- Brian W. Aldiss, The Dark Light Years
Let's face it, in the heat of fragging & gibbing, or when your video edit session is really cooking, the last thing you're usually thinking about would be system cleanliness. But the inescapable byproduct of all that workload is heat. Heat is the enemy of your system components and an excess of it can seriously impact the lifespan of your system.
Not only does dust, hair, and other foreign matter produce an insulating layer on components and eventually accumulate into an airflow obstruction, it's presence on fans adds additional burden on the little electromagnetic motors that turn them. That does worse things than reduce efficiency, it can create a starting resistance too great for the fan motor to overcome when you turn the system on, that means no cooling, that means your super hot session will become exactly that. By the time you realise it may be because it's already too late - ffffFZzzkt!...silence...
In the course of my work I see some pretty neglected systems, not just user workstations but also data loggers in cabinets on the rooftops of big buildings or in high voltage areas. They can be a PITA to get to, so is down time, so is system loss.
Your systems work pretty darn hard for you whenever demanded at the flick of a switch. All they want in exchange is a little basic TLC, without which they may protest by, well, failing...
How often internal cleaning needs to be performed depends on how much you use your system, and the cleanliness of the environment in which it operates.
If the area the equipment operates in is neglected then all those cooling fans will just hoover up the loose material and draw it into the system case. So consider the area as well as the system itself, it's amazing what can end up in there.
In a normal use scenario as system will be used in a relatively clean but somewhat dusty environment for at least a few hour every day.
If this is you, then you should look at cleaning the system about once or twice a year.
If your usage is higher, or your area dustier, you should be doing this quarterly.
The choice is yours, but so are the consequences.
Fancy tools and a specialised workbench are not generally required. In fact you can get by with these tools, as a minimum:
A decent swab can be made from taking a small piece of tissue and repeatedly folding it over along one side to make a strip, then wrapping that strip tightly in a spiral from the tip of a toothpick or similar. Just hold the loose end in the same hand as the toothpick.
Alcohol wipes aren't too hard to track down and can be necessary for moving stubborn foreign matter or cleaning terminals etc, but care should be taken to avoid damaging materials or shorting a circuit that hasn't adequately dried before restoring power. This latter scenario could damage more than the system (yes, I'm talking about you).
First off, you should never open and work on live equipment, and you should also ensure that power has dissipated from all circuits and components by switching the equipment off and allowing adequate time to pass. This time varies based on the amount and nature of internal components, some items have a lot of large capacitors that store energy.
Computer and other PSUs can hold energy for 10's of minutes after shutdown, but you shouldn't ever open and/or interfere with those, that's some serious AC-DC. Unless you're a qualified Electrical Engineer or such, and in any case even if you are, take care.
Now that we've got that out of the way... some basic practical advice.
This is the only thing you want outside your case after reassembly:
Better out than in!
If you follow the above methodology you should have little trouble keeping your system running cooler and quieter.
Look after your equipment and it will STEEM ON!
Questions and comments are welcomed in the replies. If you'd like to see more articles like this then ^vote, resteem, and comment below. Considerable effort has gone into researching, testing, and formatting for this article.
^vote on it!