[pHaestus]

I noticed the dust but I was out of compressed air and so I didn't bother with cleaning out the heatsink. I am moving the system to a new case in a couple of days (Lian Li PC70) so I'll clean everything then.

As far as the spring compression goes, I have installed/uninstalled my waterblock many many times and never had an incident with the extra pressure. On the contrary, I saw a 4-5C drop when I started cranking them all the way down. As long as you are careful to make sure the block is flat before you start and tighten incrementally in a diagonal fashion I think that the extra pressure is not a danger. I do know 2 people who fried TBirds from not clamping down the Maze2 enough on the other hand.