<-Floss your heatsink->

[Slychilde]

When was the last time you cleaned the inside of your computer? Go take the fan off of your heatsink and look inside. I bet there's a lotta dust in there. All that dust brings down your performance, making your expensive and efficient heatsink just expensive.

I rummaged through my house looking for something small enough, yet sturdy to clean between the forest of cylinders the MCX-370 has. I found a great and fairly quick way to clean it, without requiring one to take the hsf off!

First, take off the fan. You can leave the actual heatsink in the socket for this. Then go find some pipe cleaners, cause we're gonna do some flossing. Take the pipe cleaner and put a hand on each end, just like if it was floss and make it tight. Then just stick the cleaner down a row of cylinders or between a valley of ridges and voila! Keep doing this to all the rows going in one direction. If you have a forest of cylinders (pins) like I did, then floss both from side to side and front to back (90 degrees).

My temps are back to normal again thanks to a little spring cleaning. I hope this is helpful to at least someone. It was the easiest way to clean it thoroughly and it helped myself a lot!

 

[IFMU]

Nice idea to use pipe cleaners.... Will have to remember that!

 

[NASsoccer]

hmm... too much work for me i think i will stick to the can of air

 

[vayero]

Cans of air are good and easy to use, but they are very expensive

I've found a small air compressor (2HP) which is not actually portable but it does the job better and it lasts a lot longer! In Greece it costs about 110 EUR without the barell, which is of no use if you just plug in the compressor for a few minutes and dust of your case.

 

[NASsoccer]

Cans of air are good and easy to use, but they are very expensive

I've found a small air compressor (2HP) which is not actually portable but it does the job better and it lasts a lot longer! In Greece it costs about 110 EUR without the barell, which is of no use if you just plug in the compressor for a few minutes and dust of your case.

oh i would love to have a compressor instead of using cans but well i think i will stick to cans for a while. For now they only cast me $15 for 10 cans.

 

[rivercom9]

I never thought of using pipe cleaners. Very good idea and cost effective. A friend cleans out his Swifty by taking it off and rinsing it with water to get all the dust out. Kinda dangerous if you ask me. Nice to know of a better way to do it.

 

[Spartacus51]

I never thought of using pipe cleaners. Very good idea and cost effective. A friend cleans out his Swifty by taking it off and rinsing it with water to get all the dust out. Kinda dangerous if you ask me. Nice to know of a better way to do it.

I've used water before, then took the HS to the air compressor and blow dried it. Actually usually use the compressor, then water and then the compressor again. If that still scares you use isopropyl instead of water.

 

[rivercom9]

But then wouldnt using ISPA be just as expensive as using the can of air? But good idea using the compressor. Too bad he doesnt have one at his house and that he has to remove that SOB heatsink to clean it.

 

[Baron]

When switching cases last month, I took a fine paintbrush (the kind used to paint art, not houses) to my hardware. It was amazing how much dust came off, even after blowing gently on the components and using a little minivac to try and catch the larger particles. Most of the dust was about as fine as cigarette smoke.

 

[ToTalXS]

Because I live in a rural community I have a huge dust problem...I have to clean my fans every other week and I figure as long as Im doing that I'll clean everything...what I found works for my chipset heatsink(stock heatsink) is an old toothbrush....the soft brisles get everywhere and make quick work of cleanin those...as for cpu hsf I use a 250gallon 5horsepower air compressor and blow the crap out...it works well (hehe).......anyway the compressor works well to blow out dust thats in the case......peace

 

[Iron Hawk]

I use filters on all of my intake fans, so all I need to do is rinse my filters under water once and a while. When i do take my heatsink off i take it out to my 100psi air compressor and give it a good blow job
(te hee)

 

[RoadWarrior]

I Just take the sink off, take the fan off, and run the sucker under the tap, no problems with that.

Did the same with a motherboard and PSU guts once they were so bad, blasted them off in the shower, of course I dried them REAL well before I put them back. I wouldn't recommend submersing them or anything but a quick hose off should be fine. Remove the CMOS battery of course.


Road Warrior

 

[Malakai]

ummm, i dont think its a great idea to get your whole mobo we, even - the battery.
duster works fine 4 me
-Malakai

 

[rivercom9]

Wow, you literally sprayed the MB with water? I dont think I can get up enough guts to do anything like that.

 

[RoadWarrior]

It was an old 486 board that had been in an industrial environment this thing was seriously caked, left if for two days on top of the water heater to dry off. Worked fine after.

 

[CryptokiD]

i also use intake filters. but i have rather large ones used from a a/c filter i cut up. i only need to clean them about once every 6 months.

 

[adamtekh]

i just take my HSF off , and run watter through it

 

[Christensen]

air compressor

I've used alot of air compressors and you'd be surprised how much water comes out even after drying the tank first!! Be careful using this method--I'd have the power completely off before doing it--good idea though--I might just use my small 1hp portable one for this.

 

[army_man]

ya know i have had this puter for 5 months and i have yet to clean any fans maby thats why i havin probs. hehe i think i'll do that when i get my new heatsink.

someone please correct me if i'm wrong but water cant hurt electronics as long as there is no power going through it right. so just wash the thing and give it a good while to dry.

 

[RoadWarrior]

A few things to watch for with that though.

Hard water can leave scale deposits when it dries off. Not good for contacts. Rinsing off contacts with alcohol or distilled/descaled water will cure this.

Check all capacitors are discharged and any backup batteries are removed.

Check for cased components like relays and variable resisitors that might let water in, but not let it out so good.

Coil windings tend to retain water, flush them with alcohol if wet, or try and force dry them with hot air.
If you wash any electromechanical parts, fans, motors, oil them again after, WD-40 soon after washing, then machine oil later is good.

Other than that "water cant hurt electronics as long as there is no power going through it"

Road Warrior