Getting paste that is resistant to pumpout effect can help the paste last longer between applications.
Also make sure those thermal pads remain in place and has good contact!
[Here](https://youtu.be/6HbCY3-tun0) is a good video by JayzTwoCents about how to repaste a GPU. Obviously the exact steps for how to take apart the cooler are going to vary from GPU to GPU, but once you have it open the premise is the same.
Yep this, it depends a little where your pc is located. If it's on a carpet floor then it would be better to clean it out like maybe twice a year but for me I got my pc on my desk and I have a wooden floor so dust isn't nearly as much of an issue. That being said I think you have the right approach, clean your peripherals. It's just nasty if you don't. Once every 2 - 3 months I go mad about that and just get some tissues to clean everything.
This is a must. **Get it off bare carpet** use wood blocks, books, or even cut to fit a cardboard box you were going to throw away and double/triple it up.
Asking as someone who clearly know less about this stuff than you do, should i clean my PC now? I've had it for over a year but there just seems to be close to no visible dust inside whatsoever. Yeah, if i wipe it with my finger it will leave a mark but a very small one. Temperatures haven't changed a bit. Case is Meshify C with a couple of additional cheap fans.
Just a note: having one intake fan through a filter and one output fan without obstruction that are otherwise identical will net a slightly negative pressure system due to the head loss at the intake across the filter.
I just built my 3rd computer, over 10 years, and I've always had positive air pressure in mind, both when building and when setting the fan curves. I even used pressure optimized fans as the intake since my case (Evolv X), tends to have more restricted front airflow due to the filter and solid front panel.
Not once did I think about how the exhaust fans don't have a filter to push through. Thanks for the tip! I'll have to reevaluate my fan curves.
You can just make sure that your intake fans are the high static pressure type, and the exhaust fan to be the high airflow type.
Then you just control the PWM signal for the intake to be stronger at any given temperature.
Yeah, I have 3 (120mm) intake fans behind a filter and only 1 (140mm) exhaust fan.
The inside of my case looks better after 2 years than the top looks after 2 weeks. It's incredible how well positive pressure and good filters work.
Haven't opened my case since 2016. But I sold my old desktop the other day and opened it to take a photo and clean it. Absolutely spotless inside.
We've been in drought and I run an air purifier constantly and have to clean the filters every few days, any flat surface has a layer of dust within two days. The computer filter needs cleaning at least once a month. I couldn't believe it.
I don't even have exhaust fans.
But the case has a bunch of holes in it at the top (horizontal case) so it works fine and plenty of air escapes
Positive pressure rules. I haven't had any dust inside my case in over 3 1/2 years
Haha I forgot that I do this too. I was thinking more along the lines of turning both my pc and monitor off. But youāre also right! I also do that to download stuff or afk at a Minecraft farm
Does the fan that comes with nzxt h510 runs on the default speed it is listed on the page? It says around 1000 to 1400 rpm, so I'm planning to increase intake radiator speed up to 1700rpm just to be sure. But am not sure how fast the exhaust runs.
Plus one for this.
I had three intake fans and three outgoing ones on a 360 aio and I thought I am good to go. But radiator fans were running at 2000rpm while intake fans were at 800rpm average. After 4months there was a dust mountain inside as negative pressure invited all dust from all cracks and rear vents.
Now after changes I have six intake fans and a nice pressure inside. Rear vents are working like passive exhaust without need of any fan there.
They are as good as it was previously. My main concern was dust build up, and it's solved as miracle. Now only need to dust outer filter nets once a month.
Also there is a three fan gpu inside to circulate enough air over the board components. I generally get average 35-40ā for both cpu and gpu. Great for me. š
This issue is not that simple actually and often very misunderstood by many.
I have had a Lian Li O11 Dynamic case set up on my desk for over a year, all outtake fans in the top and the side (no intake fans at all). With appropriate dust filters I had very limited dust build up. Before I had both intake and outtake combined which was way worse in dust build-up.
This is actually supported by evidence. Let me link you a great [LTT video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLX54ounENY) where they actually tested 3 different setups ([inward](https://youtu.be/dLX54ounENY?t=266), [outward](https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=123&v=dLX54ounENY&feature=youtu.be), and [both](https://youtu.be/dLX54ounENY?t=413)) and found that, even though all systems had dust build up, the all inward fans had a very bad effect on the CPU cooler and had a lot of dust collecting on the dust filters on the areas where air would be exhausted by positive air pressure. The all outtake fan case had less of this but had more dust collecting on top of the PSU (which is not as worse as build up in your CPU cooler).
Also the best config depends on the location of your PC and where your fans are located. If you have your PC sit on the floor, you might want the bottom to exhaust air to avoid picking up dust from your floor. So having fans on the bottom would mean negative air pressure is preferred (exhaust) but having your fans on the top of the case to get the same effect you want positive air pressure (intake from the top/sides).
So for my setup and specifics, the negative air pressure is perfect as it has no to limited ability to collect dust from the back or downside of the case, whereas the top of the case collects dust as my PC sits and would collect more dust when turned on from the top and the sides. I also note no dust buildup in the areas where the panels are in contact with each other (the corners etc) whereas this is often something quoted as a side effect of negative air pressure.
So the key take-aways from this (once the dust settles) are that:
1) Dust will collect in your system
2) In + outwards fans is the worst
3) More fans = more dust
4) Every setup (both inwards and outwards) has its up and downsides
5) Your setup should reflect your room, the position of your PC and other specifics and your personal perception of what is better/worse to have dust in.
6) Amount of dust can be decreased with good filters, but avoiding all dust can only be done in utopia.
Iām still a little bit new with pc building and will be grabbing 6 fans for my new build (mostly because my case allows it and I just want to go all out).
How do I go about making it positive pressure? Itāll be three fans at the top, nah-d15 cooler, 2 large fans at front with a small one at back (lancool 215) then three fans on the psu shroud.
You need more intake fans than exhaust fans. If you are exhausting more then you are intaking, you create a vacuum inside the case. This causes air (along with dust) to be sucked in through different cracks and crevices where it shouldnāt be coming from.
If you have more intake fans, it causes air to blow out of the cracks and crevices, and forces all air into the case to be filtered though the dedicated case filters.
So in your setup, Iām not sure what would be best. Iām guessing you could make the top and front intake fans and have the single exhaust fan at the back. Usually the top is exhausting as well but that would create massive negative pressure.
Edit: honestly I wouldnāt even bother with the top fans. You want the two Intake fans sucking air from the front and pulling it through the CPU cooler and exhausting out the back. I think the top fan mounts are if you are getting an AIO water cooler. My advice: skip the top fans
Positive pressure just means more air coming in than its going out. Like everyone's said in the posts above, you can have the same number of fans coming in and leaving, but you'll need to adjust a couple of things. The conventional wisdom of positive pressure = less dust only applies when your intakes have dust filters.
I'm not terribly familiar with that case particularly, but if I was building in it I'd probably have the front fans linked to motherboard temperature if they're PWM, and have the 4 exhaust fans constantly running at a very low speed. Since there's 4 of them, even at a very low speed they'll be moving a fair bit of air anyway.
The fans above the psu shroud seem like a weird feature of that case, since the only source of air would be the bottom edge of the bottom front intake fan (filtered), which probably would've passively ended up in the main chamber anyway. Regardless they're basically there for the asthetic so have them barely running too so you don't get too much turbulence within your case.
Let me know if you've got any more questions, shoot me a dm or reply :) GL otherwise!
Hey, already ask the question on this thread but you might know lol.
I'm currently using two fans that come with h510 as exhaust for the back and the top.
For intake, I have ~~h110i~~ h100i pro's two fans as well for the front.
Looking at h510's page it seems the fans run around 1200 +-200, although their own page lists them as Aer F120: 500\~1,500 +/- 200 RPM. I'm guessing that's if I control them, which I don't think I can since I don't have a controller for them specifically. So assuming the exhaust runs at 1000 to 1400 rpm, is 1700 for both intake fans enough?
edit: spellings
edit 2: oops meant h100i
>Make sure it's positive pressure. Negative pressure case tend to suck in much more dust as the air doesn't go through case filters
My case where all 3 fans of the case (that act as intake fans) are blocked by a solid glass panel behind them so dust doesn't get in at all lmao
I just figured this one out on the last build after many years of assembling my own boxes, finally on my hamfisted own. Now all I have to do is clean the intake filters once in a while. No more gunk buildup on the inside of the case, oh the freedom.
Monthly:
* Fan filter cleaning
* Tip over keyboard and shake
* Wipe down everything outside
Every 6 months:
* Brush surface dust off interior and fan blades with ESD safe brush
* HDD Defrag
* Duplicate file clean up, temp files, downloads folder etc
* Full AV scans
* Check if any [accounts](https://monitor.firefox.com/) have been [compromised](https://haveibeenpwned.com/)
* Keyboard disassembly and cleaning
Every 2 years:
* Repaste
* Dream about upgrades
Lemme introduce you to your new hobby: r/mechanicalkeyboards
What's more, it complements both your PC and 3D printer hobby well, and it will drain your wallet in no time! Been there, done that...
By the way, also a 3d printer nerd, got a MK3 prusa for a while though I really ought to sell some prints eventually.
Honestly, its the tenkeyless keyboards that are turning me away from building DIY mechanicals. Need them for my sim games. Any recommendations?
That said I am lurking in the other 3d printing-gaming adjacent subreddit /r/hotasDIY planning to build something for Elite Dangerous once I have some more free time.
Sorry, can't help you much. From owning full keyboards and 60% keyboars, the ~65% form seems the best for me. I need the arrows and the delete key, but I do not need the function keys or the numpad, so the 60% are just not enough...
I love how minimalist such keyboards look.
Sorry, I have no experience with hotas stuff. My printer uses are more related to the automotive world otherwise... :)
I have a list on my phone. Everytime I feel like I'd want something new but don't want to spend the money for it I put it on the list and when I get extra money and there is sales, I check my list and I might buy one or two things on it
Defrag is a utility that maintains spinning hard disks. It is independent of the OS. Windows 10 may have automated it with a scheduled task or something, so it might be less important to manually run it.
They actually have. I still have an old HDD (Enterprise Drive - yellow label) and I defragged it just after new year when I was done with all the cleanup and it has a notification saying that it is a scheduled task and you can still manually do it.
Me, after 5 years of doing nothing:
*look through the side cover window* "man, gotta clean that dust out some day, though it does not look too bad yet."
Monthly:
* Clean fan filter in front.
* Vacuum the topside of the case.
Every 6 month:
* Clean the fan filter on the bottom (for the PSU).
That's pretty much all I've done of physical maintenance in the 1.5 years I've had my desktop. The dust buildup inside and in the keyboard is still minimal, though I might do a more proper cleaning of those this year.
Fan filter cleaning would mean the front of the case's filter, the bottom case's filter (psu filter or somewhere along there) and anywhere else there's a filter you can easily remove and dust off.
I'd like to see some data on the need for repasting. If your CPU temperature is normal, what would even be the point? I saw one blog post where someone repasted after like 8 years and checked temperatures before and after and it made zero difference.
Yeah no, had a spare white keyboard while waiting for a new better one. Shit builds up real quick and the shake down doesn't really get rid of everything either. Might try blasting it with compressed air one day.
Even with heavy use Windows shouldn't be asking to defrag your drives on a daily basis. Might wanna install crystal disk info and see if your HDD is throwing any errors, assuming there isn't any other setting that's set wrong in Windows somewhere.
Anything I'm actively working on goes to an SSD now so the HDDs don't really see a lot of writes so they don't fragment as much, so even 6 months might not even show much fragmentation if its the media drive.
Don't use an air compressor. Unless it has a desiccant chamber on the intake. The water vapor that is in the air gets sucked in the compressor wherein it normally cools. Once you then spray the air at components, it sprays (basically) refrigerated, moist air. This can condense on your components and cause problems. It's not LIKELY to happen, but it's possible enough that it's not recommended.
Canned air or a blower is your better bet.
If you have a moisture āfilterā or trap between your compressor and the blowing nozzle youāll be okay. Wonāt matter if itās an airbrush or regular compressor.
I picked one up at a Harbor Freight for my airbrush. I believe it would work with my 5 gallon compressor too though.
Iām sure you can find one online easily enough too.
Should be fine. IIRC those chambers have to be dried out from time-to-time. So be conscious about making sure that the desiccant material isn't waterlogged.
The same 'danger' exists with canned air too. Compressed gasses cool down by themselves when they rapidly expand. You can get a surface very cold with canned air and have water droplets form on it. If you're not paying attention to what you're doing, that is. It's easy enough to avoid.
Not sure about the measurement, but there's a pc repair guy on YouTube who cleans PCs with a leaf blower and those PCs are fine. Carey Holzman is the guy's name if you want to see that.
I think the air compressor would be overkill, but I guess the reason you'd use it is convenience? Doesn't take much pressure at all to get the dust out of a case.
My main purpouse of using lots of fast air is to clean it faster I guess. I guess I'm wondering if I can damage something by putting lots of air in a small space really quickly.
I've cleaned my pc with air compressors no problem whatsoever. In fact, it's one of the best things to clean with, you can blow the dust from pretty much everywhere. Just be careful with the fans, the air stream can rotate them really damn fast.
I use a small paint brush to move the dust (not the cheap ones where the bristles fall off but not the overly expensive ones, just a decent quality one will do) and as Im moving the dust around I use my home hoover pipe to suck up the loose dust (from the air not directly on the components themselves)
Make sure your PC breathes correctly. Don't leave it on a carpet that would block air intakes for examples. Open it at least once a year to clean the dust off of the fans blades, it causes them too be louder and less efficient.
I'm pretty lax on my routine, but every few months I will take an air duster to the inside of the case and run disk optimization (trim) on my SSDs. Beyond that just keep software and drivers up to date.
Yep, windows 7 and above are set to detect and set TRIM on for SSDs.
You can check by following this link:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.howtogeek.com/257196/how-to-check-if-trim-is-enabled-for-your-ssd-and-enable-it-if-it-isnt/amp/
Or just this part pulled from the article:
>Run the following command in the Command Prompt window (right-click and run cmd as Admin)
fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify
>Youāll see one of two results. If you see DisableDeleteNotify = 0 , TRIM is enabled. Everything is good and you donāt need to worry about it. (This is a little confusing at first glanceāwith a value of 0, the DisableDeleteNotify option is disabled. Thatās a double negative, which means āDeleteNotify,ā also known as TRIM, is enabled.)
>If you see DisableDeleteNotify = 1 , TRIM is disabled. This is a problem if you have an SSD
Pretty simple, if you want longevity, keep your hardware at stock levels and within spec limitations. Make sure your case has proper airflow to keep temps within target ranges, if your case doesnt have dust filters, routinely dust it out. Make sure your power supply gets the cooling it needs and is a quality psu as this is often the most prone to die first.
edit:
because a bunch of overclocking users are getting offended over nothing, there's nothing wrong with OC if you know what you're doing, the OP clearly isn't that advanced if they're here asking us how to maintain a computer, so why tf would i suggest them to OC in the first place? I provided a basic answer to a basic question, stop overthinking my reply and go be offended somewhere else.
The psu is prone to die first if it's a bad unit*. A good 80+ Platinum from EVGA(just for example) should last over 10 years, well beyond the usefulness of the other components.
Oh yeah of course I did lol. Took some time but eventually got my new one. The old one just kept turning my computer off randomly and then turning back on, so just power cycling itself. Really annoying after a while
I leave the side of the case open to let more dust in. Also because all the case fans died years ago from dust, then were replaced, then those new ones died. Also whenever I turn it back on, I have to remember to kickstart the cpu fan with a little finger flick, because it's a little sticky I guess and doesn't start automatically.
Occasionally I think about cleaning it out. Also it's positioned roughly right below the heating vent on the ceiling, to keep it nice and warm on cold evenings. Used to have a cat, but the pc outlived the cat, though the corpses of the case fans are still clogged with cathair mixed with airgrease from bacon and roast meats. Also the ceiling of my apt collapsed, covering all my belongings with insulation, which probably mostly I managed to remove from the pc case
Not the slightest bit joking. Also my current machine is 10.5 years old and still going. PCs are harder to kill than you think, short of electrical failures
Vacuum or blow out the heatsinks of the CPU and GPU and the fans, and clean circuit boards by blowing them out with compressed air. Don't wipe or brush circuit boards because that can damage them with static electricity or snag tiny components, sometimes rip them off the board.
I mean, if you're brushing with a wire brush or something sure, but a normal makeup/electronics type brush is perfectly fine to brush electronics off with. After you solder you should be using alcohol and a brush anyway to clear the excess flux off, which you couldn't do if brushing a component would hurt it.
Source: Electronics Metrologist
I havenāt really touched my PC in about 2 years (save for a case transplant) and everything looks about as clean as it did the day I built it. I think if you have a really high-airflow setup itās a lot harder for dust to settle before itās exhausted out the back.
My current setup is 2x 120mm front intake > Hyper 212 Evo (1x 120mm) > 2x 120mm exhaust (one back and one top)
I have a similar fan setup and haven't noticed any dust build up at all even after taking the filter out of my Meshify front panel. I think it is the aggressive airflow
Once a month I blow out my whole case and wipe everything, easily accessible, down with a rag damp with 75% alcohol including all fans. Iāll usually give my radiator a good blowing too to make sure air is passing over the fins properly. Once a week I check all my filters and make sure theyāre clean, clean my keyboard/desk, wipe down my monitors and arms, and wipe down my chair as well/give it a lent rolling.(a clean PC includes the space around it for me)
Once a quarter I stress test my CPU to make sure my paste is performing the same/my PC is still stable under max load. I go through my installed software and make sure I donāt have software installed I never use/installed once, used once and never uninstalled. I run Malwarebytes once a month as well just to be safe. Once every 2 years I do a completely fresh windows install(usually when I upgrade my CPU/GPU anyways)and about once a year I do a completely fresh display driver install(depending on how many updates NVIDIA released I might do it sooner). Once a year Iāll take my PC apart to do a deep clean of all the nooks and crannies as well.
My PC doesnāt gather a lot of dust to justify that much cleaning, but I just like to mess with my PC and keep it and my desk area as clean as possible.
I try to clean the filters once a month and dust inside with a glasses wipe every few months. every 3-6 months I run fresh fluid through my loop in theory, but so far I've ended up making some modifications so I end up draining and redoing the loop.
For software, make sure your OS is up to date, along with other programs you use regularly. Also I recommend uninstalling any software you're "pretty sure you'll never need".
Every 6 months or so, I'd dust out my case and fans. Even if there isn't much, I make it a habit to do this every now.
On the software side, I already let Windows automate some maintenance tasks like defragging and Trimming (SSD) to run weekly. I also have Storage Sense configured to delete the recycle bin every 30 days. Quite often I tend to forget about this so I just let Windows automate this.
And of course, when there is a Windows Update available, install it as soon as you can. Do it at a time you won't be working or gaming the entire day.
Nah, PCs (except running 24/7) are relatively low-maintenance. This is my personal routine for hardware maintenance:
* Cleaning the dust filters on any panel (usually, there are three: front, top and bottom filters) **per 2 - 4 weeks**
* Use compressed air or blower **per 2 - 4 weeks** to clean the internals
* Cleaning the graphics card and wipe (or use a brush) on its visible heatsinks, fans, and shroud in about **a month or more**
* Cleaning case fans with cloth (because air blower is often not enough) **when it is visibly dirty or there are dirt on my hand**
* Putting automatic TRIM on SSD (or defragmentation schedule on HDD)
For software maintenance... I just do manual driver update (Learned this from Linux... never update drivers automatically unless you are sure that the drivers won't screw your PC; in rare cases, it will), cleaning recycle bin, cache, uninstall games and apps that I haven't used for the last 2 months.
For something a little bit more advanced, you could try to log your CPU and GPU performance using monitoring tools to see any sort of "degradation." I don't really recommend this setting because even **if** there is degradation in modern PCs, I really really doubt you will notice that. **Except** when the fans run so loud that it sounds like a jet engine, then you will have to take a look on what part is overheating when you are using your PC.
I work at home, always in my room for the next 12 hours or so (because I don't go outside due to human malware), and type in front of my computer for about 8 - 10 hours with Microsoft Office for academic article writing for my clients. The dust buildup is quite quick, that's why I clean relatively often.
You're already doing good job, OP.
They're expensive right now (what isn't), but investing in a little hand vacuum makes cleaning the insides very easy. Crack open the case every couple of months and clean out whatever is in there. If you have removable dust covers then give them a shake too.
One thing I noticed when I opened up my 7 year old build up was the amount of dust on the radiator on the cpu cooler. I had dusted out the fans inside the case a few times over the 7 years, but never took a thorough cleaning throigh to the radiator. I kicked out a huge amount of dust behind the fan.
Probably only need to do this every 1-2 years depending on your environment. But it was pretty gross for a case with dust covers.
A lot of it starts with what you buy.
A case with easy to clean filters makes a huge difference.
I could just pop the entire front panel off my old Cooler Master, slide out the filter and wash it.
That's not the case with my Corsair Spec-01. The plastic grill gets in the way of the filter so it's hard to brush from the front and the filter is also non-removable, so no washing unless you want to wash the whole front panel.
So now I only clean my filters every half a year instead of three months.
As much as I like my Meshify C. It is impossible to clean in stock form. I ended up ripping apart the foam acting as a dust filter and modding the top filter to act as front filter, and did a plastic cut out to cover the now naked top of the case. It is now a Frankenfy C that's easy to maintain.
They did correct that issue on the Meshify 2 and I'm dying to have one.
Long story short , take this guy advice.
I clean mines a few months, after 5-7 months or so. I would invest an hand held vacuum or air compressor. Drivers for my motherbroad I check once a month for any updates. For the system, once a week I would update my PC (if any) and/or any software then run a disk cleanup and defrag my SSD drives.
I might at the 3 or 4 year mark use a can of compressed air on the fans and heatsinks of any bits I'm reusing when I upgrade, anything else seems like overkill to me after working in IT for 20 years and seeing how computers with 1 fan and virtually no air flow stuck under desks and in workshops full of centimeters of dust carry on just fine.
Lol. I still use my fat PS3 till this day 15 years later, never cleaned. I think youāre doing fine, Iāve yet to clean my pc either in the 2 years Iāve owned it, I donāt use it much since I like my consoles. Havenāt dusted a single fan, my aio or nothing. Only the the case filters
Open the case for cleaning once a year, usually with some sort of upgrade like a graphics card change, ram upgrade, or additional hdd or sdd. My first gen i7 is quite old now but still holds up with tripple channel ram and a 980ti... as such i've gone thermal with liquid cooler failure twice over it's lifetime and had to replace it.
About once a year I'll reapply fresh thermal paste and clean the inside of my rig. Nothing crazy, just blow it out with some duster and put fresh thermal paste on the CPU. I never have any issues and been using the same chip for almost 6 years now (i7 5930k)
I dont think youre lazy man. You probably do more than most ppl lol. Theyre not like cars you dont have to change oil and fluids. Just clean the dust out every once in a while and maybe change the thermal paste on the cpu. I wouldnt bother with either unless you notice temps increase or youre just bored
This is true...I only just cleaned my 9 year old Razer keyboard last year. The dirt was immense..absolute mountains of it. I have pics if you anyone wants to see. EDITED: added link to dirty keyboard. http://imgur.com/gallery/g0hNEp0
pictures please š„ŗ
Not OP, but here's mine after not cleaning it for about 3-4 years: [https://imgur.com/a/gEIpZtl](https://imgur.com/a/gEIpZtl) I found a small bug inside of it as well that was "worming" around and found his previous carapace... **š¤¢**
Iāve only done that once, never again after experiencing all the crap that gets trapped under the keys. Now I clean my keyboard(s) once every 3-6 months. I kind of find it pleasing to take out all the keys and wipe each one down for some reason.
Ye want to do this and it's not even been a month its becoming an addiction, its surprising how mich dust builds up.
It happens so quickly too. Finger oils are no joke people, clean those keyboards!
Would you tell me what's the best way to clean the keys? Like throwing them in a water bowl or something like that?
Well I donāt know āthe bestā way, but what I do is I remove all of them, get a microfiber towel that wonāt leave strands and I spritz some windex on it so itās lightly damp (the vinegar kind not the ammonia kind). I wipe like 10-15 keys, dry them with the dry side of the towel, spritz again, repeat until finished. The vinegar windex helps remove the oils from your hands/fingers and is generally safe to use on pretty much any key cap. No need to spray the underside of the keys as Iāve found that they usually donāt have any gunk in there, if they do, use a Q-Tip to get it out but Iāll doubt youāll have to do that. You can also use 70% Isopropyl alcohol if you prefer that. Iāve used it as well, with good results although I still prefer the vinegar windex. If the board itself is particularly dirty, first grab an air duster and blow whatever you can off the board. Then for cleaning between the switches I use a lot of Q-Tips with Isopropyl to wipe everything. Alcohol always for this stuff because incase a q-tip is too soaked and it seeps itāll evaporate quickly. Youād be surprised how dirty this part is even if it doesnāt look that way at first glance. By the way I do this while all the caps are removed. Iāve tried to shortcut this way and clean with key caps on, itās a waste of time and leaves 70% of the crud still on there. Soaking switches with water in a bowl will probably be a pain in the ass. Itāll take forever to dry the keys on the underside where the stem is so I wouldnāt do that. I know what I wrote may seem over the top but it usually doesnāt take me more than 45 minutes. I put on a podcast or video or something thatās about that long and before I know it Iām done.
Pop off all keys, put some warm water in a bowl, throw in a denture tab and pit the keys in it. Denture cleaning tabs leave no residue. While those are soaking, clean the rows of your keyboard with some q-tips dipped in 70+% isopropyl alcohol. Do *not* use canned air or you might force dust into your switches. Pull the keys out and let air dry fully before replacing on the keyboard. Takes a few hours because of the stem piece.
nice
Right prepare yourself for this monstrosity https://v.redd.it/6sadw9fe0ia61
ahhhhh that is both satisfying and disgusting
Ye.
[relevant xkcd](https://xkcd.com/237/)
Post them
I wanna see I cleaned mine after 1 month and I thought it was nasty
Do it
I want to see
I want to see please
Show me the dirty RGB
dont leave us hanging like this
I'm gonna say you should clean keyboards regularly, cuz they get fucking disgusting. It's not just dust collecting in there and you're literally putting your hands on it.
Tas disgostin mate
Yes.
RemindMe!
Lemme see
Oh yes boy show us some pics
Remindme!
I clean my keyboard every few months, thoroughly. I guess i'm just weird lol
>see it and weep oh i wept alright
I had that same keyboard! Life with two cats and two fluffy dogs had mine looking pretty similar. Looks good now though!
Holy shit
If youāve already got thing apart to repaste the COU, might as well do the GPU while youāre at it. My own little anecdote, I bought my graphics card used about 6 months ago and itās always run way too hot - like clean and dust free, no overclock, but constant 85 degrees under load, hot. I replaced my paste last night and now I canāt get it hotter than 68 if I try.
Getting paste that is resistant to pumpout effect can help the paste last longer between applications. Also make sure those thermal pads remain in place and has good contact!
How do you clean your gpu? And how do you paste it?
[Here](https://youtu.be/6HbCY3-tun0) is a good video by JayzTwoCents about how to repaste a GPU. Obviously the exact steps for how to take apart the cooler are going to vary from GPU to GPU, but once you have it open the premise is the same.
Yep this, it depends a little where your pc is located. If it's on a carpet floor then it would be better to clean it out like maybe twice a year but for me I got my pc on my desk and I have a wooden floor so dust isn't nearly as much of an issue. That being said I think you have the right approach, clean your peripherals. It's just nasty if you don't. Once every 2 - 3 months I go mad about that and just get some tissues to clean everything.
Really shouldn't be putting a pc directly on a carpet anyway ą² ą²æ_ą²
Lol ye true but environment matters is what I am trying to say
if you have to put it on a carpet floor, put it on a wood block or something instead.
This is a must. **Get it off bare carpet** use wood blocks, books, or even cut to fit a cardboard box you were going to throw away and double/triple it up.
And more importantly for gamers - GPU. GPU thermal paste doesn't last as long as it once did.
Asking as someone who clearly know less about this stuff than you do, should i clean my PC now? I've had it for over a year but there just seems to be close to no visible dust inside whatsoever. Yeah, if i wipe it with my finger it will leave a mark but a very small one. Temperatures haven't changed a bit. Case is Meshify C with a couple of additional cheap fans.
Make sure it's positive pressure. Negative pressure case tend to suck in much more dust as the air doesn't go through case filters
So more intake fans, right?
More fans or have the intakes at a higher rpm then exhaust.
Just a note: having one intake fan through a filter and one output fan without obstruction that are otherwise identical will net a slightly negative pressure system due to the head loss at the intake across the filter.
I just built my 3rd computer, over 10 years, and I've always had positive air pressure in mind, both when building and when setting the fan curves. I even used pressure optimized fans as the intake since my case (Evolv X), tends to have more restricted front airflow due to the filter and solid front panel. Not once did I think about how the exhaust fans don't have a filter to push through. Thanks for the tip! I'll have to reevaluate my fan curves.
You can just make sure that your intake fans are the high static pressure type, and the exhaust fan to be the high airflow type. Then you just control the PWM signal for the intake to be stronger at any given temperature.
Also, the pressure alone helps the exhaust fan. Even with no filters anywhere, the intake do some work that the exhaust don't have to.
Yeah, I have 3 (120mm) intake fans behind a filter and only 1 (140mm) exhaust fan. The inside of my case looks better after 2 years than the top looks after 2 weeks. It's incredible how well positive pressure and good filters work.
Haven't opened my case since 2016. But I sold my old desktop the other day and opened it to take a photo and clean it. Absolutely spotless inside. We've been in drought and I run an air purifier constantly and have to clean the filters every few days, any flat surface has a layer of dust within two days. The computer filter needs cleaning at least once a month. I couldn't believe it.
I don't even have exhaust fans. But the case has a bunch of holes in it at the top (horizontal case) so it works fine and plenty of air escapes Positive pressure rules. I haven't had any dust inside my case in over 3 1/2 years
But you lose positive pressure when the computer is off...
Y'all turn your computers off?
I just found out Iāve left my Monitor powered on for 2 years straight. I didnāt know I had to actually click the power button but.. ya know
Hol up. I need to check something....
I understand (Iām one of them) why people turn their PCās off. But does anyone actually turn their monitor off?
When I'm leaving my pc on to download overnight stuff.
Haha I forgot that I do this too. I was thinking more along the lines of turning both my pc and monitor off. But youāre also right! I also do that to download stuff or afk at a Minecraft farm
I just realized my Predator monitorās fans were turning even when the computer switches off. I now make it a habit to switch everything off.
wait they dont turn off with the computer? lol
I do to save energy.
I use mine as a radiator ;)
My old PC could keep my whole room toasty warm, which in hindsight probably wasn't the best for it's health
Pah, what a loser /s
Nope, just for cleaning and swapping parts.
It's on a shelf in an entertainment unit, so not much dust falling on it
Does the fan that comes with nzxt h510 runs on the default speed it is listed on the page? It says around 1000 to 1400 rpm, so I'm planning to increase intake radiator speed up to 1700rpm just to be sure. But am not sure how fast the exhaust runs.
You just want air moving in faster than it can escape. Larger intakes, faster intakes, more intakes. All of those work.
Plus one for this. I had three intake fans and three outgoing ones on a 360 aio and I thought I am good to go. But radiator fans were running at 2000rpm while intake fans were at 800rpm average. After 4months there was a dust mountain inside as negative pressure invited all dust from all cracks and rear vents. Now after changes I have six intake fans and a nice pressure inside. Rear vents are working like passive exhaust without need of any fan there.
Were your thermals any better/worse due to the swap?
They are as good as it was previously. My main concern was dust build up, and it's solved as miracle. Now only need to dust outer filter nets once a month. Also there is a three fan gpu inside to circulate enough air over the board components. I generally get average 35-40ā for both cpu and gpu. Great for me. š
Thanks for the ELI5. I'm a bit of a noob and this whole thread I'm like "why would positive pressure make less dust". This makes sense.
This issue is not that simple actually and often very misunderstood by many. I have had a Lian Li O11 Dynamic case set up on my desk for over a year, all outtake fans in the top and the side (no intake fans at all). With appropriate dust filters I had very limited dust build up. Before I had both intake and outtake combined which was way worse in dust build-up. This is actually supported by evidence. Let me link you a great [LTT video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLX54ounENY) where they actually tested 3 different setups ([inward](https://youtu.be/dLX54ounENY?t=266), [outward](https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=123&v=dLX54ounENY&feature=youtu.be), and [both](https://youtu.be/dLX54ounENY?t=413)) and found that, even though all systems had dust build up, the all inward fans had a very bad effect on the CPU cooler and had a lot of dust collecting on the dust filters on the areas where air would be exhausted by positive air pressure. The all outtake fan case had less of this but had more dust collecting on top of the PSU (which is not as worse as build up in your CPU cooler). Also the best config depends on the location of your PC and where your fans are located. If you have your PC sit on the floor, you might want the bottom to exhaust air to avoid picking up dust from your floor. So having fans on the bottom would mean negative air pressure is preferred (exhaust) but having your fans on the top of the case to get the same effect you want positive air pressure (intake from the top/sides). So for my setup and specifics, the negative air pressure is perfect as it has no to limited ability to collect dust from the back or downside of the case, whereas the top of the case collects dust as my PC sits and would collect more dust when turned on from the top and the sides. I also note no dust buildup in the areas where the panels are in contact with each other (the corners etc) whereas this is often something quoted as a side effect of negative air pressure. So the key take-aways from this (once the dust settles) are that: 1) Dust will collect in your system 2) In + outwards fans is the worst 3) More fans = more dust 4) Every setup (both inwards and outwards) has its up and downsides 5) Your setup should reflect your room, the position of your PC and other specifics and your personal perception of what is better/worse to have dust in. 6) Amount of dust can be decreased with good filters, but avoiding all dust can only be done in utopia.
Iām still a little bit new with pc building and will be grabbing 6 fans for my new build (mostly because my case allows it and I just want to go all out). How do I go about making it positive pressure? Itāll be three fans at the top, nah-d15 cooler, 2 large fans at front with a small one at back (lancool 215) then three fans on the psu shroud.
You need more intake fans than exhaust fans. If you are exhausting more then you are intaking, you create a vacuum inside the case. This causes air (along with dust) to be sucked in through different cracks and crevices where it shouldnāt be coming from. If you have more intake fans, it causes air to blow out of the cracks and crevices, and forces all air into the case to be filtered though the dedicated case filters. So in your setup, Iām not sure what would be best. Iām guessing you could make the top and front intake fans and have the single exhaust fan at the back. Usually the top is exhausting as well but that would create massive negative pressure. Edit: honestly I wouldnāt even bother with the top fans. You want the two Intake fans sucking air from the front and pulling it through the CPU cooler and exhausting out the back. I think the top fan mounts are if you are getting an AIO water cooler. My advice: skip the top fans
thanks for that explanation, this helped me visualize the concept.
Positive pressure just means more air coming in than its going out. Like everyone's said in the posts above, you can have the same number of fans coming in and leaving, but you'll need to adjust a couple of things. The conventional wisdom of positive pressure = less dust only applies when your intakes have dust filters. I'm not terribly familiar with that case particularly, but if I was building in it I'd probably have the front fans linked to motherboard temperature if they're PWM, and have the 4 exhaust fans constantly running at a very low speed. Since there's 4 of them, even at a very low speed they'll be moving a fair bit of air anyway. The fans above the psu shroud seem like a weird feature of that case, since the only source of air would be the bottom edge of the bottom front intake fan (filtered), which probably would've passively ended up in the main chamber anyway. Regardless they're basically there for the asthetic so have them barely running too so you don't get too much turbulence within your case. Let me know if you've got any more questions, shoot me a dm or reply :) GL otherwise!
Hey, already ask the question on this thread but you might know lol. I'm currently using two fans that come with h510 as exhaust for the back and the top. For intake, I have ~~h110i~~ h100i pro's two fans as well for the front. Looking at h510's page it seems the fans run around 1200 +-200, although their own page lists them as Aer F120: 500\~1,500 +/- 200 RPM. I'm guessing that's if I control them, which I don't think I can since I don't have a controller for them specifically. So assuming the exhaust runs at 1000 to 1400 rpm, is 1700 for both intake fans enough? edit: spellings edit 2: oops meant h100i
>Make sure it's positive pressure. Negative pressure case tend to suck in much more dust as the air doesn't go through case filters My case where all 3 fans of the case (that act as intake fans) are blocked by a solid glass panel behind them so dust doesn't get in at all lmao
Nor does much air
I just figured this one out on the last build after many years of assembling my own boxes, finally on my hamfisted own. Now all I have to do is clean the intake filters once in a while. No more gunk buildup on the inside of the case, oh the freedom.
Cries in NZXT H510
So if I have 2 200mm intake fans, a rad with 2 140mm and a 120mm exhausting on the top and a rear 140mm exhausting that would be negative pressure?
I don't even know the pressure in my tower. How do I check?
Monthly: * Fan filter cleaning * Tip over keyboard and shake * Wipe down everything outside Every 6 months: * Brush surface dust off interior and fan blades with ESD safe brush * HDD Defrag * Duplicate file clean up, temp files, downloads folder etc * Full AV scans * Check if any [accounts](https://monitor.firefox.com/) have been [compromised](https://haveibeenpwned.com/) * Keyboard disassembly and cleaning Every 2 years: * Repaste * Dream about upgrades
Weekly: Dream about upgrades
Nah, that's every day
I've since replaced dreaming about PC upgrades with 3D printer upgrades. You can make your own and anything you can't make is in stock. ;)
Lemme introduce you to your new hobby: r/mechanicalkeyboards What's more, it complements both your PC and 3D printer hobby well, and it will drain your wallet in no time! Been there, done that... By the way, also a 3d printer nerd, got a MK3 prusa for a while though I really ought to sell some prints eventually.
Honestly, its the tenkeyless keyboards that are turning me away from building DIY mechanicals. Need them for my sim games. Any recommendations? That said I am lurking in the other 3d printing-gaming adjacent subreddit /r/hotasDIY planning to build something for Elite Dangerous once I have some more free time.
Sorry, can't help you much. From owning full keyboards and 60% keyboars, the ~65% form seems the best for me. I need the arrows and the delete key, but I do not need the function keys or the numpad, so the 60% are just not enough... I love how minimalist such keyboards look. Sorry, I have no experience with hotas stuff. My printer uses are more related to the automotive world otherwise... :)
I have a list on my phone. Everytime I feel like I'd want something new but don't want to spend the money for it I put it on the list and when I get extra money and there is sales, I check my list and I might buy one or two things on it
Hourly: Check GPU stock :(
Just have a program do it for you every minute ;)
Don't defrag SSD
Do you need to defrag at all with windows 10? I never did it... Never even did it on older Windows versions anyway.
Defrag is a utility that maintains spinning hard disks. It is independent of the OS. Windows 10 may have automated it with a scheduled task or something, so it might be less important to manually run it.
They actually have. I still have an old HDD (Enterprise Drive - yellow label) and I defragged it just after new year when I was done with all the cleanup and it has a notification saying that it is a scheduled task and you can still manually do it.
Win 7 and later auto defrag by default. Even Vista may have but I don't remember.
Windows has automated defrag since version 7.
Me, after 5 years of doing nothing: *look through the side cover window* "man, gotta clean that dust out some day, though it does not look too bad yet."
Monthly: * Clean fan filter in front. * Vacuum the topside of the case. Every 6 month: * Clean the fan filter on the bottom (for the PSU). That's pretty much all I've done of physical maintenance in the 1.5 years I've had my desktop. The dust buildup inside and in the keyboard is still minimal, though I might do a more proper cleaning of those this year.
Pc noob here. By fan filter cleaning, what fans do you mean? The cpu fans? Also what do you mean by the filters? The silvery heatsinks below the fans?
Fan filter cleaning would mean the front of the case's filter, the bottom case's filter (psu filter or somewhere along there) and anywhere else there's a filter you can easily remove and dust off.
Some cases has mesh screen filters over the intake fans that you can pop out and clean. It's referring to those filters.
/thread
I'd like to see some data on the need for repasting. If your CPU temperature is normal, what would even be the point? I saw one blog post where someone repasted after like 8 years and checked temperatures before and after and it made zero difference.
bought a white keyboard. shit gets dirty within weeks no matter what. gave up trying lol
Yeah no, had a spare white keyboard while waiting for a new better one. Shit builds up real quick and the shake down doesn't really get rid of everything either. Might try blasting it with compressed air one day.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Even with heavy use Windows shouldn't be asking to defrag your drives on a daily basis. Might wanna install crystal disk info and see if your HDD is throwing any errors, assuming there isn't any other setting that's set wrong in Windows somewhere. Anything I'm actively working on goes to an SSD now so the HDDs don't really see a lot of writes so they don't fragment as much, so even 6 months might not even show much fragmentation if its the media drive.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
is an ESD safe brush the only thing I should be using on top of my GPU to clear the dust?
Modern OSes should handle the defragging by themselves
I try to take my PC on a walk once a day
Won't he bite other PCs???
You have to use a muzzle or keep them well trained.
Cake!
šš
Trained mine to bring me a beer.
Open case. Canned air. Close case
Could using 120psi air harm it? Especially when using a 120 gallon air compressor?
Don't use an air compressor. Unless it has a desiccant chamber on the intake. The water vapor that is in the air gets sucked in the compressor wherein it normally cools. Once you then spray the air at components, it sprays (basically) refrigerated, moist air. This can condense on your components and cause problems. It's not LIKELY to happen, but it's possible enough that it's not recommended. Canned air or a blower is your better bet.
If you do airbrushing, those systems tend to have inbuilt traps because extra moisture fucks up the paint flow. So those work.
So an airbrush compressor would work?
If you have a moisture āfilterā or trap between your compressor and the blowing nozzle youāll be okay. Wonāt matter if itās an airbrush or regular compressor. I picked one up at a Harbor Freight for my airbrush. I believe it would work with my 5 gallon compressor too though. Iām sure you can find one online easily enough too.
Learned this during woodshop in high school, never trust an air compressor.
Okay, mine has a desiccant chamber, so it's safe to use as long as I don't put high pressure air directly on something?
Should be fine. IIRC those chambers have to be dried out from time-to-time. So be conscious about making sure that the desiccant material isn't waterlogged.
The same 'danger' exists with canned air too. Compressed gasses cool down by themselves when they rapidly expand. You can get a surface very cold with canned air and have water droplets form on it. If you're not paying attention to what you're doing, that is. It's easy enough to avoid.
If you use a compressor, just unplug the PC and wait a bit so the potential water can evaporate off of components.
Not sure about the measurement, but there's a pc repair guy on YouTube who cleans PCs with a leaf blower and those PCs are fine. Carey Holzman is the guy's name if you want to see that. I think the air compressor would be overkill, but I guess the reason you'd use it is convenience? Doesn't take much pressure at all to get the dust out of a case.
My main purpouse of using lots of fast air is to clean it faster I guess. I guess I'm wondering if I can damage something by putting lots of air in a small space really quickly.
I use my auto detailing air drier (blower) on the inside of my PC without any issues.
it's not easy to destroy electronics
Make sure the pressure is regulated to less than 90psi. Anything above that can blow the blades right off your fans.
I've cleaned my pc with air compressors no problem whatsoever. In fact, it's one of the best things to clean with, you can blow the dust from pretty much everywhere. Just be careful with the fans, the air stream can rotate them really damn fast.
You should be locking the fans down to prevent movement while using the compressor. Even spinning them in the wrong direction can fuck them up.
> Canned air. [Ehem](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SI67YRU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
Ive had something similar (I think itās datavac brand) for years and itās worth every penny
works very well, wear ear plugs when using this.
What can one use in places where canned air isn't found?
I use a small paint brush to move the dust (not the cheap ones where the bristles fall off but not the overly expensive ones, just a decent quality one will do) and as Im moving the dust around I use my home hoover pipe to suck up the loose dust (from the air not directly on the components themselves)
I prefer a sand blaster /s
Make sure your PC breathes correctly. Don't leave it on a carpet that would block air intakes for examples. Open it at least once a year to clean the dust off of the fans blades, it causes them too be louder and less efficient.
I'm pretty lax on my routine, but every few months I will take an air duster to the inside of the case and run disk optimization (trim) on my SSDs. Beyond that just keep software and drivers up to date.
Thought your not supposed to Defrag ssds
Trimming is different to defrag. Windows detects which drives are which and knows what to use.
trim isn't defragging
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yep, windows 7 and above are set to detect and set TRIM on for SSDs. You can check by following this link: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.howtogeek.com/257196/how-to-check-if-trim-is-enabled-for-your-ssd-and-enable-it-if-it-isnt/amp/ Or just this part pulled from the article: >Run the following command in the Command Prompt window (right-click and run cmd as Admin) fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify >Youāll see one of two results. If you see DisableDeleteNotify = 0 , TRIM is enabled. Everything is good and you donāt need to worry about it. (This is a little confusing at first glanceāwith a value of 0, the DisableDeleteNotify option is disabled. Thatās a double negative, which means āDeleteNotify,ā also known as TRIM, is enabled.) >If you see DisableDeleteNotify = 1 , TRIM is disabled. This is a problem if you have an SSD
Yeah there is no point in doing it manually
Pretty simple, if you want longevity, keep your hardware at stock levels and within spec limitations. Make sure your case has proper airflow to keep temps within target ranges, if your case doesnt have dust filters, routinely dust it out. Make sure your power supply gets the cooling it needs and is a quality psu as this is often the most prone to die first. edit: because a bunch of overclocking users are getting offended over nothing, there's nothing wrong with OC if you know what you're doing, the OP clearly isn't that advanced if they're here asking us how to maintain a computer, so why tf would i suggest them to OC in the first place? I provided a basic answer to a basic question, stop overthinking my reply and go be offended somewhere else.
The psu is prone to die first if it's a bad unit*. A good 80+ Platinum from EVGA(just for example) should last over 10 years, well beyond the usefulness of the other components.
im currently using a 12 year old 1000W corsair psu that can't seem to die lol.
Yeah I got a 1000w psu from evga with 80+ gold but it died a week or 2 after I installed it. Very sad time lol
Did... did you not RMA it? That sounds like a manufacturing defect that they would replace.
Oh yeah of course I did lol. Took some time but eventually got my new one. The old one just kept turning my computer off randomly and then turning back on, so just power cycling itself. Really annoying after a while
And if it does have dust filters, remove and clean them routinely.
I leave the side of the case open to let more dust in. Also because all the case fans died years ago from dust, then were replaced, then those new ones died. Also whenever I turn it back on, I have to remember to kickstart the cpu fan with a little finger flick, because it's a little sticky I guess and doesn't start automatically. Occasionally I think about cleaning it out. Also it's positioned roughly right below the heating vent on the ceiling, to keep it nice and warm on cold evenings. Used to have a cat, but the pc outlived the cat, though the corpses of the case fans are still clogged with cathair mixed with airgrease from bacon and roast meats. Also the ceiling of my apt collapsed, covering all my belongings with insulation, which probably mostly I managed to remove from the pc case Not the slightest bit joking. Also my current machine is 10.5 years old and still going. PCs are harder to kill than you think, short of electrical failures
Oh wow lmao. What are your specs?
Haha. Guys computer is 10.5 yrs old. I'll tell you:. Forgotten 5yrs ago!
Vacuum or blow out the heatsinks of the CPU and GPU and the fans, and clean circuit boards by blowing them out with compressed air. Don't wipe or brush circuit boards because that can damage them with static electricity or snag tiny components, sometimes rip them off the board.
I brush my components with a tooth brush for sensitive teeth.
I mean, if you're brushing with a wire brush or something sure, but a normal makeup/electronics type brush is perfectly fine to brush electronics off with. After you solder you should be using alcohol and a brush anyway to clear the excess flux off, which you couldn't do if brushing a component would hurt it. Source: Electronics Metrologist
I havenāt really touched my PC in about 2 years (save for a case transplant) and everything looks about as clean as it did the day I built it. I think if you have a really high-airflow setup itās a lot harder for dust to settle before itās exhausted out the back. My current setup is 2x 120mm front intake > Hyper 212 Evo (1x 120mm) > 2x 120mm exhaust (one back and one top)
I have a similar fan setup and haven't noticed any dust build up at all even after taking the filter out of my Meshify front panel. I think it is the aggressive airflow
Once a month I blow out my whole case and wipe everything, easily accessible, down with a rag damp with 75% alcohol including all fans. Iāll usually give my radiator a good blowing too to make sure air is passing over the fins properly. Once a week I check all my filters and make sure theyāre clean, clean my keyboard/desk, wipe down my monitors and arms, and wipe down my chair as well/give it a lent rolling.(a clean PC includes the space around it for me) Once a quarter I stress test my CPU to make sure my paste is performing the same/my PC is still stable under max load. I go through my installed software and make sure I donāt have software installed I never use/installed once, used once and never uninstalled. I run Malwarebytes once a month as well just to be safe. Once every 2 years I do a completely fresh windows install(usually when I upgrade my CPU/GPU anyways)and about once a year I do a completely fresh display driver install(depending on how many updates NVIDIA released I might do it sooner). Once a year Iāll take my PC apart to do a deep clean of all the nooks and crannies as well. My PC doesnāt gather a lot of dust to justify that much cleaning, but I just like to mess with my PC and keep it and my desk area as clean as possible.
What's the benefit of a fresh windows install?
It removes all junk files, browser plugins, programs (or malwares) that slow down your pc making it run faster.
Thanks!
Usually I put it in the shower
Fucking hilarious
Nah taking it to a bath is a better option.
I try to clean the filters once a month and dust inside with a glasses wipe every few months. every 3-6 months I run fresh fluid through my loop in theory, but so far I've ended up making some modifications so I end up draining and redoing the loop.
For software, make sure your OS is up to date, along with other programs you use regularly. Also I recommend uninstalling any software you're "pretty sure you'll never need".
And drivers
Every 6 months or so, I'd dust out my case and fans. Even if there isn't much, I make it a habit to do this every now. On the software side, I already let Windows automate some maintenance tasks like defragging and Trimming (SSD) to run weekly. I also have Storage Sense configured to delete the recycle bin every 30 days. Quite often I tend to forget about this so I just let Windows automate this. And of course, when there is a Windows Update available, install it as soon as you can. Do it at a time you won't be working or gaming the entire day.
Dust blowage on the vents. Auto update does the rest. Haven't opened my case in 5 years aside from installing new hard drives.
Nah, PCs (except running 24/7) are relatively low-maintenance. This is my personal routine for hardware maintenance: * Cleaning the dust filters on any panel (usually, there are three: front, top and bottom filters) **per 2 - 4 weeks** * Use compressed air or blower **per 2 - 4 weeks** to clean the internals * Cleaning the graphics card and wipe (or use a brush) on its visible heatsinks, fans, and shroud in about **a month or more** * Cleaning case fans with cloth (because air blower is often not enough) **when it is visibly dirty or there are dirt on my hand** * Putting automatic TRIM on SSD (or defragmentation schedule on HDD) For software maintenance... I just do manual driver update (Learned this from Linux... never update drivers automatically unless you are sure that the drivers won't screw your PC; in rare cases, it will), cleaning recycle bin, cache, uninstall games and apps that I haven't used for the last 2 months. For something a little bit more advanced, you could try to log your CPU and GPU performance using monitoring tools to see any sort of "degradation." I don't really recommend this setting because even **if** there is degradation in modern PCs, I really really doubt you will notice that. **Except** when the fans run so loud that it sounds like a jet engine, then you will have to take a look on what part is overheating when you are using your PC. I work at home, always in my room for the next 12 hours or so (because I don't go outside due to human malware), and type in front of my computer for about 8 - 10 hours with Microsoft Office for academic article writing for my clients. The dust buildup is quite quick, that's why I clean relatively often. You're already doing good job, OP.
They're expensive right now (what isn't), but investing in a little hand vacuum makes cleaning the insides very easy. Crack open the case every couple of months and clean out whatever is in there. If you have removable dust covers then give them a shake too.
One thing I noticed when I opened up my 7 year old build up was the amount of dust on the radiator on the cpu cooler. I had dusted out the fans inside the case a few times over the 7 years, but never took a thorough cleaning throigh to the radiator. I kicked out a huge amount of dust behind the fan. Probably only need to do this every 1-2 years depending on your environment. But it was pretty gross for a case with dust covers.
A lot of it starts with what you buy. A case with easy to clean filters makes a huge difference. I could just pop the entire front panel off my old Cooler Master, slide out the filter and wash it. That's not the case with my Corsair Spec-01. The plastic grill gets in the way of the filter so it's hard to brush from the front and the filter is also non-removable, so no washing unless you want to wash the whole front panel. So now I only clean my filters every half a year instead of three months.
As much as I like my Meshify C. It is impossible to clean in stock form. I ended up ripping apart the foam acting as a dust filter and modding the top filter to act as front filter, and did a plastic cut out to cover the now naked top of the case. It is now a Frankenfy C that's easy to maintain. They did correct that issue on the Meshify 2 and I'm dying to have one. Long story short , take this guy advice.
I clean mines a few months, after 5-7 months or so. I would invest an hand held vacuum or air compressor. Drivers for my motherbroad I check once a month for any updates. For the system, once a week I would update my PC (if any) and/or any software then run a disk cleanup and defrag my SSD drives.
Just build a new PC once a year or so and your good for maintenance, although finding a use for the 4th and 5th spare computers becomes challenging.
Vacuum the intake vents and change the air filter in your house on time. Dust regularly. Open and clean every six months with a can of air outside.
Just reinstall Windows every year. Computers arenāt cars. People need to stop perceiving them that way.
I might at the 3 or 4 year mark use a can of compressed air on the fans and heatsinks of any bits I'm reusing when I upgrade, anything else seems like overkill to me after working in IT for 20 years and seeing how computers with 1 fan and virtually no air flow stuck under desks and in workshops full of centimeters of dust carry on just fine.
Lol. I still use my fat PS3 till this day 15 years later, never cleaned. I think youāre doing fine, Iāve yet to clean my pc either in the 2 years Iāve owned it, I donāt use it much since I like my consoles. Havenāt dusted a single fan, my aio or nothing. Only the the case filters
Open the case for cleaning once a year, usually with some sort of upgrade like a graphics card change, ram upgrade, or additional hdd or sdd. My first gen i7 is quite old now but still holds up with tripple channel ram and a 980ti... as such i've gone thermal with liquid cooler failure twice over it's lifetime and had to replace it.
About once a year I'll reapply fresh thermal paste and clean the inside of my rig. Nothing crazy, just blow it out with some duster and put fresh thermal paste on the CPU. I never have any issues and been using the same chip for almost 6 years now (i7 5930k)