Slashdot Mirror
PC Cases for High Dust Enviornments?
Ummagumma asks: "My computers have recently been relegated to the basement by decree of the fiancee. Problem is, the basement is carpeted (with a really old carpet), and I have two cats, which generate alot of 'fuzz'. I have had to disassemble my PC to clean the fans and heatsinks out several times now. I am looking for a case that has a built in filter of some kind, even a simple one, that wont blow the bank balance. I have found the Antec SLK3700AMB, but cannot verify that is has a filter, though I have been told it may have. I figure at least a few of you are in a similar situation, so what are you using to prevent dust and fuzz from getting into your cases? My only requirements are: At least mid-sized (full size atx board), room for 4 5.25" drives, minimum 300W powersupply, a front and rear 120mm case fan (or mountings), with a filter at least on the intake." Some of the aluminum cases from Lian Li (and I can't remember the exact model numbers) have simple filter in their front mounted fans. What other case manufacturers have such features?
A nylon stocking will go a long way in keeping cat hair out of your chassis. It won't block everything, but on the plus side airflow is not too bad. Don't forget to filter your power supply if it set to suck rather than blow outside air.
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
I work for a scrap metal recycling company, with offices and recycling facilities throughout the midwest United States. As you could imagine, the dust is absolutely horrible, and what's worse is that it has a high metallic content (little bits of metal on a motherboard == sparks, burn-outs, shorts, etc). I have yet to find a good solution, other than someone mentioning puting coffee filters near any air vents on the case (which I haven't tried yet).
To be honest, I don't really care if it's a do-it-yourself solution or if there's a company out there that sells "filtered" PCs that aren't outrageously priced (most "hardened" PCs are WAY out of the price range).
We're currently using standard Compaq and IBM business-class Intel workstations and servers, but find that dust and heat can still cause problems. The Compaq PCs come with an on-site warranty, and I pay a little extra for the IBM on-site warranty, but I feel that there should be a better solution then having them constantly out to replace hardware that fails due to dust.
Don Head
UNIX/Linux Administrator
A wire frame with hooks hanging internally from the trame to hook over the intakes... It works. Cats and smokers make for bad server rooms, but with this (and it doesn't look so bad - an opportunity to be creative), until I need to change it, which is sort of the point) works out reasonably well without outfitting my servers with HEPPA approved air intakes. Get some decent, stiff thin wire (I had some laying around, so I can't specify, but I'm guessing it is about 24 guage, soft) and play with it. Breathing filters are easy to modify to place over it and do not seem to harm airflow.
I forget what 8 was for.
Filters out the dust pretty well. And your computer room won't stank either. (Yes I meant "stank")
Don't limit your case selection based on which have filters in the front! You can always get some filters and pop them in there. This is one of the filters I have used: http://www.directron.com/cr212nd.html -- These filters are great on dust. I have filters on all of the intake fans on my PC and have had nearly no dust in there. Just remember to clean them!!
Remember one other thing, filters are only half of the equation. To really get rid of dust you need positive airflow. What this means is, you need more air flowing in than you have flowing out. (But not too much, or it will be bad for your cooling) 10-20cfm is a good amount of extra air to have blowing in. This positive airflow creates a bit of pressure in the case which helps push dust out of the case.
It really is amazing how much filters and a bit of positive airflow can help. Try it and I guarentee as dust free a case as one can get!
Just look at these filters
for 120mm fans and for 80mm fans.
There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.
If your machines have been banished to the basement, its only fair that the cats be banished FROM the basement. That should help the cat hair problem. (BTW, the fact that your stuff must be put in the dungeon doesn't seem quite fair to me, but I don't know the situation...)
I run a small HEPA filtering unit in my office, which helps with the dust. I don't have cats, so I don't have that problem.
You might also check out an Ionic Breeze from the Sharper Image. Supposedly it is supposed to pull stuff out of the air fairly well. However, I've also read concerns about the ozone that is produced by them.
My experience is that case manufacturers lack imagination. I've never seen a well-designed case, although some are better than others.
I did a search of more than 40 case manufacturers (several years ago) and the only one I was able to find that has cases with externally accessible filters is Macase. My experience is that the Macase power supplies have an extremely high failure rate, but they sell cases without power supplies.
It's great to be able to clean the filter without taking the chassis apart. Duh!! to the other manufacturers.
The Macase filters are good enough to reduce the dust by 95%. They are washable. It's necessary that the intake fan, behind the filter, has a higher airflow than the exhaust fan, inside the power supply. That way there is always positive air pressure, and air that has been filtered flows out of the leaks.
I don't know if Macase sells to the public. I've only bought wholesale from them.
I have an OpenBrick (http://openbrick.org), which works very nicely as a thin client box connecting to faster/noisier machines located elsewhere in the house; obviously, laptops work well for this, too, and since the bulk of the processing is offloaded to the server, even a fairly old machine works well, so long as it can run X and/or a VNC client.
With wireless cards thrown into the mix, you can just stuff the bigger machines into the attic, a closet, etc., and then set up your thin client workstations wherever you like, without fear of noise and space consumption making them a nuisance.
All of this breaks down as soon as you want to run a recent game of any sort, of course, but that's what the console systems in the living room are for.
This is the method we used in our server room at an old job, until we got a proper Cooling/filter system.
We just went to the hardware store and got some flebible filter material, and put it in front of the air intake fan. First it was on flat, but found it to gum-up too quickly, and not allow enough air through. Then we made a little baggie like thing out of it, (by folding it over, and taping the sides).
Worked well enough for our needs, and kept a LOT of dust/other crap out of the case. Plus, it was cheap.
This cut down on my cat hair significantly.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
So you finally get rid of the computers, and get some sweet sweet poontang instead. I say let the computers get clogged up with dust while you bang your fiancee's fun-hole.
That is, for the six months that marriage actually works, until you get bored of her and will start playing with computers again.
Why dont you try some fan filters.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
build a plexiglass case around the PC itself with several industrial fans and filters of the sort used in large electrical enclosures.
Easily replaced without issue , filters are easily changed and they're a standard type to everything else around there. Plus you don't ever have to cut your case up.
The fact that no one understands you doesn't mean you're an artist.
Well, if you're worried about keeping dust out of your case, keep it off the floor. Don't put it on your desk, either. I use a small table or 2x4s to keep my cases above ground-level... there's not too much dirt in mid-air. For me, it's cut the dust down to an unnoticeable level.
Kurdt
I'm not anti-social. Just pro-technology.
Replace all fans with water-cooling equivalents, then you don't have any fans to worry about (no moving parts, either).
If dust is still a problem after that, make the cases air-tight (seal all holes), then no dust can get in.
How about you find another GF?
:) in the bedroom or lounge room, and we also have a network cable coming into the lounge room for the xbox, AP (so its more central in the middle of the house) and to her sons bedroom where a PC is.
No one needs a GF/Finace that forces you to put your computers in the basement. Thats just not on.
You certainly don't want to marry and spend the rest of your life with someone that doesn't accept your geekiness and need for computers.
My gf lets me have my own "geek pad" in her house. Its where all my geeky stuff is, and i spend alot of time there, even tho my geekyness does spread into the house.
I often use my laptop (powerbook!
So even tho most of my stuff is in the geekpad, i still have stuff spreading out through the house.
The best thing is, she accepts me the way she is.
BTW: I have the geekpad because i wanted it, not because i was forced into it like you were forced into your basement.
D.
You can tell how powerful someone is by the magnitude of the crime they can commit and be able to get away with.
My Lian-Li PC-68 has a filter covering the front intake fans, it does a nice job with dust and cat hair. But, you can avoid needing a whole new case, SVC has fan filters for very little money at all, they can be made to work with almost any setup. Much cheaper than buying a new case.
First, make sure your case has positive pressure with respect to the outside. All your filtered fans should face in, such that any leakage is in the out direction. This is very important because otherwise, your removable media drives will act as filters, trapping the dust from the air that gets sucked in through them.
In my case, the power supply fan is the only exhaust fan. All the other fans in the case face in, and all are equipped with filters. They flow less because of the filters, but they keep up with the power supply fan, so the case is ever so slightly pressurized.
Secondly, hardware stores abound with cheap filter material. There's this great open-cell foam filter that you're supposed to wrap around your air conditioner's condenser coil to keep cottonwood fluff out. I usually just blast the thing out with the garden hose... but the filter medium is ideal for trapping large dust, and since it's intended to wrap an entire condenser, you get about 20 square feet for just a couple bucks.
There are also these little 4"x12" filters designed to be slipped behind your HVAC system's registers. Don't do that -- your forced air furnace was designed for a particular flow rate, and impeding it will cause problems. The filters, on the other hand, are just what your computer needs. They're denser material, and they work well as a second stage filter, behind the foam described above.
Ironically, about the only material at the hardware store that doesn't work very well as a computer air filter, is furnace air filter media. It's too thick for convenient mounting, and it's hard to work with.
Thirdly, the case you pick is important. Try a large tower "server" case, they usually have plenty of room for mounting extra fans, and they're better designed with respect to airflow. Filters will drastically reduce the effectiveness of each fan, so plan for at least double your usual number of fans. (Invest in some quiet ones with the fluid bearings.)
A friend recently gave me an unused computer that just happened to be built in the world's coolest case. The little fan mounting trays have plenty of space to tuck filter material inside, and everything just clips into place, no tools needed. It's a SupermicrO tower. I've been inside a lot of computer cases, and this one is by far the best-designed I've ever seen. (I have no relationship to Supermicro, I'm just impressed by their product.)
I'm going to echo the sentiment of another poster who said to elevate the machine. Get it off the floor, although I don't see a problem with setting it on a table. Just make double-sure that it's not sucking air in through openings near the bottom. I've seen lots of office desktops turn into little stationary vacuum cleaners, neatly inhaling every shred of dust that falls near them.
Good luck!
As long as the CPU isn't producing insane amounts of heat, just turn the fan in the PSU around so it sucks air instead of blowing it, and whack a plastic scouring pad (available in the dishwashing things at your nearest supermarket for a small fraction of a dollar each in bulk packs) across your new air intake. You might have to use scissors to shape the scourer aound mains plugs, switches et al, but that's easy. Feed it through the washing machine every so often - with a low-lint load - or just hand-wash it with dishwashing detergent.
If you have a motherous great room-heater for a CPU, you can add a case fan with a similar filter, or bolt another "pusher" fan over the PSU fan intake on standoffs (to allow room for dropping the scourer in between the fans).
For a multi-stage filter, get some pantyhose and flywire (aka "flyscreen", "termi-mesh" would also do, and at a pinch some coarse shadecloth) and one of those little wire baskets people use for holding garlic, potpourri, nuts and such. If you position it right, you can use a loop of wire attached to a case bolt as a hinge on one side of the basket and as a catch on the other. Stretch the pantyhose over the outside of the basket, and the flywire outside that. You will need two fans to push enough air through this arrangement.
If you have multiple computers to filter, I suggest making a single large filter assembly with a brace of fans feeding a distribution pipe, and holes on the side of that with spongy sealing tape around them to butt the PSU intakes of your boxes against (fans reversed in those, of course). An unemployed evapourative aircon picked up off the kerb during a council cleanup day and used absolutely dry can be a great start to a large filter assembly.
It helps to be able to monitor the health of all of your fans, and have a computer squeak at you if it all goes horribly wrong, which monitoring can be done optically or with a magnet on the hub not on a blade tip (think balance).
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
I smoke. My wife USED to smoke, and we have a plethora of cats.
Several PCs in the house, and you can imagine the ickyness that gets in there.
Tried fan filters, there fine and well for a single PC, or a couple, but at times I've had a half dozen + machines running in here, and cleaning all those filters is almost as bad as blowing out the case without filters.
I went out and bought a high quality HEPA Air Cleaner and haven't had a problem since. My bitchbox, a lowly celeron 366 which I use to test new cards and such I build has been running for 6 months straight with the cover on. I just opened it up, very little dust inside - not even enough to worry about.
I use a cleaner similar to the link up there, it's made for multi-room use, so I calculated it cleans the air in my 15x15 office about 38 times an hour. I breathe better, the air just smells cleaner, and I have 1 filter to worry about, not 2 dozen.
Looking for hardware (Currently need: Large Etch-a-Sketch) Have one? See my journal!
Yeah, go fanless
The Antec SX1040BII definitely has a filter for the intake fans, as indicated in the link and because I have one. It doesn't meet your requirements because it has 4x80mm fans, not 2x120mm. The one I got has a good Antec Truepower 400W power supply. It was $80 at CompUSA (I needed a case fast).
I would suspect that since there is not explicit mention of a filter on Antec's page for the SLK3700AMB that it doesn't have a filter.
You may want to head over to the Case and Cooling Fetish forum at Ars Technica and search for filter-related posts. Some members there know their stuff. The two tips I gleaned were:
--the small engine parts display area in hardware stores has a variety of throw away paper air filters designed for lawnmowers, etc. These are folded accordion style so you get a large surface area in a smaller square inch area, should work perfect for this purpose. Check them out,probably a size that would fit. Pull the fan inside the case, get slightly longer mounting screws, insert the filter in front of the fan, screw it back on holding the filter in place. Maybe go one step up in fan size to compensate for a more restricted but cleaner airflow. If you have some normal sheet metal skills it shouldn't be to hard to just make a slip in mount for the filter so that the fan stays permanently screwed in, just replace with a new filter occassionally. Hmm, thinking about it, the metal carriers designed FOR those lawnmower/small engine filters are already fabbed, probably not too hard to screw them on on the inside of the case. Small amount of modding much cheaper and funner than an all new case, unless you just want an excuse to get a new case! hahahaha! then, well, you gots permission! You're a geek, you don' need no steenking permission for new gear!
You can also tear out the old nasty rugs and just paint the floor down there. Use a few small area rugs or those hard rubber office pads where you might need them like right at your work desk, etc.
I have a LianLi PC60B modified case, and it came standard with a pretty nice front fan filter, works rather well. Also you can purcase filters for most fan types (80mm, 120mm, and i think even 60mm) from sites like xoxide.com.>br> :)
i think the PC 70 series from Lian Li also has the fan
Hrrm... I usually just sign my name.
What I would do is build a box that the computer goes inside of.
Make a box that is about 4x3x3 feet out of good looking wood (dimensions subject to change based upon what you will be putting into it). Use metal cabinet hinges to attach the door, so that the system closes fairly tightly. Cover the inside with copper flashing, like what is used for roofing. At the corners, leave a tab of copper from both sides, then fold the tabs over each other so you end up with several layers of copper from each side. This gives you a good Faraday cage, reducing EMI.
Next, cut holes for wires and ventilation. I would put an outlet strip on the inside so you run 1 power line in, then plug the computer and what ever else lives in the box in to that power strip. Connect the ground on the power strip to the copper shield.
On the ventilation holes: use LARGE slow fans - a couple of 12 inch fans would be best. Put the fans on the INSIDE of the box, mounted on rubber pads (e.g. rubber washers), blowing inward. Leave a couple of holes for air to escape - the best pattern is for the fans to be low, and the escape holes to be high. Put either chicken wire or metallic window screen (preferred, as it helps keep hair out) over the holes to maintain the EMI shielding (the wire goes between the fan and the inside of the box. On the OUTSIDE of the intake holes (the ones with the fans) put a furnace air filter. The idea here is LOTS of surface area to filter, to reduce the restriction of the airflow.
Now, on the inside, glue foam - plain old "foam rubber" works, but acoustic foam (the kind cut with ribs on it) is best. On the bottom, put in another board mounted on either rubber pieces or a slab of foam. This isolates the computer from the case and absorbes the noise inside the box.
You now have a box that is very quite, both electrically and acousically, and keeps the dust and pet hair out. (do remember to check the filter once a month.)
With such a system, you may even be able to move the machines back toward the living area (if you make the box out of a good looking wood and do a good job of it, and either paint or stain it so it looks like furnature, not a piece of junk.)
www.eFax.com are spammers
I have found the Antec SLK3700AMB, but cannot verify that is has a filter, though I have been told it may have. Yes, I have that case, and it has a good filter.
Repeal the DMCA!
Can you/do you leave it on all the time? Does it help with dust accumulating on furniture?
Aaah such an easy question.
It'll be cold in a basement, right? So...
- Get one of those Cubic/Procase cases - I have a Cubid 2677R.
- Stick an Epia 5000 fanless motherboard in it. Only 533MHz, but it'll do fine.
- Whack a good firewire card in it.
- Buy as many external firewire hard drive enclosures as you need, either disable the fan inside the units or buy ones that don't have a fan
:)
- Drop everything into a nice big plastic bag, maybe one of those big survival bag things, or maybe separate bags to stop heat buildup and allow easily adding and removing hard drives, seal the bag(s) with some duct tape or velcro.
With 4 drives you'll use five plug sockets, but that shouldn't be a problem. Another option is using a SCSI card and using SCSI enclosures & an internal SCSI drive for reliability. $$$ though.Another thing to remember is that you can buy a power cables & brick that just has a 12v molex connector on the end, and there's nothing to stop you using lots of those & a small fanless PSU for the motherboard.
1. go to hardware store, buy 3M ac/heat/ventilation filter
2. go home, remove side of case
3. duct tape filter to side of case
4. set fans to blow "out" rather than in. you'll notice your case temp drop considerably.
works well for me. you can usually scrape the crap off the filter, as filter itself is good for about a million cubic feet of air. so you only need to buy a new filter every 3 years or so.
oh yeah
5. ???
6. profit/karma!!
moox. for a new generation.
Just don't put up with it. The computer don't like to be in the cellar, so don't keep it there. I do have a simple solution for you though - get a cheap, non-working fridge. Drill a few holes for the cables and you're set. No dust, no cat hairs. It's not pretty, but you could tell everyone it's an extreme case modding project.
rip out the carpet, replace it with low pile commercial stuff.
Finish the basement, drywall on the walls, drop celing for the celing.
seal your windows, keeps out dust and lowers enegy bills.
keep your cats out of the basement.
filter the air coming in from you central hvac system ate the poitn of entry.
Has anyone thought of... putting more development effort into making cases that are functional, not necessarily purty with neon lights?
An airtight case (2 layer case with vacuum between layers) could
* reduce noise
* stop dust problems
A humidifier could control the moisture levels (stop corrosion).
An air/gas compressor could keep the internals a constant temperature (even whilst over clocking).
And with the right choice of material, the system could be fire proof to a certain temperature and water proof in the event of a flood.
Quite possibly overkill on the wallet, but for people/businesses who's hardware and data are invaluable, the inital expense would be worth it.
Yup, those nylon mesh things with the charcoal foam. Stick them over the intake fan, and it will get covered in shite fairly quickly. You'd be amazed what your PC hoovers up.
Keep it clean otherwise it will overheat. A suitably ingenious geek will come up with a thing that automatically wipes the crap off the filter when the case temperature rises beyond a limit.
I have three of the Antec Performance II series cases(SX835II and SX1040BII) and they all have air filters on the front of the case which can be accessed without taking the case apart.
You just have to lift the case up, and they slide out from the bottom. They definately make a tremendous difference with keeping dust out of the case. I have two fans on the front pulling air in, two on the rear blowing out.
I don't know if the SLK3700AMB mentioned in this article has one. I have an SLK2600AMB and it does not. The Solution series is not nearly as nice as the Performance II series, it's not as heavy or easy to work with. However, I found the nice grey case to blend in with my television better and it houses my media computer.
i think that you should have linked to this, your site did. dusty pc
I want 2D games back.
Was just reading the linked article before I refreshed /. and now there's this question on the Ask Slashdot list: might be too late for you, but this mod's quick, easy, cheap, and works well:
filter
Best part about it: you can use whatever case you want: just mod it quickly, and it's just how you want it. No compromising to meet case manufacturers' spec lists.
I recognize people by their sigs. Is that a bad thing?
> My computers have recently been relegated to the basement by decree of the fiancee.
Man, you must really love that girl.
Idiot.
I used to work in the HVAC industry so i've had to finagle simple filtering in the past. I've got two cases built by Antec. CompUSA sells them, and others. The front panel below the drive bays detaches and simple foam elements will fit in here nicely right in front of the fans themselves. Go to Target, HomeDepot, WalMart and buy HEPA pre-filter replacement elements. There are black foam and smell kinda funky. They are usually cut-to-fit and you get several feet of filter material. These are DESIGNED exactly for this purpose!
c eii.html
images of cases:
http://www.antec-inc.com/pro_en_performan
i suspect most cases have a little space you could wedge a filter in.
just spray down the Mobo with WD-40, about $9 a gallon at Lowes so you don't get any condensation that would have better geek-appeal. People would think your over-clocked to the max cause your keeping the machine in a working fridge!
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
but you might also consider a large NEMA rated housing for all of your computers. our NEMA rated boxes could be hosed down if needed. rubber gaskets everywhere. and a previous employer had milspec cases which could also float, and burped.
Why not just get a 19" rack off Ebay, that it
totally closed in with an Airfilter/fan unit
& forget the CaseMods/Newcase etc.
Well, I cannot say for you, of course, but I am an amateur radio operator, and I get pretty disgusted watching my radio go from S10 (no signal being recieved) to S9+4 (equivalent to a transmitter 2 miles away) whenever I use my Firewire interface.
AND that is using the best, double shielded cables I can.
Thankfully, I can rmmod the ohci1394 driver when I am done and shut it up.
(hmmmmm. rmmod troll - nope, didn't work).
www.eFax.com are spammers
Use an X terminal and have your servers in a controlled environment.
I got some Lavita ATX cases which were advertised as Extended ATX, but I had to cut a hefty 10cm corner off the 5.25 bay to make the motherboard fit (it's okay, it's for a cluster).
On second attempt I got a Antec PlusView but the beast is huge !
Question: what are the smallest/lighest Extended ATX cases around ?
Non-Linux Penguins ?
Most of your cases have this annoying little problem of all sorts of holes where crud can get in. Also, most cases seem to have fans that blow outward. This, of course, means it's drawing air -- and crud -- in thru all those little holes.
:-)
What you want to do is get case fans that suck air into the case (have enough to counteract the outward-blowing PS fan) to create a positive pressure inside the case. Filter the air going to the case intake fan.
You could probably use some dryer hose and/or duct tape to draw air from a cleaner source, run it thru a filter, on to the intake of your case. Since the computer's in the basement, you could probably tap off the A/C duct. Remember to disconnect it when heating season returns!
Make sure you don't do as one of my customers did: her computer was in a cupboard barely larger than her computer. There was only one fan, the power supply fan, which exhausted out the back. The air intakes were in the back. Her computer was recycling its air. Hot air. Very hot air.
Give me my freedom, and I'll take care of my own security, thank you.
If these are just your servers, or systems that you don't generally need console access to, then yeah, look into dust-proofing the cases, and maybe set them up on a low shelf/used coffee table. Nylon, dryer sheets over the fan intakes, etc., should be okay.
However, if she's sending *you* to the basement to use a desktop/workstation (or even a laptop, for that matter,) then there's a faster way. Dump her and find someone who isn't trying to control your life. For Christ's sake, she's your fiancee, not your owner. If she's preparing to lock you in the basement in shame, then maybe you need to figure out just where things went wrong.
Don't we all want our very own Dust Puppy? ;)
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
With the advent of computers in restaurant area they have cases that are designed to go into area with high amount of particle in the air. Think flour,etc.
You may have to do a search for that if you are not in big city with decent side stores.
The Antec Sonata has a built in filter, haven't run it long enough to check for dust but love the case otherwise. Dual 120mm's and thermal control.
clean all the incoming air with an electronic air cleaner. large scale electronic air cleaners that are built into a/c ductwork have been around for years.
DirtBag.biz may be just the thing you're looking for.