A good flashlight is one of the most rewarding tools that we can own. It lights up the dark, helps us see obstacles and what we are working on, and could be used to signal planes, should you be trapped on the island from Lost.
The first of these flashlights, the Olight IMINI2, I personally own. It is simple to use, just remove it from the magnetic base and it turns on, put it back and it turns off. The magnetic base can also be used to stick the flashlight to a PC case/metal object for hands-free illumination. Charging is simply done by inserting the base into a USB Type A port. There are no controls; it's just on or off by removing it from the base.
easy-to-useThis compact and easy to use flashlight provides 50 Lumens of light, without the need to fiddle around for a button. Just unclip, and your flashlight is ready to light your way.
I own a Wuben C3, but I wish I had this one instead. With 1800 Lumens of light, USB Type-C charging, an IP68 rating, a baseball cap clip, and a magnetic base, this is a great flashlight. The 1800 Lumens brightness is at max power; dial it down, and you will get many hours of use. The magnetic base lets you connect it to a metal part of your PC case or 3D printer, leaving both hands free to get work done.
With USB Type-C charging, six brightness modes, and a magnetic base, the Wuben E7 is a useful flashlight for makers and tinkerers who want extra light for their work, without compromising on quality.
Air blowers/dusters are a popular choice for quickly blowing out fans and filters to remove any collected dust and fluff. They can also blow out the crumbs that linger under your keyboard. Air blowers are a great alternative to single-use compressed air cans.
The Wolfbox MegaFlow 100 (MF100) may sound like a 1990s Euro Rock tribute act, but it has 150,000 RPM of power to blow dust out of your PC at 45 meters per second!
This convenient blower is battery-powered and supports USB Type-C charging. The MF100 fully charges in 2.5 hours and provides up to 100 minutes of runtime on the first setting. The MF100 is small and compact, weighing only 0.66lb, so it can be easily stored when not in use. The MF100 is also supported by a 24-month guarantee and 24/7 customer service.
This compact air duster can move air at up to 45 m/s with its 150,000 RPM turbofan. A rechargeable battery gives up to 100 minutes of use time and supports USB Type-C charging. The MF100 includes five nozzles and two brush tools to help clean your PC equipment.
Earlier this year I cleaned out my desktop PC and my own dust blower did a great job, but there were times when the amassed collection of dead skin cells and fluff was too much for my much weaker air duster. So I bought some cans of compressed air, and not the dollar store stuff either! I don't use them often, but they are handy when you need a little more power in a precise point.
Designed for electronics, these four 10-oz bottles of compressed air will blow the dust, dead skin, and last week's sandwich from your keyboard and help prevent the inside of your PC case from becoming a biohazard.Designed for electronics, these four, 10oz bottle of compressed air will blow the dust, dead skin and last week's sandwich from your keyboard and help prevent the inside of your PC case becoming a biohazard.
Sometimes compressed air or turbo-force USB-powered jet fans aren't enough, and so you must get your hands dirty. Cleaning any electronic components should be done with care. Components aren't as static sensitive as their predecessors (I'm looking at you 4MB SIMM that I bought in 1997!) but we should take care not to trash our kit.
These nylon anti-static brushes come in a range of sizes and shapes to clean dust from components and inside drive bays, and to keep caked-on dust from your fan blades. It also includes a keycap puller and tweezers to deep clean the harrowing scene that lurks under your keyboard.
Every type of brush is here to deep clean your PC, keyboard and whatever else needs cleaning in your rig.
The final cleaning product that you need for building and maintaining PCs is Isopropyl Alcohol, IPA.
I buy IPA in bulk, seriously. I use it to clean my 3D printers, tools, and even my PC case, when it's not full of dust. I dispense it into dollar store spray bottles, the ones used when traveling. I mark the bottle with an IPA label and just grab it when I need it. Yes, 99% is overkill; heck, it's medical grade for first aid use, but if you really want to eke it out, get some distilled water and water down your mix to 70%. I don’t because it works well as it is.
My top tip, though, is not to spray it when the components are hot. There is very little risk of fire, but it will evaporate rather quickly. That said, in the electronics hobbyist world, rapidly evaporating IPA is used to identify super-hot chips, typically those that have shorted.
Buying in bulk and decanting into dollar store spray bottles is the smart way to get all the IPA that you need.
Let's all agree that, however you apply thermal paste, that is the right way, ok?
Thermal paste / TIM or thermal pads bridge the hot side of a component to a heatsink or heatpipe, which wicks away heat, keeping the component cool. I first encountered thermal pads on an old AMD 1GHz CPU, yes, I am old! But I digress. I thought it was sticky residue from packing, so I scraped it off and put the cooler on my AMD CPU, played Colin McRae Rally and then the CPU overheated and took out most of my system. £200 (in 1999, £384 adjusted for 2025 inflation) later, I had my system working, and I learnt an important lesson.
Thermal material is essential to keep your system cool, and I asked the team what they use. Our Editor-in-Chief, Paul Alcorn, said that MX-6 is his go-to thermal paste. So I looked around and found this handy kit that contains 4G of thermal paste and six handy wipes. The wipes are essentially isopropyl alcohol on a cloth, and they are used to prepare the surface for the new paste. They will wipe off the old paste, dust, dead skin (ewww) and leave the surface ready for pasting!
This kit contains 4G of Arctic MX-6 thermal paste and six MX Cleaner wipes to remove old thermal paste from components.
If you spot something better, or want to tell me I am wrong, hit the comments!
Key considerations
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/desktops/pc-building/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/desktops/pc-building/these-are-the-top-tools-we-use-to-build-and-maintain-our-precious-tech-and-theyre-on-sale-for-black-friday-2025#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.