how does dust affect ur computer?

[darthvaderkenneth]

I've quite a lot of dust gathering on my video card because my antec 900 sucks in a lot of dust. Does it affect pc performance

 

[georgy]

Yes.. when i cleaned my old p4 i couldnt believe the performance boost i got.

 

[grieve]

You should get some Fan filters and place between the case and the fan inside the 900...

Yes dust is the Devil for a PC, but i have seen some seriously nasty ones and there still running, just very loud. Clean that junk out youll get instant temperature drops.

Get yourself some compressed air and clean er out...

 

[slim142]

Get compressed air like grieve said, two cans. That should help you out

 

[sailer]

Yes, dust is bad for a pc's performance. First, dust is an insulator, so it drives heat up. Heat causes extra resistance to the electrical components and they slow down. Next, depending on what's in the dust, it can cause electrical shorting, which can interfere or end the life of those electrical components. And yes, it looks bad.

I regularly use a hand vacuum to clean out the big stuff and a damp dishcloth (only do this when the PC is off and unplugged from the wall) to wipe down as many of the surfaces as I can. Then I use compressed air to blast out what I couldn't reach with the dishcloth, like the CPU heatsink. I have an Antec 900 myself and know how much dust it can inhale. Last note, (no laughing here, at least not too much) I've made some fan filters from my G/F's old pantyhose. The nylon or whatever does a great job at filtering a majority of the crud out of the air while allowing decent airflow.

 

[Zorg]

^Agreed

 

[dokk2]

har,har,, pantyhose is a great idea very fine philter,i use furnace philters,y'know the rolls of blue &white fiberglass like stuff,hey whatever trips your trigger..:>)

 

[kamel5547]

I have a couple P1's running in a soil lab... as well as a couple P4's. If they can survive in that environment I'm pretty sure your PC will survive a little dust.

Of course as mentioned dust does increase the heat of components, so for intense use (i.e. gaming etc) its probablya dvisable to remove the dust every now and then. (Recently had an issue where I ahd to remove the fan off my video card to remove the dust due to spontaneous lockups that were heat related, so its definitely a good idea for gamers).

 

[darthvaderkenneth]

ok thanks for the advice

 

[xGhostx]

You should either use compressed air canisters or just go though everything with a brush. I've read that using a vacuum can damage your components, so I'd stay away from that. I've only used the brush, it's really good for getting all those bits of dust in tight corners, of course it takes more time with the brush. There are some components that can clearly benefit best with compressed air, such as heat sinks.
You could also benefit from a microfiber cloth for large surface area targets such as drivers and the case itself, large surfaces that don't have parts sticking out that might break off.