This was prompted by one of Whiterabbit's moderator comments on the game page, where he talked about using canned air to clean out the graphics card fan etc... I have heard [but thankfully not experienced] of people damaging their graphics card(s) by getting the fans spinning with canned [or compressed] air, so you might want to use your free hand to keep the fan from spinning when you're blowing it out that way. Many electric motors work as generators too -- spin the motor & you get electricity out the power leads. What's connected to those power leads might be rather delicate on a graphics card, & might allegedly become damaged from that generated current. I haven't personally debunked or proven the theory as it's so easy to just stick your finger in the fan blades to prevent it spinning -- I figure why bother taking the chance.
Here's an easy, illustrated article on cleaning things out http://www.howtogeek.com/72716/how-to-thoroughly-clean-your-dirty-desktop-computer/
I do want to add a caution re: the above article though... Electric motors & such produce ozone which is not nice to most plastic. Most recent motherboards have some sort of small retainer to hold the rear of the graphics card(s) & keep it from coming loose. If the plastic that retainer is usually made of has become hard & brittle [because of the ozone etc.], you take a chance on breaking it every time you remove your graphics card(s). Because of that I disagree with the article on howtogeek.com when it says to pull the graphics card for cleaning -- unless you can't clean it out any other way, I can't see taking the risk, however small.
There are 2 things I do -- one cuts down on cleaning & the other one saves money & I *think* is more environmentally friendly. Rather than buy all those cans of air & likely have them wind up in some land fill I got a small air compressor with a couple gallon tank. I took one of the very thin straws that come with the cans of air, heated up one end, then pressed it down on a piece of metal [e.g. the flat side of a knife blade] to mushroom it out. That way it fits through the rubber nozzle of the common sort of blow gun used with air compressors, & the mushroomed end keeps it in place. I turn the air compressor on, let it fill up, then unplug it & carry it wherever I need -- with the regulator set for ~40 psi it does the job & the 2 gallon or so capacity means I can go for a while before I have to plug it in again. I also never have to worry about how I'm going to get that big can of air in where I need it, nor do I have to worry about the freezing or frost you can get from canned air.
I also use filters on the outside of the case to try & prevent dust etc. from getting in there in the 1st place. I use this material, though I'm sure there are plenty of alternatives that will work as well or better http://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach-04922-Replacement-Cleaners/dp/B000050AOZ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354470243&sr=8-1&keywords=Hamilton+Beach+04922
The stuff's washable, & I use either velcro or magnetic tape to hold it in place. It is a pain to have to remove the filters to clean them, but that few minutes saves a lot of in depth cleaning later on. I've had PC cases with inside filters, & they're not only more work to get to, but if you can't see it you have no reminder to clean it either. And on a black PC case my filters are not as obvious as you might think, so they really don't look all That bad.
