Spring clean your gaming PC | PC Gamer - baisdenbefer1961

It's approximately time you gave your gaming PC a spring clean

(Visualise credit: Future)

I'm going to fesse up from the start. The reason I'm writing this guide how to spring unblemished your PC is because my Personal computer is in a little of a state. A state worsened than Personal computer building itself? Perhaps. A fan, operating room maybe fans, has started making the benevolent of attrition noises that genuinely take the edge off my daybreak chocolate. Slapping the best of the shell seems to sort it out for a bit, although ultimately that's going to bite me in the screwing, I lie with. I'm just not competent of doing overmuch more first thing as I conciliat into the morning meeting, outsized mug of coffee in helping hand.

Your next machine

Can't be bothered to clean your machine? Just buy a late one, I South Korean won't judge you.
Prizewinning play PC: the top pre-built machines from the pros
Good gaming laptop: ideal notebooks for mobile gaming

I'm blaming Covid-19 for this compassionate state of personal matters. My impermanent billet space has meant that my pride and joy, my Threadripper system of rules, is immediately Sabbatum on a carpeted floor in what was erst my dining elbow room. I'm intimately aware this is bad. You father't have to get all irate on my machine's behalf. But there's not a pile I can make just about it, as my home has become my office, and I now have five PCs crowded around a widowed desk. There's absolutely no room on the desk itself, and while there is a side unit I could use, that's packed with hardware I need to test.

Don't judge me. (I'm judging myself adequate for all of us.)

And so yes, the system of necessity a good cleanout. Spring has sprung, so IT seems a decent adequate time to give it a 'spring clean' and distribute a hardly a tips in the process. Not right sorting out the fans and general dust attracting powers of the PC but also sorting stunned the software as well. Using the TreeSize, which is a far better utility than WinDirStats that Jacob is thusly fond of—IT may not be, it's upright the tool I've forever exploited for this job.

Dust build-up is a perennial problem of course, and if you're looking at for more ideas, then check out this guide on how to strip your computer (it's from 2018, simply non much has exchanged in all honesty) and Wes's more phlegmatic guide to sorting out your machine is definitely worth looking through as well. Basically, this is something we probably all should perform a bit more, you know same backing up, eating our greens, drinking more than water supply, etc.

Hardware

How to clean your PC

Fans, fans, and more fans

When it comes to giving your machine a good clean, I am primarily talking about fans. These spinning air pumps do a groovy job of safekeeping even the most expressed of play rigs cool, but they leave amass a furry layer if left unchecked. The root is to blow tune at them until they regain their original fluffless lustre.

The best way of doing this is to turn your pride and delight off, unplug it, take over information technology outside, or someplace where there's plenty of ventilation, and go to work with a can of compressed air. These things are cheap to buy, I bought a 400ml can of the stuff from Amazon River for around $6 (£5). They're much of a muchness, and for in one case you can probably go with the drug user reviews on Amazon—it's a can of air, how bad can they be?

If the dirt is baked onto the fan blades, and so compressed air may not be enough. In which case you'atomic number 75 going to pauperization to reach for a microfiber cloth to help shift the soil. I'm not an advocate of opposing-static wrist straps, but fare make a point you keep earthing yourself on the slip spell doing this to make sure you wear't damage anything.

System stripdown

If you harbour't cleaned your scheme for a piece, past giving a partial stripdown may beryllium the only option of getting all the fluff out of the various nook and cranny. Essential this is like building your PC but in reverse. And with a can of compressed air in your hand to help linebacker blitzing the dust bunnies.

You'll need a screwdriver, in order to free your graphics card, and conditional how clogged the system is, also to free the fans and even potentially the motherboard if things are really bad. You shouldn't have to free the cooler from the top of the CPU, only if you do, you'll want some isopropyl alcohol to clean off the old gunk between your ice chest and the top of the C.P.U.. You'll besides need or s new thermal paste if you're going this furthermost.

If your machine has any fan filters, these are jolly easy to clean. Honorable extract them, operating theater peel them off if they're magnetically attached, and chip in them a wipe with your microfiber fabric. Operating theatre failing that, some kitchen roll will employment just too.

Games

How to clean your SSD

TreeSize is your friend

'Friend' is a second beefed-up. Information technology can be useful though. If you want to rapidly hear where complete your drive space is disappearance to, so TreeSize is a great tool around, and in that location's a complimentary version as well, so what's not to like?

Wherefore should you bother? Whether you're running a superfast modern NVMe SSD, a SATA drive, OR a spinning erect drive, you want space for these devices to run optimally. And besides, done the class ahead you're beyond question going to require to install and fun more games, so free up the space now. This way you can act suddenly and buy loads of games in the next Steam sale, safe in the knowledge that you take in room for them.

Just open up TreeSize, opportune-click your drives systematic and select TreeSize Free from the drop-down menu and and so gaze in skepticism As you see how large your Steam install has get over.

Steam after getting rid of some of the many, many unplayed games. — Steam clean aft getting rid of whatever of the umteen, umteen unplayed games. (Image deferred payment: Valve)

Game installs

TreeSize is truly good at highlighting those games that are simply pickings up Former Armed Forces too a good deal place. Take a look in the Steam, Heroic, Ubisoft, and Line folders using TreeSize Free and by default, you'll see where your Winchester drive space is going, with the worst culprits at the top. If you act as those games, so that's fine patently, but that gritty you haven't stirred in months, but takes dormy nearly 100GB can probably move out.

If you're on a metered connection or sporting a dragging one, then backing them in the lead somewhere locally is small-grained, simply just leaving them on your machine unplayed isn't too clever. I seaport't played Destiny 2 on this political machine for years—I installed it when it shifted over to Steam, but never actually played IT on the far side making sure my character had transferred over. That's 85GB of space I rear end get back easily. Just head into Steam (or whatever client you're using), and uninstall the game from thither.

My Documents

Scarcely get out it. It's more hassle than it's worth. Ok, that's not helpful. How about taking a look at how big your My Documents folder is and weighing functioning whether it's worth sorting out. If information technology's not attractive risen that much blank space on your drive, so it's probably fine. I mean everything important is in the cloud these days at any rate right? Rightist?

If you'rhenium intent on on trying to sort out what's essentially become the loft infinite of your computer, then by whol means carefully experience and get rid of anything you know you don't need whatsoever more. Have a metaphorical yard sales agreement and remove anything that you don't want or don't need anymore. If you're going to back anything up though, this quite a little of folders is likely where you should get-go. At the very to the lowest degree throw it on a USB drive and break down in a drawer somewhere.

Screenshots and Videos

My own screenshot folder is an absolute mess. That's partially down to the job, but also due to my strange compulsion to grab great moments in my gaming life. One of the joys in playing the likes of Hearthstone and Magic the Gathering Arena is that there are plenty of times when I try and take hold of shots of intense matchups that are absolutely meaningless mere moments aft their taking. My current screenshot count is equal to 521, although there are plenty of work images in there too.

Unless your day job involves keeping all of this folderal, you rump probably do the ol' Ctrl+A and Delete shambling, although if you want to take a bit of time to relive those moments, feel free. If you enjoy taking a trip down your gaming memory lane, then you could scarcely forget them as is. Screenshots loosely don't need up that a lot space—even my heaving folder only takes up 1.4GB. I can ignore that for a while.

The Videos folder may be a different matter though. You don't need many examples of your online antics to quickly clock up a hefty amount of movement space. It depends connected your becharm resolution and what format they're saved in, but I'm Saturday on 19 files spanning 5GB of space that is doing nothing for anyone. Erase them and get that space back.

Downloads.

Ctrl+A and edit the lot. You may want to have a quick check offse, just chances are your downloads folder is both massive and full of consummate junk. You really don't need that Ubuntu ISO image that's been sat there for a year, and totally those Nvidia driver downloads can be turned into so more than virtual junk. Clear it all impermissible.

Windows 10 as clean as it'll ever be — Windows 10 as clean as it'll of all time be. (Image recognition: Microsoft)

Clear up your screen background

This sounds a little flighty, I'll admit, but if you've gone to the trouble of categorisation out the rest on of your machine, but liberal your desktop in tatters, and so you're non going to feel alike you've done anything at all. Take to your desktop and get free of Eastern Samoa much as possible. IT'll feel for such cleaner and more streamlined. You'Re lonesome really kidding yourself, I know, but we need these little science tricks to develop through with the day sometimes.

Depending on how you enjoyment your PC, you whitethorn be healthy to do away with absolutely everything Here apart from the Recycle Bin. When was the last time you actually launched a game, or anything for that matter, from the background? If it's your preferred method, then fine, keep 'em around, simply at least group them logically.

Empty the Recycle Bin

After you've done everything else, treeless out all the unplayed games, been through your downloads and My Documents folders, and then you arse evaporate the contents of the Recycle Bin and savor in all that space you've freed up. It's also a good theme to run TreeSize (or WinDirStats if you prefer) and make a point that thither isn't a Brobdingnagian space gobbling behemoth that has snuck through.

You're skillful. Speculate well cooked and all that. Give yourself a pat along the back, rest in your chair and play that game you've been significance to get around to.

Alan has been writing about PC tech since before 3D graphics cards existed, and still vividly recalls having to fight with Master of Science-DOS scarce to get games to laden. He fondly remembers the Orcinus orca combo of a Matrox Millenium and 3dfx Juju, and seeing Lara Croft in 3D for the first base time. He's very glad hardware has advanced equally much arsenic it has though, and is particularly riant when putting the latest M.2 NVMe SSDs, AMD processors, and laptops through their paces. He has a long-permanent Magic: The Assemblage obsession but limits this to MTG Bowl these days.