keeping dust to a minimum?

[yellowm50]

hey whats a good way to keep the dust to a minimum inside the case? do they sell case filters of some sort? ok thanks.. and cleanning the case. whats the best way to go about it? thanks..

 

[imported_Kane]

I use a can of compressed air or vacuum crevice attachment. At first if I cannot vacuum those dust bunnies out I use the compressed air to blow it out. Be careful not to blow dust into critical places like hard drives as well as optical drives.

Just bought this fan filter which I intend on placing on the intake fan. I hope it works well.
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDe...-999-208&catalog=23&manufactory=BROWSE

 

[fell8]

Make sure the total CFM blowing in is greater than the CFM blowing out. Use filters on fans that blow in.

 

[TRUMPHENT]

Get some of this at the local Hardware store and cut it to fit behind the front bezel, in front of the fans. You will have to figure out how to adapt it to your side panel fan.
Air Filter material.

Remember, for a dust free case using filters, you must have greater pressure created by the intake fans with filters than the exhaust fans.

 

[jdsemler]

A friend of mine uses an electric leaf blower that he bought at Home Depot for $29 to clean out his case. His stuff is certainly clean, but apart from looking silly on the driveway, anyone have any ideas on if that would be a bad thing to do?

 

[Navid]

To minimize dust in the case, you need to have filters on your intake fans and make sure that you have positive pressure inside the case.

This, in general, will result in increased noise.

Alternatively, just use a dust buster once every few months to clean the inside of the case.

Edit:
To be complete, I have to add that if you have negative pressure inside the case, air will enter the case from every hole, including CD and DVD drives. Then, dust will enter your CD and DVD drives too.

So, there is definitely an advantage with a positive air pressure system. Except the price to pay is more noise for same cooling performance.
Too high a price for me!

 

[Reiniku]

i've reduced dust by keeping my tower on the top of my desk, then regularly spritzing it with some canned air just to remove small accumulations.

 

[Cheetah8799]

I worked on a coworkers machine the other day that hadn't been touched in a few years at least... just sat on the floor next to a vent in her house. Well, tons of dust was going through that vent from the air, and it all went past the computer. A TON of it got sucked in too.

Lets just say it's the nastiest computer I've ever opened. And I've opened a LOT of computers.... I was honestly amazed it still ran...


Moral of the story. Keep your computer off the floor if possible and away from places that dust might fly by more often. Such as by a vent of any sort in your house, maybe open windows or airconditioners. things like that. If possible.

 

[Thezeroone]

In regards to what Navid said I have a question. Most of my case (lian-li PC7) is taped off to prevent air intake except for through the filtered fan intake. I have 2 80mm L1A Panaflows on intake and 2 on exaust + my seasonic PSU fan. I figure with the resistance that the front filter has on the intake and the extra fan from the PSU exausting I probably have negative pressure in my case. Am I correct in interpolating that lower air pressure inside the case will increase air flow into the case through the fan intake?

In addition to the fan intake, on many Lian-li cases there is a small vent along the PCI slots that allows air through. I would imagine with low air pressure inside the case, there would be air being drawn through grill there to even out the air pressure.

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: Thezeroone
In regards to what Navid said I have a question. Most of my case (lian-li PC7) is taped off to prevent air intake except for through the filtered fan intake. I have 2 80mm L1A Panaflows on intake and 2 on exaust + my seasonic PSU fan. I figure with the resistance that the front filter has on the intake and the extra fan from the PSU exausting I probably have negative pressure in my case. Am I correct in interpolating that lower air pressure inside the case will increase air flow into the case through the fan intake?

In addition to the fan intake, on many Lian-li cases there is a small vent along the PCI slots that allows air through. I would imagine with low air pressure inside the case, there would be air being drawn through grill there to even out the air pressure.

If you have negative pressure or positive pressure (or 0/ballance pressure) the intake air and exhaust air are the same a few seconds after you turn on the PC. Only in the first few seconds the two are not the same until the pressure stabilizes and the two air flows become equal. By the intake air I mean the overall air that enters the case. That includes the air that may come in through the CD drives etc. (in case of a negative pressure system). By the exhaust air I mean the overall air that leaves the case. That may include air that is forced out through the CD drive (in case of a positive pressure system).

You have taped off some of the holes. But, how do you prevent air from entering the case through your CD or DVD or floppy drives?

Negative pressure inside means that the air that the exhaust fans pump out is less than it could be if there was more pressure inside. It also means that the air that the intake fans bring in is more than it would be if there was more pressure inside.

Let me add one thing that you may consider irrelevant. I am a noise freak. The smallest constant noise bothers me and I would avoid it if I could. That is why I avoid filters. I even go as far as removing the fan grills from my case.

 

[sodcha0s]

If you have dust entering through your optical/floppy drive, all you have to do is make another opening in the case somewhere. A lot of cases have louvered side panels, or have an empty grill in the rear. If you don't cover them up, air will enter at that point instead of your drives. If you don't have anything like that, just remove a rear slot cover. Of course you might get a little dust inside the case like that, but your going to get dust inside no matter what you do anyway, and at least it won't be getting inside your drives. Use a filter of some kind on your intake fans and that will help a lot.

 

[Thezeroone]

Noise is my primary concern too. I took off the front filter and that improved temps by about 2C. The Lian-li PC7 has rear ventilation holes like you were refering to, and they are un plugged.

 

[yellowm50]

iv seen these rubber looking things that you can install between the fan and the case to decrees fan noise? dose that really work ?

 

[wisdomtooth]

Originally posted by: yellowm50
iv seen these rubber looking things that you can install between the fan and the case to decrees fan noise? dose that really work ?

It decreases low-frequency resonating sounds from fan vibration, yes.

Not a panacea for noise control however. You still need to have a quiet PSU, CPU HSF, GPU HSF, NB HSF, case fans and HDs to have a quiet system.

HTH.