PC Peripherals how to clean my rig?

paroxy

Disciple
excuse me if i started the thread in the wrong section.....but im really curious after seeing the rigs gallery that how do u guys keep them so clean...i mean the cabby clean internally.......how do u keep the mobo /graphic card/the fans/PSU clean and dust free......i heard a compressed air can should do the trick for cleaning ......but i cannt find a place in hyd where they sell that stuff....any suggestion from fellow hyd TEs where i can get some ....or any suggestion on handy vaccum cleaners which have some kinda static charge protection....

i wouldnt want to f***k with my rig just cause its not clean :p.....

so please only tested and approved suggestions :p
 
get an air blower from CTC...that should do the trick in most cases (and you can use it for other purposes in the house too)

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But u cant use Vacuum Cleaner for homr Home use for ur PC :S Coz they cr8 loottts of static charges :ashamed: n can damage ur pc components.u can use a Brush to dust of the dirt n dust (after u remove the hardware parts or else the dust will settle on other components rofl).also use a dry clots to clean n wipe some portions. :)
 
I use the above mentioned blower on my system all the time (twise a week). Also, using cloth is not so practical as the cloth often gets caught up in the soldered leads on the PCB. But a brush is also another option though.
 
1 inch paintbrush. Make sure you dont wear slippers, you touch the bristles with fingers when cleaning.
 
I get a lot of old PCs from friends' mothers.

For the outside, generally Colin works well. For really grimy and maltreated cases, petrol works well (the pure white stuff you get in electronics shops) but it's not paint safe. For paint finishes generally warm water and soap works perfectly fine. I prefer a diluted shampoo or hand soap as it's gentle on the plastic/paint.

I generally take the whole thing apart and treat each part separately. The metal cage responds well to a small shoe brush, some form of air delivery (blowing works fine) and some elbow grease. I may wash the inside or parts of it if it's got stained (don't ask, and you'll be told no lies).

I wash all the expansion cards and the motherboard. The CPU generally needs to be washed too. Nothing scientific, just a water + alcohol wash. After drying out totally a rub down with Acetone or rubbing alcohol gets all the residual stains out. It also destroys any stickers on the mobo/cards, so not always advisable. Generally the water works perfectly fine on its own, as long as it's not too hard. Hard water will leave mineral deposits. This is how PCBs are cleaned after soldering at the factory (+ some active flux removers), so it's perfectly safe as long as you dry them properly.

Fans are tough little buggers to clean, as are heatsinks. For Heatsinks I use a water jet between the fins (remove fans first). A toothbrush on fans works reasonably well, but the best is a good hard paintbrush. I've never been able to restore fans to a 'like new' look, FWIW.

Some parts of the cabinet may have rusted. A light coating of vaseline followed by some vigorous rubbing usually gets rid of most of it, and improves the appearance. Sanding and refinishing is an option, but it may be cheaper to just put a sticker on top if it's a visible area.

A blower/vacuum cleaner works really well. Just keep a distance, and don't blow it into the blades of a fan to see how fast it will spin. It's great fun though. For all loose dust, cobwebs, dead cockroaches and that piece of pizza that disappeared in 1984, there's nothing to beat a good vac.

As for static charge, generally static builds up on everything quickly (even brushes and cloth), specially in winter and when it's dry (Delhi). Be careful with anything you touch to the boards. I haven't managed to lose anything to static even though I'm not particularly careful, but in India we don't have carpeting (mostly) and it's a little more humid so it isn't such a big problem. As long as you're about a foot away from the board with the tip of the vac, you should be fine.

The Bheem Singh trick also works remarkably well for rigs with very little dust, which is a rolled-up kitchen cloth swung around with a lot of zest inside the cabinet. Though it can't get into crevices, it keeps visible surfaces clean by the air movement. It may tear the cloth in a couple of places, but hey, it's Bheem Singh, right? :D
 
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