Cleaning Up Your Computer Before Diablo III | Blizzplanet.com

Friday, March 16, 2012

Cleaning Up Your Computer Before Diablo III | Blizzplanet.com

Many players have a computer system that may play Diablo III with no problems considering the wide range of configurations Blizzard Entertainment usually develops games for.

It doesn't matter if you have a l33t computer, or an older system. All of these computer systems have a common enemy. An enemy more dangerous and unmerciful than Deathwing, the Lich King or Illidan. That enemy is [you].

That sounds harsh, but be honest. How often do you clean up your computer? This past year, I have cleaned my computer about three times. I have come to the conclusion that I need to clean it up more often than that. Once or twice a month shouldn't hurt too much.

There is one factor that makes people decline to clean their computers. Which of these examples fits you?

Not everyone has a car to take the computer to a gas station to spray air.
Not all gas stations have a sprayer, they only have those with the wheel adapter.
I don't have a car, and I'm lazy to order an air can online or going to Radio Shack or other store.
Those darn air cans are too expensive.

I'm sure there are many other excuses or constraints that prevent players to clean their computer as often as they should. I'll be nice and think these few are among the best reasons.

In my case, well, going to Best Buy or Radio Shack to buy an expensive air can ain't too fun, and usually they don't have enough pressure or last long enough to clean the entire computer parts.

Air cans can also give you a frostbite if not used properly.

You'd be surprised how much dust your computer might have right about now. Go ahead. Open the computer case and check it out. The computer case's fans — those which bring air into its interior and the one that expels it out of your computer — do they have a thick crust of dust? Likely even your own hair or your pet's hair. Everyone drops hair one way or the other throughout the month. This hair eventually lands on your floor, and it's slowly pulled by the computer's fans. When this hair accummulates on the outer filters, or the grills dust tends to accumulate there and to prevent air from going in or out efficiently.

This in turn makes the interior of your computer to build up internal heat that's no longer dissipated as usual.

Take a look at your CPU's cooler sink and its fan. Are they full of dust and dirt lint? Some of it is also your hair — believe it or not. Check your graphic card. Do you see a crust of dust? Remove the graphic card from the PCI slot. What do you see in the graphic card's fan? Yup, here's the source of your video games losing FPS (frames-per-second), or graphic lag, crashes, etc. etc.

A few days ago, I experienced some of those symptoms. I opened my computer case, and noticed an unusual amount of dust on the video card. The CPU fan, and the 120mm fans pulling and expeling air into the case were also covered with hair and dust intermingled.

Using toilet paper or napkins to clean up is simply useless, and time consuming, and just silly. Air cans — I'm sorry, these are a waste of time and money. Air compressors can cost over $200, take a lot of space and do a lot of noise.

I looked up online at so many solutions to clean up my computer, and none of them convinced me. Then I came up with a solution.

Pressurized air cans or disposable cleaning air dusters sometimes come in packs of two or three 10-ounce cans. They range $13.59 – $19.99.

Once the cans are empty, you need to replace them and spend more money.

I recommend players to get a Toro 51585 Power Sweep 7 amp 2-Speed Electric Blower. This clean the computer case, the CPU cooler sink, the 120mm fans, and the graphic card in no time and thoroughly. Only for $34.97 and FREE super saver shipping.

Make sure to have a long power cord, or buy one if there's no power outlets near the outdoors. It's recommendable to use this blower on your computer outside. You won't want all that dust floating around inside the house. If you are in an apartment, maybe you can clean the computer by the fire escape — with caution.

The 2-speed power sweep electric blower goes up to 130 mph (low-speed) or 160 mph (high-speed), and weighs less than 5 lbs. Just be careful with the motherboard and graphic card stickers. They will be gone with the wind. Literally. This electric blower has a 2-year warranty. Not bad for the price considering how much you end up spending in pressurized air duster cans.

After cleaning the computer with this baby air blower, my CPU and the graphic card temperature dropped a bit over 10 degrees Fahrenheit. For now that's pretty good to keep a healthy computer temperature to play Diablo III, or other CPU / GPU intensive video games without worry about cooking an omelet on your graphic card.

I'll later share some cooling solutions for graphic cards and CPUs.