Recommend good fan filters?

[MDesigner]

My place is a dust haven, and when I opened my case the other day, there were dustbunnies all over the place. It's a wreck.

I was looking around some sites (newegg, 2cooltek, etc.) for fan filters, and I see there are the plastic ones with foam, and aluminum filters. On 2cooltek, the plastic+foam filters were $1 more than the aluminums.. are they better quality? What kinds of filters should I use? I want to totally keep dust OUT of my case.. it's a total disaster in there.

 

[HardWarrior]

I've tried standard foam, the less dense foam (came with the intakes on my case) and wire mesh filters. The less dense foam is a better tradeoff between still allowing focused air flow, and dust removal. The only problem is that I don't know where to get more of it. Ah well, Home Depot maybe. Wire mesh would be my second choice.

 

[Zepper]

Foam air conditioner filter material. Usually less than $1. for two large sheets. You can wash and reuse or just cut a new piece. I use the "hooks" part of sticky-back Velcro to hold it in place.
.bh.

 

[0roo0roo]

more effective the filter, the less air goes through. your choice

 

[imported_Emon]

Air conditioner filter is probably one of the best choices. If aesthetics is important, like when filters will be visible, I'd recommend going to a local fabric store and finding something that is thick enough but breathes well, in the color you want of course. Loosing a little airflow is better than a lot of dust. You can test airflow but blowing into it or wrapping your fingers around your mouth and seeing how much air you can suck in, compared to how much you can without the filter. Infact if you really want to, you could dye some air conditioner filter black or any other color you may want.

 

[MDesigner]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Also, when I install the filters, they only go on the intake fans ONLY, right? I know it seems obvious..just want to make sure I'm not going to mess something up. I read somewhere about negative pressure by putting the filters on the wrong fans, resulting in more dust being sucked in through cracks between case panels and the like.

 

[imported_Emon]

Yeah, intake only should be fine. What you read was probably if you have a lot of negative pressure, dust getting pulled in through cracks and stuff like you said. But I doubt you'll get significant amounts of dust from that. Just be sure to blow out the inside of your case with some compressed air once in a while, even if it doesn't look that dusty. When dust gets hot and moist, it gets sticky, and is really nasty and hard to remove. So just keeping it clean regularly is everything.