How often should you clean a PC?

[Ross11]

I recently got back into overclocking after not trying it in a while, I overclocked my PC to 4ghz and noticed the temps were much higher than what I remembered having before and that I used to be able to overclock higher. I opened up my PC and cleaned and de-dusted everything, It was dusty but it wasn't that bad. When I booted it back up the idle temp had decreased by almost 10°C, a very dramatic difference for some dust.

So how long on average does it take for dust to accumulate that it starts to affect running temps of the PC? How often do you think a PC should be cleaned?

 

[Rhezner]

It really depends on your environment. Just check the heat sink, intakes and outakes every couple weeks and see how much dust has accumulated. The heat sink and parts where fans blow are the most important for keeping temps down. Make sure your motherboard doesn't accumulate too much dust either.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

That depends on the environment. I go thru the home / office quarterly with an air compressor, wash all filters and blow out all dust. I could probably get away with yearly maintenance as we have forced air HVAC and as the air circulates it is filtered.

So in short, everyone's "mileage will vary" depending on how dusty the environment is. Check quarterly, and if accumulation is low, you can lengthen the interval.

 

[USAFRet]

Just don't let it get like this:

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Couldn't find a pic w/ spiders are mice ?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/13/ventblockers/?page=3

Some of these resurfaced 2 years later

http://www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/565-dusty-pc-clogged-fan-dirty-power-supply.html

 

[techgeek]

I recently got back into overclocking after not trying it in a while, I overclocked my PC to 4ghz and noticed the temps were much higher than what I remembered having before and that I used to be able to overclock higher. I opened up my PC and cleaned and de-dusted everything, It was dusty but it wasn't that bad. When I booted it back up the idle temp had decreased by almost 10°C, a very dramatic difference for some dust.

So how long on average does it take for dust to accumulate that it starts to affect running temps of the PC? How often do you think a PC should be cleaned?

Well this depends on the environment the computer is in. Is it dusty in your area? Do you have pets? Do you leave your computer on 24 / 7? Does your case have filter on the intakes? If you answer yes to any of the first three, then you need to increase the frequency of cleaning. If you answer no to the last, you also need to increase the frequency for cleaning.

In general I'd consider doing it on a monthly basis. You might need to do it more if you are overclocking and regularly stress your components. If your a gamer, and game quite often, then your graphics card is probably going to need cleaning more often than say your CPU HSF. If you run CPU intensive tasks 24 / 7 then it's likely your CPU HSF that will get dirty sooner. Of course if you need to clean one component, you should really clean the whole computer. And it goes without saying, you should probably clean the case filters (if it has them) every couple weeks to keep airflow in your case at an optimal level.

 

[tech-wreck]

hoover the exterior weekly, a full strip and rebuild every three to twelve months, depending on the number of kids/pets/parties you have.
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/faq/id-2638114/dismantle-clean-reassemble-computer.html

 

[Ross11]

Thanks for the advice guys

 

[techgeek]

No problem, glad we could help.