A heatsink is an essential component of your PC’s thermal management. You might be cleaning your PC regularly with a can of compressed air every once in a while, but if you have ignored the heatsink for too long, dust and dirt can build up inside the fins which are not accessible normally.
If there is too much dust and dirt build-up, your heatsink will not be able to dissipate heat normally. Your CPU will start to thermally throttle. Your games will lose fps, sudden unpredictable stutters will occur, and in some cases, your PC might crash suddenly.
To avoid these problems, you need to clean your heatsink periodically. But since it’s a CPU-attached component, you might not know how. That is why, we have written this article for you so that you can clean your heatsink properly.
Things to Consider Before Starting
Cleaning the Heatsink
Cleaning the heatsink is a multi-step process. You will first remove the heatsink, clean it’s components individually and thoroughly, re-apply thethermal paste, then reinstall the heatsink. Here are detailed steps for each process involved:
Remove the Fan From the Heatsink
Clean the Heatsink
If youclean and maintain your PCregularly, including the heatsink, then there will not be much dirt build-up. However, if the last time you cleaned it has been a while, there can be a thick layer of dirt on top of the heatsink, on the fan, as well as on the inside edges of the heatsink.
Clean the CPU Fan
Reapply Thermal Paste
ensure that the heatsink is thoroughly dry. Then, reassemble the heatsink and prepare thermal paste for application. If you are using a cooler for Intel CPU, first make sure to reset the four pins by rotating them 90 degrees clockwise.
You’re done! You’ve successfully cleaned the heatsink properly, and all your PC now needs is to close back the back panel and power it back on. Please enjoy improved performance with your
