How often should You Dust Your PC? 1, 2 or 4 Times a Year?

Cleaning up dust in your home should be done at least once a month. But the inside of your computer case, where dust accumulates, is rarely remembered. It gets noticed only when the computer begins to work more slowly. Thus, you must understand ‘How often Should I clean My PC‘ and at what frequency.

And it is worth taking time out of your day in this post to figure it out! How often to clean a desktop PC? Is it okay to do it every 3 or 6 months or once a year? And learn more about cleaning your PC. I will also give you some useful tips to control dust around your PC.

How often should I Clean my PC – Frequency Explained

It has always been said that you should clean your computer every six months or even once a month or year. But, they are very general measures that only attend to the specific case and PC usage. Many factors will influence when to clean it, before or after.

The main factor for cleaning frequency depends on how much you usually use the PC. The guide looks like this.

Especially with gaming PCs have a lot of case fans because they have good performance and spin all the time, so it is surprisingly sucking a lot of air every day. So the dust buildup speed is stunning fast.

The second main factor for cleaning frequency varies a lot on the environment in which a computer is used. How tidy your environment is making an immense difference.

For example, if you live near a factory or in hectic areas such as busy streets, the dust will accumulate more quickly on your computer than if you lived somewhere cleaner. In this case, you’ll need to increase the frequency of cleaning sessions.

Conversely, when staying in a dirt-free environment, it will take longer to collect dust since there is less presence of dust in general.

On the contrary, if you are using a brand new PC build, there is no point in cleaning it every month since its fans usually stay pristine for up to three months and even longer.

Therefore, the computer case can remain perfectly clean for four months or more without any need to clear out dust beforehand. However, revisions should be more common if the device gets old.

You also have to take care of the PC case you have. If it is cheap, small form factor case or even mini or mid tower with low airflow, it will need better ventilation, dust filters, or any system that tries to repel dust. In this way, you will have to clean it often. It will not need as much maintenance if it is a well-ventilated box with a closed system.

In what cases should PC Cleaning be done More Often? (5 Points)

Now you got ‘How often Should I clean My PC‘ yet under some conditions, the system unit needs a more frequent and thorough cleaning. Below explained the scenarios:

How to Know that it’s Time to Clean up the Computer?

Many believe that it is not necessary to clean the system unit regularly. It is enough to do this as necessary. Dirt interferes with the regular operation of the equipment. Therefore, understanding that a computer needs to be cleaned of dust is relatively easy.

Below are the signs that indicate the PC needs cleaning up from the dust:

If you find these signs, it’s better not to pull. The accumulation of dust leads to overheating and malfunctioning of internal computer parts.

3 Tips to Remember while cleaning PC

1. Get a Compressed Air Can

This is one of the tools I recommend for cleaning your computer. It cleans almost any part of your PC, including the motherboard, DC or PWM fans, and vents.

It is effortless to use. All you have to do is insert the nozzle in the places where dust is accumulated and spray. It is crucial to use it correctly since, with too much pressure, you can damage your PC’s delicate components.

And don’t blow air into the PC with your mouth! It releases a certain amount of moisture, and this moisture will not benefit the microcircuits in any way but instead damage the components. That’s why I quoted about Compressed Air.

Other tools you can’t miss:

• Brushes for surface dust.
• Sticks for encrusted dust.
• Alcohol to moisten and disinfect.
• Screwdriver to remove all the pieces and work comfortably.
• Vacuum cleaner (optional ) so as not to leave a gram of dust.

2. Replace the Thermal Paste Annually

As time passes, the thermal paste applied to CPU becomes less effective due to dust or dried material accumulation. To avoid thermal throttling fault It would be best if you replaced it every year to ensure proper cooling of the processor chip and GPU chip on the graphics card. 

3. Buy a good PC Case

Spending on a quality chassis from the beginning will save time and money. You don’t have to splurge on expensive cabinets costing around $150; you can easily find reliable cabinets for around $50, for example.

How do I know it’s a good PC case type? It must meet the following characteristics:

Dust filters: It would be advisable to have at least two above and one below. You can find some that have another on the front grill.

Fans: It should have 3 fans installed at least.

Enough space: It is ideal for air to flow in the PC case, so I always recommend enough space between components. That said, a Mini – ITX SFF form factor works perfectly as long as you choose all the components well.

Conclusion

Dust can cause significant damage to equipment, so it should not be taken as a minor aspect. Dirt and lint frequently build up in ventilation ducts. If you continue to use such a dust-filled computer, it will cause failures of the PSU, case fans, processor, and high noise, & temperature.

So often schedule computer cleaning as per your computer usage, not just on big holidays.

People who have never assembled their PC or added parts can also ask the vendor or the computer service point for PC cleaning.

Well, cleanliness is the key to health, not only for humans but also for complex technology. Protect your PC from dust and dirt. You can start right now.

I hope you got the “How Often Should I Clean my PC?” Remember that you can share it on social networks so that it can help more users who need it.