I’ll be straight with it. I’m a smoker, I smoke inside, I have a PC that is also inside. I want to clean my PC thoroughly to buy it a few more years. I know about the q tip method, and the compressed air, and general methods of cleaning out gunk and junk from PC parts. But this boy is way too gunked up for a regular cleaning. So, I reckon, the easiest way to clean it is to dunk the dirtiest parts in a bath of isopropyl alcohol. I was considering acetone at first, but it’s way too strong of a solvent, and alcohol should be better at dissolving organic residues. Is this a good idea?
I hereby submit this query to the council, and await judgement.
So messing with thermal paste should be avoided. Noted. I could just re-apply it after. I’ll be replacing the graphics card, so I thought I’d give the rest of the parts a cleaning. So, submerging/soaking = no, squirt bottle in strategic places = yes.
Thank you for answering the question in a comprehensive way, it is surprisingly rare, and I appreciate it very much.
One other thing - you might want to try putting a little iso on a hidden spot on any plastic pieces you plan on cleaning - iso can sometimes degrade/discolour plastics.