Tech Olive

If you haven’t read Part I of our two-part Spring Cleaning series, read it here.

So, you’re finally tired of your PC gasping for fresh air and you also want to start charging rent to those spiders that have built their webs running from your GPU to your RAM. No problem. With about an hour, you can bring your PC back to its full cooling and airflow capabilities and if you prefer, you can take a little extra time to manage some of those internal cables that are beginning to resemble a botany class gone wrong.

For best results, you’ll probably want to take this outside or at the very least, do it near an open window, as there will be a lot of dust flying around.

First of all, you’ll need a collection of tools and aids to complete the job:

• A can of compressed air.
• A rag or brush to clean fan blades.
• A screw driver to disassemble your PC.
• About an hour of free time.
• A dirty PC.

Step One:

Disconnect your PC’s power and peripheral cables from the rear and remove the side panels, as well as the front panel so that you have as much access to internals and open air as possible.

Step Two:

Remove all of your case fans to clean the filters (if applicable) and blades, to improve their cooling performance and audible levels. It’s also important to focus on any heatsinks such as the CPU and chipset heatsinks, as their cooling performance will be equally hindered by any dust buildup.

Once you have your fans and filters out, use your rag or brush to clear the dust off the fan blades and hit each one with a few blasts from your canned air. If you use filters on your fans (which we highly recommend) then you’ll find that the easiest way to clean them is to just run them under some running water until clean, and always remember to dry them before reinstalling them back in your case.

Step Three:

Remove your GPU to clean its fan and heatsink. Most GPUs have a large plastic heatsink shroud that covers most of the heatsink, making it hard to clean, so just spend a little extra time hitting it from different angles with the air duster until dust stops flying out. Sometimes the plastic shroud is removable, so be sure to check if yours is that way before you begin.

Step Four:

Clear out any dust that has settled on the bottom of the case and caught in any small areas or corners. If you want, this would also be the perfect time to do some in-case cable management to not only make your case look more tidy, but also prevent cables from restricting airflow. Most cases offer holes in the motherboard mounting plate that allow you to feed your unused cables back there and hide them out of sight and out of your fans’ flow zones.

Step Five:

Congratulations, you’re finished cleaning! All that’s left to do now is reinstall your fans, filters, GPU and put your case back together. Once that’s all done, plug your PC back in, fire it up and enjoy a quieter, cooler and better running PC.