Clean Your Computer's Airways
Next to moisture, dust is the second biggest environmental threat to your electronics. Dust builds up, blocks airflow over heat sinks and in extreme cases can actually carry a current.
Now lots of people blow out their PC periodically with canned air. When we work on PC's here, we use an air compressor. This allows us to clean much deeper using much higher flow and pressure.
Here's an example mid-size tower with just a few fans moving air though the case. This is about three months worth of buildup in a home office that admittedly doesn't get vacuumed more than perhaps once a month.
Here is the CPU heat sink. Keep in mind the function of the heat sink: The fan pulls air across the fins. The heat exchange occurs between the moving air and the surface area of the heat sink. In this case, the dust buildup is actually blocking the fins of the heat sink reducing heat exchange efficiency.
Dust similarly affects airflow in other areas such as graphics cards and power supplies:
These systems are usually sealed up and shouldn't be broken down further for the purposes of regular cleaning. Here are the after shots of these three locations:
Now a word of caution, using an air compressor puts out about 10 CFM at 70-90 PSI. At these rates you need to be really cautious especially with fans. First, that kind of throughput can cause fans to move at rates beyond what they're rated, and possibly in reverse. This can really harm the bearings or lubricant.
Second, the electric motor in a fan is intended to turn electricity into motion, be aware it can do the opposite. You need to make sure to hold fan blades stationary while you blow them out.
Here's a quick demonstration. This is a standard-sized case fan with four blue LEDs, one at each corner, completely unplugged from the power supply.
Here's that same fan, still unplugged from any external power, generating enough power from the fan motor as compressed air is used to move the fan to light up the LEDs. This may not be much current/voltage, but it might be enough to harm your system if things are still connected.
So use caution, but periodically blow dust out of your system to keep it running at it's peak and extend it's operating life.
Now lots of people blow out their PC periodically with canned air. When we work on PC's here, we use an air compressor. This allows us to clean much deeper using much higher flow and pressure.
Here's an example mid-size tower with just a few fans moving air though the case. This is about three months worth of buildup in a home office that admittedly doesn't get vacuumed more than perhaps once a month.
Here is the CPU heat sink. Keep in mind the function of the heat sink: The fan pulls air across the fins. The heat exchange occurs between the moving air and the surface area of the heat sink. In this case, the dust buildup is actually blocking the fins of the heat sink reducing heat exchange efficiency.
Dust similarly affects airflow in other areas such as graphics cards and power supplies:
These systems are usually sealed up and shouldn't be broken down further for the purposes of regular cleaning. Here are the after shots of these three locations:
Now a word of caution, using an air compressor puts out about 10 CFM at 70-90 PSI. At these rates you need to be really cautious especially with fans. First, that kind of throughput can cause fans to move at rates beyond what they're rated, and possibly in reverse. This can really harm the bearings or lubricant.
Second, the electric motor in a fan is intended to turn electricity into motion, be aware it can do the opposite. You need to make sure to hold fan blades stationary while you blow them out.
Here's a quick demonstration. This is a standard-sized case fan with four blue LEDs, one at each corner, completely unplugged from the power supply.
Here's that same fan, still unplugged from any external power, generating enough power from the fan motor as compressed air is used to move the fan to light up the LEDs. This may not be much current/voltage, but it might be enough to harm your system if things are still connected.
So use caution, but periodically blow dust out of your system to keep it running at it's peak and extend it's operating life.
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