Cleaning dust issue

[andy06shake]

I have an Antec 900 mid tower, my system collects dust as well as a binman! I have purchased a can off compresed air(Inline Air Duster 400ml) to clean my rig with and was wondering if there are any tips you can give me on using it inside my rig. I know that i have to keep the can horizontal to prevent spraying moisture as well as air but can i spray the air directly onto my mainboard and cpu fan radiator? My specs E8500 3.16Ghz, 4Gb DDR2 667Mhz, ASUS P5N32-E SLI, XFX GTX275 896Mb.

 

[EXCellR8]

it's safe to spray the air directly onto the mainboard from 6 or so inches away but, like you pointed out, try to avoid the moisture as much as possible. the moisture is freezing and can damage small plastic parts on contact. it's not a big deal if you get a little on certain areas but as a rule of thumb you only want to release the air inside the can. if you need to get closer to a few key components, such as the CPU heatsink, you can stick the can right in there but use short bursts.

if you want to really clean it out good you can use a compact air compressor with the side panel off the case. you can't get as close to your components as you can with just compressed air but it's more effective and you wont deplete gas or moisture.

 

[gingerbill]

MY computers the same . Can anyone recommend what can of compressed air to buy , i purchased a couple last time i went to clean my PC and they were a waste of time , hardly any air pressure and the can turned to a block of ice after 2 seconds , it was basically a waste of money and not worth using.

In my old job i had access to a proper compressed air line and that was excellent and did the job hassle free but since then i have never found a solution.

 

[EpicPie]

MY computers the same . Can anyone recommend what can of compressed air to buy , i purchased a couple last time i went to clean my PC and they were a waste of time , hardly any air pressure and the can turned to a block of ice after 2 seconds , it was basically a waste of money and not worth using.

In my old job i had access to a proper compressed air line and that was excellent and did the job hassle free but since then i have never found a solution.

You're supposed to spray the can in bursts, and like all compressed air cans the canister will begin to ice up because the "air" you're spraying is actually a liquid, that liquid turns to gas and because of chemical reaction the can gets cold freezing moisture surrounding it creating condensation and that condensation begins to ice up from the liquid inside of the can. Once it starts to ice up you need to let it thaw before you use it again it you want maximum air pressure.

 

[gingerbill]

You're supposed to spray the can in bursts, and like all compressed air cans the canister will begin to ice up because the "air" you're spraying is actually a liquid, that liquid turns to gas and because of chemical reaction the can gets cold freezing moisture surrounding it creating condensation and that condensation begins to ice up from the liquid inside of the can. Once it starts to ice up you need to let it thaw before you use it again it you want maximum air pressure.

yes i know , but when the air pressure is barely a light 3 second breeze it's a waste of time , or at least the ones i tried were.

 

[Manikle]

The can must be held completely vertical--not horizontally, as the OP suggested.
I've used Perfectdata Perfect Duster.
The can explicitly states to hold the can upright and use to short bursts.
I know that I've used more than 3 second bursts without a problem, but I made sure that the can remained vertical.
My preferred cleaning method involves taking the parts outdoors to blast the dust off of them, so I'm not just flinging the dust back into the indoor air.
Grass doesn't cause static build-up when I walk on it, either

 

[kjSean]

Someone even suggested that I should use a blow dryer to directly get the dust out (primitive). Ineffective...

 

[andy06shake]

I would imagine that using a blow dryer could quite possibly damage your mainboard or other components because of the risk of a static discharge.

 

[SNGX1275]

To answer the question about spraying onto heatsink fans and other fans.. I think technically you are supposed to hold the fan with your finger to blow it off rather than letting it spin up to a billion rpm. But in reality I've always whizzed up the fans that high and never had any problems.