[Saka]

With a laptop I would be very careful using compressed air, no more than a short blow at a time. The plastic elements may not like the difference in temperature and crack off/melt. I have seen that happen. A dedicated blower is better. I have used it both for desktop and laptops.

Most of the time just blowing things through will do the trick, unless the fins are clogged up, then that generally requires some manual work.

[DoctorEldritch]

@DracoTarot So you do not open it up the way shown in the link @Saka found? I did not know it could help, always thought you need to open up the fan to really clean it.

[Saka]

@DoctorEldritch I think @DracoTarot is talking about desktop computers, not laptops. In the case of a desktop you can generally remove the side panel and that'd give you plenty of access to the components.

[DoctorEldritch]

Originally Posted by Saka

@DoctorEldritch I think @DracoTarot is talking about desktop computers, not laptops. In the case of a desktop you can generally remove the side panel and that'd give you plenty of access to the components.

Yes, that's what did when I had one. With laptops, I am much more cautious, but I did not quite get if @DracoTarot referred to laptop or tower, true. I thought it was about a laptop because with a tower you do not really need compressed air: when you remove the side panel you can pretty much just clean everything manually.

[DracoTarot]

@DoctorEldritch I'm actually referring to a Desktop with side panels. With a laptop, you need to take a whole different approach.

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@DoctorEldritch I'm cautious when cleaning everything manually when removing the side panels on a desktop. The thing is compressed air is capable of removing dust in the hard-to-reach spots, especially on chassis fans.

Using compressed air also ensures you do not have ESD. Electrostatic discharge can cause havoc on computer parts.

Cleaning everything manually also means removing each component when cleaning and in the long run I do not think it's healthy to assemble and disassemble the PC.

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@Saka Yea! I was talking about desktops. 😁

[Saka]

I have something like this:



and it's been working great for me. Just gotta take the pc an extension cord to the balcony then watch a grey cloud leave the chassis. 😂

[DoctorEldritch]

@DracoTarot I used to use a regular vacuum cleaner after removing the side, not compressed air. Mine was not like the one that @Saka has, but it had a function similar to that. Worked fine for me, but it helped that my desktop PC was quite big, and this seemed odd to me at the time: after you open the side frame, you could see that all hardware "innards" of the device took only about 30% of all the space inside the chassis. nowadays I am not sure if they leave that much space in there, modern devices are somewhat smaller than they used to be.

[Saka]

@DoctorEldritch It depends. There are still full tower cases. Most popular ones are mid tower though, which have less 'spare room'. And there are people who like small form factor and try fitting their entire rig in a shoebox.

[DoctorEldritch]

@Saka I am not the one for the middle ground, personally. I think you either go all portable and minimalist with a laptop or, if not, you go full-scale stationary with a big device and lots of room for all the bells and whistles like extra cooling system and all that.

[Saka]

@DoctorEldritch You can get an AIO or a big air cooler even in a small mid-tower case just fine. Not so much room for custom loops with big radiators, but that kind of cooling is prohibitively expensive for most users anyway.

For example my spouse has a desktop with m-ATX sized case and has a Noctua NH-D15 in it. That's one of the largest air coolers in the market. Yes, there isn't much clearance but nothing that'd affect the functionality of the setup.

Compared to the laptops it's pretty quiet and has good thermals. Most of the noise is coming from the reference 5700XT in it, which has a blower fan. That one wouldn't be helped at all with a bigger case.