How to clean out a dusty case?

jamiemao · 7th November 2009, 11:21 AM

Hey guys I have an old spare computer sitting here that i wanna be able to upgrade abit and get it up and running again. Problem is, in the 3 years of it's life, the insides have never been maintained. So i have a major dust problem right now. The dust is all cluttered in there in clumps. What would be the best way to clean it?

toolsncorpses · 7th November 2009, 11:23 AM

Get one of those industrial pressure hoses that spray high pressure air, if you have one lying around

Or, blow on it like a birthday cake

jamiemao · 7th November 2009, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by toolsncorpses

Get one of those industrial pressure hoses that spray high pressure air, if you have one lying around

Or, blow on it like a birthday cake

well i dont have that.
would it damage the components if i just opened up the case and used a vacuum cleaner?

Pugs · 7th November 2009, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamiemao

well i dont have that.
would it damage the components if i just opened up the case and used a vacuum cleaner?

yes you could.. obtain soem air in a can and a "natural" hair pain brush also have the vacume outside of the case to "suck" in the dust...

just search the forums for cleaning and you shodl fine a few posts on the matter

randomness · 7th November 2009, 11:29 AM

that should be fine, just make sure u don get static electricity buildup from the air sucking in.

pastafarian · 7th November 2009, 11:56 AM

Last time I cleaned out my desktop I used a garden blower/vac. I used it on the blower setting, really powerful and worked well.

unco_tomato · 7th November 2009, 5:53 PM

If you go for massive blowing air, make sure you put something in your fan blades to stop them spinning at stupidly high speeds with all that airflow. you could do some damage to them otherwise.

pastafarian · 7th November 2009, 6:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by unco_tomato

If you go for massive blowing air, make sure you put something in your fan blades to stop them spinning at stupidly high speeds with all that airflow. you could do some damage to them otherwise.

Oh yeah should have mentioned that, I used nails to jam them btw.

zdream · 7th November 2009, 7:03 PM

Grab a cloth and wipe and vaccum at the same time. Works a 1/4 of the time.

gaspah · 7th November 2009, 8:08 PM

i just pull the whole pc apart and dust it all with a paintbrush, you know the regular ones for cutting in around skirtings (mine is natural hair but i didnt realise that'd be a problem i use a regular one at work

)... also i wash my filters (foam-type ones) in a sink scrub them and let them dry thoroughly... the flywire-type air filters that are in my coolermaster-4in3 bays are a bit tricky i have to scrub them then spray high-pressure water through them... to clean my pc properly only takes me 3-4 hours and thats everything, cpu heatsink, videocard heatsink, side panel intake, front panel intake, motherboard, psu.... have to do it more often since Melissa smokes and thus i have started smoking... so more dust in the air means more cleaning.. say every 3+ months or so... oh and a cloth or TP to wipe the blades of fans, smooth panels etc..

jamiemao · 7th November 2009, 8:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gaspah

i just pull the whole pc apart and dust it all with a paintbrush, you know the regular ones for cutting in around skirtings (mine is natural hair but i didnt realise that'd be a problem i use a regular one at work

)... also i wash my filters (foam-type ones) in a sink scrub them and let them dry thoroughly... the flywire-type air filters that are in my coolermaster-4in3 bays are a bit tricky i have to scrub them then spray high-pressure water through them... to clean my pc properly only takes me 3-4 hours and thats everything, cpu heatsink, videocard heatsink, side panel intake, front panel intake, motherboard, psu.... have to do it more often since Melissa smokes and thus i have started smoking... so more dust in the air means more cleaning.. say every 3+ months or so... oh and a cloth or TP to wipe the blades of fans, smooth panels etc..

i am a heavy smoker, i know better to not smoke near my computer!!!!!!!!!!
whos the hells melissa?

gaspah · 7th November 2009, 8:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamiemao

i am a heavy smoker, i know better to not smoke near my computer!!!!!!!!!!
whos the hells melissa?

my main pc is in the loungeroom, it is the central entertainment unit of the house, hence the 46" LCD attached to it... and Melissa is my beautiful fiancee..

with all the filters on the CMStacker810 and especially the excellent dual-filtering on the 4in3 bays very very little dust/smoke actually makes it inside the case.. i hadn't cleaned it in ages (well over 6 months) not so long ago and all the hdds were in mint conditition not a spec of dust on them... but the side filter and all the front filters were clogged to the max!!

the only problem that arises is that i have to replace my optical drive more often than normal....

CAPT-Irrelevant · 7th November 2009, 8:32 PM

1) Use compressed air can on parts and try to blow it all to one side in the chassis away from all components.
2) Vaccuum the new dust pile made from step 1.

MR CHILLED · 8th November 2009, 9:29 AM

Best thing is really just to pull the whole thing apart, as suggested earlier. Get all your individual parts out and dust them off with a rag or whatever. Clean the shell of the case out once everything is removed......and put back together. That's all that's needed, bit of elbow grease

jamiemao · 8th November 2009, 9:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MR CHILLED

Best thing is really just to pull the whole thing apart, as suggested earlier. Get all your individual parts out and dust them off with a rag or whatever. Clean the shell of the case out once everything is removed......and put back together. That's all that's needed, bit of elbow grease

LOL I was scared someone might say that

I'm soooooo lazy

7th November 2009, 11:23 AM	#2
toolsncorpses Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 191	Get one of those industrial pressure hoses that spray high pressure air, if you have one lying around Or, blow on it like a birthday cake __________________ Take one day at a time, and everything else will be fine. noise-distillery

7th November 2009, 11:29 AM	#5
randomness Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Sydney Posts: 85	that should be fine, just make sure u don get static electricity buildup from the air sucking in. __________________ Current Tank: Asrock P55-extreme \| 4GB DDR3 1600 G.skill ripjaws \| Radeon HD4890 \| Antec P183 \| Corsair TX650W \| Samsung 1TB \| intel Core I5 750 @ 2.9ghz Successful trades: Wookie_Man, anikanine, The Brat Prince, wauchope, goodboys, Little_Man, tarek001, grommet80

7th November 2009, 5:53 PM	#7
unco_tomato New Member Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: QLD Posts: 120	If you go for massive blowing air, make sure you put something in your fan blades to stop them spinning at stupidly high speeds with all that airflow. you could do some damage to them otherwise. __________________ Current System: Q9550 @ 3.75Ghz l ASUS 5870 @ 970/1300 I 300GB Velociraptor. I DFI X48 DK T2RS I Antec 1200 I Lapped and Washer Mod TRUE 120 I Enermax Revolution 1050W I

7th November 2009, 7:03 PM	#9
zdream Member Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Brisbane, Forest Lake Posts: 634	Grab a cloth and wipe and vaccum at the same time. Works a 1/4 of the time. __________________ Intel E8500 @ 4.0ghz with Noctua U12P // Team Dark 4GB 1066Mhz 5-5-5-15 // Western Digital 1TB SATAII 32M 3GB/s & Samsung 640G 7200RPM SATAII // Gigabyte EP45 DS3L // Sapphire HD 4870 512MB // CM 690 with Corsair HX-620 // Vista Ultimate 64-bit // Dell 2709W // Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer // Logitech G15 & Razer DeathAdder

7th November 2009, 8:08 PM	#10
gaspah Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: om nom nom nom Posts: 2,189	i just pull the whole pc apart and dust it all with a paintbrush, you know the regular ones for cutting in around skirtings (mine is natural hair but i didnt realise that'd be a problem i use a regular one at work )... also i wash my filters (foam-type ones) in a sink scrub them and let them dry thoroughly... the flywire-type air filters that are in my coolermaster-4in3 bays are a bit tricky i have to scrub them then spray high-pressure water through them... to clean my pc properly only takes me 3-4 hours and thats everything, cpu heatsink, videocard heatsink, side panel intake, front panel intake, motherboard, psu.... have to do it more often since Melissa smokes and thus i have started smoking... so more dust in the air means more cleaning.. say every 3+ months or so... oh and a cloth or TP to wipe the blades of fans, smooth panels etc.. __________________ I love Melissa, she's my darling angel!! HEARTS4U SWEETHEART!! [Q8400@3.2-1.248v-TRUEBlack 42GiB@1:1 GA-965P-DS3P@400] [ICH8R:2WDRE3-500GB-RAID0,Pioneer-DVDR,SATA-Hotswap-Samsung-1TB] [ARC1220:8WD10EACS-RAID5] [CM-Stacker810] [8800GTX-HR03+:Samsung-46"-1080P,22"-WSXGA+] [TX750W] [2Xbox360-Wireless MX5500] [Kenwood-Amplifier] Last edited by gaspah; 7th November 2009 at 8:13 PM.

7th November 2009, 11:56 AM	#6
pastafarian Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: CC - NSW Posts: 123	Last time I cleaned out my desktop I used a garden blower/vac. I used it on the blower setting, really powerful and worked well.

7th November 2009, 8:32 PM	#13
CAPT-Irrelevant Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Sydney Posts: 890	1) Use compressed air can on parts and try to blow it all to one side in the chassis away from all components. 2) Vaccuum the new dust pile made from step 1. __________________ P6T-SE \| i7 920 + Zalman CNPS 10X \| 6GB XMS3 C8 \| Sapphire 5870 1GB \| Seagate 7200.12 500GB + 1TB \| Antec 900 \| CoolerMaster 1000W \| ASUS 2014LT DVD RW DL \| G15 (v2) \| W7 x64 Ultimate \| Creative I-Trigue 3400 Laptop = Y530-400 WoW toon - Phyrus (Nagrand OC)

8th November 2009, 9:29 AM	#14
MR CHILLED D'oh! Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Awesome Adelaide! Posts: 58,249	Best thing is really just to pull the whole thing apart, as suggested earlier. Get all your individual parts out and dust them off with a rag or whatever. Clean the shell of the case out once everything is removed......and put back together. That's all that's needed, bit of elbow grease __________________ PCDB (Chilled) \| PCDB (Chiller)