Why the dust inside the PC can damage it

It is inevitable that dust enters the PC, even if we have dust filters. These particles and their mites are everywhere, and as long as there is a fan in the equipment, we will be causing, in one way or another, the dust to end up depositing in our hardware.

The powder ends solidified in the form of soot

When the dust accumulates a lot, it ends up solidifying in the form of soot, and in a PC this process is also accelerated due to the heat generated by the components (by this movement the dust accumulation on the PC it looks brown over time, instead of gray as it happens at the beginning). When the powder solidifies, it especially begins to cover the grilles through which the air enters, plugging them and preventing precisely fresh air from entering the interior. For this reason, the air flow will be hindered and will cause the temperature to rise of the components.

Dust filters are designed to be placed in the air intake grilles, and can usually be easily put on and taken off so that we can clean them regularly. However, even with filters the smallest dust particles end up entering and depositing in our hardware, so in the end the interior will also end up with dust. Filters take a lot of work, of course, but they don't make our PC immune to dust.

In the image above you can see a rather extreme case, possibly of someone who has never cleaned the inside of his PC, and where the dust has created a clearly palpable spongy layer. Obviously the air flow of this equipment is completely destroyed and the components will be supporting much more heat than they should in normal conditions. This logically shortens component life, and can cause failures.

It makes the equipment louder

Dust is also deposited on fan fins. This causes the blades to be unbalanced and weigh more (even if little), so the engine must run at a rate for which it has not been designed, and may end up spoiling. It breaks down or not, it will surely make much more noise than if the fans were clean.

This also makes us return to the temperature section, because fans that are in heatsinks or radiators are especially vulnerable to the presence of dust. They will create a solid layer in the air inlet of the grilles or between the fins, causing that the air cannot pass, making a lot of noise (since the air will leave where it should not) and not cooling the heatsink or radiator at all, making that the processor overheats and may damage it.

It can produce short circuits

Unfortunately, the soot that forms the powder combined with the heat is conductor of electricity. When it is deposited on the motherboard or when it enters the interior of the power supply, it can make contact where it should not, with the bad luck that it could produce a short circuit. If this were to occur, it would be a disaster because it would render the PC useless, and the power supply could be carried forward at best, and the rest of the hardware at worst.

Obviously all these are in extreme cases, when you do not have any care with the PC, and there will be people who will tell you that they have never cleaned your PC and it is still working (yes, but under what conditions of noise, temperature and hygiene?).

Leaving aside that it is advisable to clean the PC from time to time even if only for hygiene, we also need to do it to preserve the temperature, noise and integrity of our hardware. We don't say you have to clean your PC every week, but a cleaning above once every three months never hurts as well as a deep cleaning once a year.