How to maintain and look after new pc properly?

[Bigtruck20]

So my new pc came yesterday, will be setting it up tomorrow when my new monitor and desk comes, i see lots of people like to clean there pc alot but i dont want to start taking it apart and messing with stuff

How often should i give it a good clean and how do i go about it?

 

[Outerarm]

Frequency really depends on how dusty your work area is. I tend to clean the fan grills every other week with a vacuum cleaner and will be giving the inside a clean in the next few weeks (6 month check-up!). For cleaning the inside I have a compressor and airbrush and will use that to blow high-pressure air over the surfaces to clean off settled dust.

 

[tom_gr7]

I'd say every six months to a year minimum. I do it every few weeks, but that because I find it enjoyable and I'm comfortable doing so.

I tend to use compressed air, just to blow out the main dust bunnies (I sometimes take bits out and clean them, but this isnt required). Might be worth getting yourself a anti static strap too.

Remember to check inside the PC for the blue foam thing before you connect it up (if you didnt know it was there)

Try not to seat the case on a carpet or dusty floor. It really will act like a massive static hoover! and the carpet doesn't do the airflow to the PSU (bottom of case) any good.

 

[Bigtruck20]

I'd say every six months to a year minimum. I do it every few weeks, but that because I find it enjoyable and I'm comfortable doing so.

I tend to use compressed air, just to blow out the main dust bunnies (I sometimes take bits out and clean them, but this isnt required). Might be worth getting yourself a anti static strap too.

Remember to check inside the PC for the blue foam thing before you connect it up (if you didnt know it was there)

Try not to seat the case on a carpet or dusty floor. It really will act like a massive static hoover! and the carpet doesn't do the airflow to the PSU (bottom of case) any good.

Thats abit of a disaster, just had new carpet fitted in the room it will be going in

Maybe i can put something on the carpet that the pc can rest on to help ?

 

[vanthus]

Maybe something like these,
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search/r...ds&tag=lpo_ixdpgousukengl_pc-21&index=blended

 

[Rakk]

Thats abit of a disaster, just had new carpet fitted in the room it will be going in

Maybe i can put something on the carpet that the pc can rest on to help ?

I used one of these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000SHQD6A/ref=oh_details_o07_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1, cos at my old place there was this static-y 'carpet' and that was the only place I had for my PC, that item kept it nicely just off the floor and made it dead easy to move it around if I needed to shuffle it at all - though do check the width of the case, might be similar things if your PC is wider than it can manage (about 25cm).


Edit: Vanthus beat me to it!

 

[Bigtruck20]

thanks guys. its just finding one that is low to the ground as i don't have much room under the desk im getting, it only just fits my pc under it

 

[vanthus]

thanks guys. its just finding one that is low to the ground as i don't have much room under the desk im getting, it only just fits my pc under it

If you can't find one to fit maybe a rubber mat or something like that would help,but I wouldn't worry too much about it,lots of people have their desktops sitting on the carpet,just means you might need to give it a dust out a bit more often than you normally would.

 

[ubuysa]

I know you were talking more about hardware maintenance but software maintenance is important too.

Assuming you run Windows I'd get hold of a good junk cleaner. Ccleaner from Piriform is a particularly good one, it's customisable too so you can add your own files and folders to be cleaned. Ccleaner also lets you manage programs that start with Windows, you can disable (rather than delete) them if you're not sure whether you want them starting with Windows. This helps keep the clutter down and aids better performance.

I'd suggest that you don't run any kind of general registry cleaner (Ccleaner has one but I never use it). Despite what the manufacturers of these products claim, junk entries in the registry do not usually slow things down (the registry is kept in RAM) nor do they usually cause problems. On the other hand, removing entries that you do need most certainly does cause problems! On balance it's much safer to not run general registry cleaners at all.

Do uninstall programs you no longer need or use. I'd also suggest using an intelligent uninstaller like Revo Uninstaller (the free version only uninstalls 32-bit applications though). I use the free IOBit Uninstaller because it does uninstall 64-bit applications. These work by running the program's uninstaller and then they scan the hard disk and registry looking for entries related to that program that have been left behind. After a check to make sure they are safe to delete you can delete all these resulting in a nice clean uninstallation.

When installing software (particularly free software) pay very close attention to the installation. Most free software comes bundled with trials of other software that you don't want or need. You need to read each box in the install sequence carefully and make sure you don't inadvertently install browser toolbars or other software that you don't want. They really do try to trick you into installing this junk, never take the "recommended" or "typical installation" route because you'll be sure to also install lots of stuff you don't want!

When you install Windows updates they always take a restore point first, it's a good idea to get into the habit of taking restore points yourself before installing any new software or driver. That gives you any easy way back if the new software or driver doesn't work for you. A good rule to remember here is that "you should always pack your own parachute".

And of course you should run regular backups and then backup again and just in case backup once more. You can never have too many backups! You want to think about where you keep the backups too, having the external backup drive physically close to the PC is not a good idea because a flood, fire, earthquake, volcanic eruption, meteor strike, alien invasion, etc. will likely take out your backup drive too....

Apologies for preaching but I hope that helps too?