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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")
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.
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.
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.)
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