What you need

1. A paint brush (I favour a 1/2 inch wide brush with stiff bristles)
2. A Hoover (or the wifes Dyson)
3. A Dust cloth (to polish with)
4. A clear work area (or the floor if you don't have a clear work surface)

Step 1

Take the side of your case and have a general look around to locate the worst deposits of dust. In this case (pun intended) it was in the corners and the fans (but what do you expect from 2 side mounted 120mm fans!!!)

The Elspuddys computer

Ph34r My 1337 m4cr0 Ski11Z

I proceeded to remove the cards from the motherboard, for 2 reasons.

1 - To be able to get to the underside of the cards easily
2 - So that I could clean around the slots of the mobo.

The Graphics card ...

and the Sound card

Can you see the dust here ?

Pass me the dust buster Spud!

Using the brush and the hoover, clean the dust straight of the cards and then place them to one side. Starting at the top of the case brush the dust loose and then use the vaccum cleaner to suck up the dust.

Step 2

I removed all the fans from the machine and then brushed out the dust from the blades and the sides of the fan as well as cleaning the grills and even the retaining screws. I also attacked the corners of the case with the brush and hoover to get all the loose dust out of the case.

Its amazing how efficently the 120mm fans suck unsuspecting bugs out of the air and deposits them inside the case, where they can be seen being buffeted around inside through the window and illuminated by the Cold Cathode!

The rear mounted extraction fan

The daddy long legs Cemetary

Step 3

Remove your heatsink from your Chip and then remove the fan off the sink. This isn't as complcated as it sounds but I promise you that after you clean the HSF you will get a huge improvement in the way your HSF cools your chip.

See that ? ...

Thats dust that is!!!

I personally reduced the temperature on my chip after cleaning, by 10 C

If you werent aware how a heat sink worked then prepare yourself for a quick lesson.

the heatsink sits on top of your chip drawing the heat from your chip into itself. the vanes (the flat sticky up bits) try to lose the heat out to the atmosphere, but may have trouble due to fact that the cooler air is not reaching the vanes.

What happens when you place a fan on top is that the vanes can now loose a lot more heat in the same amount of time, which is all down to the increased airflow over the vanes.

Step 4

Once you have finished cleaning the HSF it is time to give the front of the case a good clean. If you can remove the front Bezel and brush of any loose dust that may of collected there, and clean or better still replace any filters you find in this area.

More dead insects

The front removed with filter visible

Once done, you can concentrate on your computers window (if it has one), side fans, and any other part you may of used.

Once yopu have finished the cleaning operation and you are happy that you have all the areas in your computer are clean then you can reasemble your system and check that it still works.

A nice clean and dust free puter

Conclusion

This was a surprise to me at just how dusty your computer gets and just how much better it looks after a good clean. Though the whole process does take a little time, its not difficult to do and is really quite theraputic.

Even if there is only one thing you do from this guide, then make sure its that you clean the heat sink before the thing burst into flame and burns down your loverly house/flat/street corner!!!

I would like to thank spud for allowing me to embaress him with the state of his computer, and the guys at work who have tried to proof read this article (rofl),

And to Jane, my wife, who put up with 4 computers in her lounge all being cleaned out by me!!! Cheers babe.