Is dust harmful?

skidude

Active Member
Is dust harmful for your PC?? I keep mine under my desk and sometimes it gets kinda dusty, although I try and dust it every once in a while.
 
Well dust aint good, a little dust shouldnt harm it as long as you dont let it build up alot inside. The main thing dust does is clogs up the fan and heatsink over the cpu and gpu, which makes it run hotter and slower.
 
As geoff said alot won't kill anything (normally) Just try not to have a dust bunny farm in your case.
 
No, just a room. I was just wondering since when I bring it out to clean it there is some dust on it, not a boat load but some.
 
well i beleive there is something about that dust that can cause electric stuff and harm ur board or components. but i could be wrong.
 
Yeah, it clogs up your computer and makes it overheat and perform slower. If it heats up too much it could blow you cpu into the middle of next week but thats if its really really dusty and you have to be maxing out the computer to do that (music, games - that sort of stuff). If you feel its too dusty then give it a blast of compress air (canister), which you can buy from a computer store.
 
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That happens to most OEM Machines since people who buy them may not know a thing about computers, and then it gets so slow they need to get a new one. Then when you open it up its like a big dust ball.
 
Dust is bad, what it will do is get down in the fins of your heat sink and eventually strangle off all the coolinf effects of the processor fan. Also if you have a pet, their hair will end up in the pc also. Dust holds in heat, so if you have a coating of dust on everything, I mean a relatively thick layer, where you almost can not read the label on your devices. That is bad . I would atleast once a year or sooner, open up your pc and blow it out with compressed air. you know one of those dusters.. Which really is not compressed air, it is R134a, the same stuff in your cars AC. So do not invert the can or the liquid will come out and instantly freeze anything including skin.
I would start from blowin through the fan at the back of the power supply, all the vents from the outsdie, then all the devices from the inside, working from top to bottom. Then the processor. P4, because of the large fans do not clog as fast as a P3, once a processor overheats it's gone. Hds too
there is a free program to monitor your HDs temp click on the link. There will be a new icon in the icon tray after installation that will tell you the temp of your HD(s).
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/hddthermometer.html
 
Thx people, that explains why my parents 5 year old Dell is so god damn slow. I opened it up yesterday and was almost suffocated by the dust! However, y PC isnt nearly as bad.
 
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