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Your CPU is the heart of the computer and a power hungry beast. It is surprising how much power is consumed by the Central Processing Unit. Therefore heat management is critical to longevity of you computer and valuable component.
Shown here is an Intel Core i5 Generation 8 (denoted by the 8 in the model i5-8600K)
These devices can generate upwards and over 100 Watts of power. Therefore it is important to manage the thermal aspects of your CPU correctly.
The computer has run for some time and in the interests of checking the performance prior and after cleaning, the PC was booted into a limited Windows environment so some basic checks could be done. The CPU running temperature stabilised around high 60s to 71 degrees C
We can see the dust built up the heatsink
The fan was removed and heatsink and both cleaned. The heatsink was cleaned with a jet wash from the garden to remove the dust and then dried. The fan was hand cleaned with a dry rag.
The fan and heatsink were reassembled and any residual heatsink paste removed from the heatsink and CPU. Isopropyl alcohol may be used to assist with this. Once this was done, new paste was applied to both the CPU and heatsink.
The fan assembly was placed back on the CPU ensuring the locking pins are correctly seated by checking the reverse side of the MB and ensuring the fan assembly is solidly secured to the CPU
The computer was rebooted again in the same way and left the sit for a little to stabilise its temperature.
In this situation, the CPU is now operating around the low 30 degrees C mark.