Does dusting your PC out actually make it faster?

This is a question that we have seen come in through the mail numerous times and asked in so many different ways, but it all leads to the same thing: can cleaning out your PC really speed it up? Now, by cleaning it out, I’m not talking about getting rid of all the junk files on your drive, bloatware and all of the other stuff (which yes, will also speed things up depending on the scenario). I am talking about that dirt, grime, dust and more that is building up inside of your case.

Obviously the speed of your PC is determined by the hardware and how fast it can process everything. Upgrading your hardware is by far the most effective way of giving yourself a major bump in speed. However, everything degrades over time, and keeping your PC clean can help lengthen the life of such hardware and in return, yes, speed things up.

If you have never cracked your PC tower case open before, and it’s been sitting around for a year or more, it might be time to give it a try. Over time, dust and all sorts of other fun stuff will find its way into your case and start blanketing everything. This can prevent air from circulating around the case properly, can jam up fans and pack tight areas in. When this happens, the PC can’t properly cool itself down (at least not at its peak potential of doing so). This raises the heat inside the case and puts additional stress on the hardware. This stress can reduce the lifespan of the hardware and of course, slow things down due to the heat.

PCs like to run cool, so the more airflow and cooler temperature you can achieve within the case, the better it will run. So cleaning out your tower and wiping it clean of all of its dust, can bring things back to life. Although you aren’t really “boosting” the speed of your PC beyond its normal state of operation, you are reversing the slowdown that has occurred over time due to the dust that was building up (essentially, boosting it back into normal operation).

The best way to do this? Crack the case open and take a can of compressed air to it. Make sure not to turn the can upside down as you don’t want to be spraying everything down with condensation. Simply blow everything out with the air. It might be best to disconnect the tower from everything and bring it outside so you don’t kick up a bunch of dust in your room. Sometimes it can be frightening to see how thick it can really build up if you let it go for too long (ie, years).

Always make sure to shut the PC down and unplug it in the wall before you ever remove the lid and start poking around. Of course, if you don’t feel completely comfortable doing this (due to the sensitivity/fragility of electronics), it’s always recommended that you find someone experienced to help out.

For a final thought, if you are looking to speed things up without having to make any changes to your hardware (buying into upgrades), you can always try out something like CCleaner, which is a software that helps by doing some Spring cleaning throughout your PC, by scrubbing old cached files, temporary files, unused registry entries, internet trackers, and anything else that might be bogging down the software side of your operating system. They have a free version as well as a higher-performing paid version. Every little bit helps to make a difference!

Last Update: 10/2020