Computer Maintenance – Dusting and Cleaning

Computer can sometimes be compared to automobiles. They do not share a lot of aspects but they do share a couple of important things and one of them is regular cleaning and maintenance to maintain their optimal performance and stability.

Your car needs to have all of it’s fluids and oil changed every once in a while. Similarly your computer needs to be disassembled and dusted off completely. Earlier we learned why maintaining your GPU is important and how it could save you hundreds of dollars in the long run. Today we learn how to clean and maintain your computer because even if you maintain just your GPU it won’t do you much good if your whole computer ends up dying on you one day because you simply forgot to do a couple of routine checks.

Your car  melt the engine if it gets to hot and doesn’t have any oil. Your computer can have similar results in a much smaller scale, and can fry your motherboard or CPU if you do not clean your heat-sinks or radiators to maintain optimum airflow and cooling. Remember dust and moisture are your computer’s worst enemies!

Dust
Dust can build up over time and if it accumulates to a certain point it could restrict airflow which in turn makes your computer run much harder than it has too to compensate for the decrease in airflow. If you dust your computer you can keep your computer running at optimal temperatures and you may also save money on electricity as the computer won’t have to spin the fans faster to make up for the dust bunnies clogging up your system.

Moisture
Moisture is all around us, in the air we breathe and all around your computer as well. When your computer is running it becomes very hot. While cooling itself down with it’s fans and heatsinks it pulls in the air around it which may have moisture. Typically this won’t do much to your computer. However moisture could gather on your components such as your motherboard or graphics card. The moisture can cling on to dust particles inside your computer and if more dust gathers then more moisture will gather as well. Eventually the moisture and dust paste can form a bridge between two points on your components which will lead to a short circuit and a potential loss of hardware or a completely dead computer.

Watch the video below and you may learn a couple of new things about your computer.

Just follow the steps below or in the video

1. Open up your computer
2. Wipe off the old thermal paste
3. Unplug cables
4. Remove RAM
5. Remove the motherboard
6. Clean dust with Q-tips and isopropyl
7. Use Compressed air to blow dust off of components
8. Disassemble as much of the computer as possible
9. Re-assemble
10. Use new thermal paste on the CPU
11. Plug Everything back in
12. Improve the system if needed
13. Enjoy lower temperatures and improved stability
14. Repeat every 6 months
15. Subscribe!

If your computer has not been cleaned and you do not feel confident enough to do this on your own you can ship your  computer in to have it serviced by us!