How often do you clean your pc?

[Deleted]

I cracked open my 2008 pc the other week for the first time to replace some parts. Looked a bit crappy inside so took the damn dyson to it. How often do you give your MOBO a suck?

[n0cturnal]

Every 6 months or so, I clean the dust filters about every 2 months though.

[Honzi]

Once or twice a year. I just keep an eye on the CPUs idle temp and dust off the fans and stuff when it gets too high.

[moremana]

every 3 months or when I start seeing dust on my front fans.

[Deleted]

once a year, but if i get new parts i do it beside.

[noteworthynerd]

Before I upgraded to my current case, I cleaned the inside of my PC monthly.

Fortunately, my current case has dust filters for all of the intakes, so I only need to clean the inside every six months or so. I clean the dust filters whenever they seem to need it (which is roughly every month or two).

[belli13]

every 3 months some dyson care . got dust filters an almost all of the fans ... so there's not much of it left inside quick sweep of the dyson and everything's ok ... 3 to 4 minutes.

[Deleted]

hmmmm so every 6 years is rather infrequent. gotcha

[smegmage]

Filters and proper ventilation paths keep things pretty clean. I like to keep it spotless, so I blow it out monthly.

[Marthenil]

Writing this post in order to ask advice as well as give my input.
I clean mine every 2-3 months.
But what is really getting on my nerves is the fact that the high humidity of the place combined with dust cause it to get sticky and it's extremely hard to clean.
I mean most of it comes out just by blowing on it with a blower but there's residue all over the place that needs to be cleaned using a brush or something similar.
Is there a way to avoid that? Cleaning it more often I suppose :P
Also, hard to reach spots are getting on my nerves.

[Tomec]

Personally I have a lot of cleanouts I do... Every couple weeks/month I used some canned air on the intake/exhaust fans. Just a quick spray to loosely clean out. About every 6 months I'll actually pop open the case to give a (slightly) more through dusting and get residue off bottom of case and stuff. Then every year I really go "whole hog" and actually tear out the fans and wipe the blades and get into the nooks/crannies.

[Deleted]

Outside (the case) every week. Inside.. twice a year maybe and I sometimes take out and clear the dust filters especially if one of the fans starts making funny noises.

[Tomec]

At the risk of going off topic (in a sense) what kind of dust filters do you all have and how do you find it impacts airflow? Maybe it's just my fans aren't powerful enough, but I find that the ones I have just cut my airflow WAY too much to actually use. Like it's literally close to the difference of one of my fans on HIGH vs the same on LOW just by placing the filter in front of it.

[noteworthynerd]

It's probably worth noting that you should never use a vacuum cleaner to clean the inside of your PC. Friction caused by dust/particles rubbing against the vacuum attachments as they're "sucked in" can create a pretty good amount of static electricity buildup that can then discharge onto your components. Always use a canned duster or air compressor specifically made for electronics.

At the risk of going off topic (in a sense) what kind of dust filters do you all have and how do you find it impacts airflow? Maybe it's just my fans aren't powerful enough, but I find that the ones I have just cut my airflow WAY too much to actually use. Like it's literally close to the difference of one of my fans on HIGH vs the same on LOW just by placing the filter in front of it.

The dust filters I use came with my case, and they do not reduce airflow in any significant way. I have my front fan set to low, and the airflow is still more than adequate.

[FourEyesMoniker]

My case is an Antec 1200, so it has the mesh filters for the intakes (though unfortunately they are not the easiest filters to get out to clean.) I've never really noticed any issues with temps, even right before a cleaning, so I don't believe they seriously impede airflow. About every 2-3 months, I'll notice the dust has built up some on the filters, so I'll take them out, rinse and dry them, and put them back. Every 6 months or so, I'll actually take the case outside and use canned air to thoroughly clean it out. Depending on the size of your case, I'd suggest having 2-3 cans. You won't actually use them up, but as you use one, it will be less effective until it has time to warm back up, so if you have a couple of cans and just switch out as they get too cold to work well, you can get it done faster. As mentioned above, a vacuum is not the best idea due to static potential, plus unless you have some specialty attachments or something to increase the airflow potential, canned/compressed air will do a much better job blowing the dust out and away than a vacuum will be able to suck it up, especially between components and in the tighter places.

[Scorched2Black]

Yikes, I guess I'm a bit of a nut. I clean mine weekly, sometimes twice a week. It's never really dirty or anythin' I just live in a dusty flat and get nervous.

[Idrinkwhiterussians]

1x every 3 months I clean the intake filters. They are so lovely that I do not get much dust in the case.

I do clean the case every second time I clean the filters, so 1x every 6 months.

Not that frequent, but then again good filters and all.

[TurkeyJurkey]

I am so lazy when it comes to cleaning my P.C. i wouldn't be surprised to find a dead rat in there

[Donald Hellscream]

I clean it roughly every 6 months or whenever i see the temperature getting higher usual.