Clean dust out of the GPU without compressed air?

[Anonymouselite5]

My Gpu is quite dusty, it's nearly caked in the heatsink and on the fans.

Is there any way to effectively and safely clean out the dust without the use of a can of compressed air? Or is buying one more effective? I would rather not go out to buy a can.

If it is the only way to clean the gpu would it also be more effective to take the gpu out and clean it?

Thanks- Elite

 

[Pondering]

I use toothpicks and cotton swabs/q-tips dipped in rubbing alcohol. Toothpick for loosening and swabs for dust removal.

 

[Anonymouselite5]

I use toothpicks and cotton swabs/q-tips dipped in rubbing alcohol. Toothpick for loosening and swabs for dust removal.

It'd be quite hard to reach in there though, would it be safe to use a small brush? people have said that there may be static but...

 

[Pondering]

Even if you take off the heatsink it won't really be more accessible. I just clean the exposed spots on GT240 since it was a small fan, but on all my new video cards the fan slot is much larger.

 

[Cons29]

i use an unused paint brush

 

[Anonymouselite5]

i use an unused paint brush

Cannot that contain static? Also if I take out my gpu and clean it, can just putting it back in normally mess with my drivers where the pc tries to re-detect a new gpu? or does it not affect it at all?

 

[Cons29]

you can use canned air if you want. i;ve been using paint brush since forever, never had any issues. Well, im not saying it does not have static, i dont know, but it gets the job done. esp the back of the gpu where the dust usually falls, yeah i brush that area.
if you have blower, that should work.

always be careful though

 

[Anonymouselite5]

you can use canned air if you want. i;ve been using paint brush since forever, never had any issues. Well, im not saying it does not have static, i dont know, but it gets the job done. esp the back of the gpu where the dust usually falls, yeah i brush that area.
if you have blower, that should work.

always be careful though

It's the gigabyte windforce cooler. The heatsink has dust nearly caked on, also on the back of the fans near the heatsink. I could use a brush but it'd be pretty hard to reach inside there.

 

[Cons29]

toothpicks as told above should work, just be careful. those chunks should come right off in chunks