Introduction. All of us experience dust buildup in your case, and more specifically in your fans and surrounding areas. In this guide, I would like to discuss the method(s) I most commonly use for cleaning these items. I apologize for not having step-by-step pictures with this guide, but I hope to edit it with some pictures of the work in progress at a later time (when I'm not at work).

The tools. Dremel® or other rotary tool, brush attatchment (like this one), your dirty items , and a steady hand. Other materials may include a small dish with dish soap for cleaning non-electrical items.

Fans. After a lot of continuous use, fans gather up dust along the blades. Sometimes it's hard to get into the corners to get this off, since it looks so unsightly. Using your rotary tool with the brush attatchment mentioned above, you can set your rotary to about half or 3/4 speed (if speed is capable of varying), and make swoops over the edges of the fan's blades. You can also, by adjusting your wrist/arm angle (of course), get toward the center of the fan where you may not be able to reach with a typical cloth of some sort.

Heatsinks. I use a Thermalright SLK-900U and that thing really catches the dust from my 92MM Vantec Tornado heatsink fan I have mounted on it. The dust really build up inside the fins, and it's very hard to reach down into there and clean most of it out. However, the rotary tool and abovementioned attatchment, facilitate this cleaning process a ton. Holding your heatsink flat on a table or still hooked to the motherboard, you can use your brush attatchment and your rotary tool to squeeze the bristles inbetween the edges of the heatsink and watch the dust fly out. A lot of the times, in my case especially, there are somewhat large clumps of dustballs. It is a good idea when removing a lot of dust to have a small vacuum or a floor vacuum with small attatchment running at half speed somewhere near your case so your clumps of dust just don't splatter out all over the place in your case or in your house/garage/wherever.

If the heatsink still isn't clean to your satisfaction after using the brush on the rotary tool, you can use a small bowl with soapy water in it, and some sort of sponge or cleaning pad, and dip the heatink in it and scrub. This, of course involves a little more trouble because of having to take the heatsink off the motherboard, remove the thermal paste, as well as re-applying the paste at a later time. However, if all this is worth it to you, you may continue scrubbing your heatink in this water, drying with a towel and shaking it off to get most of the excess off. After the excess water is off the heatsink, use a hair dryer or some other form of fast-moving air production device. You will need to be sure this is thoroughly dried out, preventing the risk of electrical confliction.

Conclusion. This is a very simple and easy way to clean out hard to reach places where dust gathers up. I hope you enjoyed this small guide, and I hope to be back in the near future to edit this and post pictures of this actually being done. Thanks for reading!

This is what I use for cleaning my fans and heatsinks. It's a cleaning brush that came in a clarinet cleaning kit. The penny is just for size comparison.

For general case cleaning, I use a turkey baster brush (Stolen from the kitchen of my ex ) that is similar to a common 1 inch paint brush, but with the an angled handle, it's perfect for gettting into the corners.

Makes my computer parts smell good enough to eat too

For the hard to reach fins of the heat sinks, and inside my power supply, I spend the 3.99 and get a can of compressed air, lasts me about 4 months or so

Nice guide!

Canned air is the pwnage, but I clean my computer out so much, a can only lasts me a couple weeks to a month.

one thing I don't like about air cans is that when you blast you puter out, where does all the dust go? into the air to get sucked right back into your case again. thats why I use brushes. most of the dust gets caught on the brush and you can dispose of it in the trash.

Quote: Originally Posted by larrs27 one thing I don't like about air cans is that when you blast you puter out, where does all the dust go? into the air to get sucked right back into your case again. thats why I use brushes. most of the dust gets caught on the brush and you can dispose of it in the trash.

Thats why I take my case's outside if I am going to blow it out. Put the dust back outside where it belongs.

As a side note not much beats an electric leaf blower for getting the dust out in a hurry

Quote: Originally Posted by kardiacc Thats why I take my case's outside if I am going to blow it out. Put the dust back outside where it belongs. As a side note not much beats an electric leaf blower for getting the dust out in a hurry

Yeah, you aren't supposed to blow dust all over your house, take it outside and dust it off.

oh and I also use a mini vacuum

Nice little write-up btw, Subdismal. I actually hadn't thought to use my dremel and it's brush's to get the dust off. Thanks for the tip

nice one man ! and yes i use vacuum cleaner to clean my heatsink and my fans lol

Yup... also a "vacuum man".... (with flexible plastic/rubber attachment, intended for those "hard to reach
places" when cleaning the house), but I also use cotton swabs for the fan blades and a brush (looks much
like the one larss27 posted).

Never thought of using a rotary tool, though I might give it a shot!

TDR

Well recently I tried mini vacuum and windex lol.

Q-tips and C/A allways work for me.

Heh you fairies, I take the case outside and use the leaf blower.

A toothbrush, a few Q-tips, an old facecloth, and a tad of isopropyl alcohol are the frontline in my dust cleaning regieme.

Perhaps a bug zapper once in a while... I used to have my rig down on the floor. When cleaning, I'd find a few dead moths that got sucked up through the fans... road kill for PCs if you will.

Nice write up!

At the moment I like to use a little rubbing alcohol and q-tips for the hard spots. I'm looking for a small air compressor so I don't have to keep buying canned air. Let's face it. With canned air we all flip it upside down and freeze stuff with it.