Making Your PC Dust Free?

Kranfer asks: "Recently, I cleaned out my PC to find not only dust... but also feathers from my from rather large parrots. I have struggled with keeping my PC dust free for years, but I have yet to find a workable solution that will keep the dust from stacking up every few months, inside my PCs at home. I was hoping that my peers on Slashdot might have thought up some innovative solutions to this common problem with any PC. How does one cut down on the dust entering a PC and sticking around? I run an Antec File Server Case with each and every fan slot taken blowing out, and even one of those Harddrive coolers and PCI slot coolers. What have you done to rid yourself of the dust and pet dander inside your PCs?"

Comments

Re:Stockings

[IT_MERC]

someone said were the only way to run engines in the ash of mt. saint hellen when it blasted it's top.

What I use...

[Kraeloc]

Open-cell foam is what's commonly used in cases that have filters. It seems to work pretty well. You could also use a metal screen, like those used in windows. That way, it'd be reausable and easier to clean. Of course, dust filtering in my case is near impossible. I've got a Cooler Master Centurion 5; the whole damn thing is covered in ventilation holes.

Re:Get your case off the floor.

[pyrrhonist]

You can really reduce the amount of dust in a case just by getting it up off the floor. Higher is better. Dust tends to settle near the floor, and especially if you have carpet, walking by the desk will kick up small amounts of dust every time.

While this seems pretty logical, I'm not entirely sure that it's true. The reason being is that I noticed that items on my desk seem to collect a lot more dust than my tower case. I thought this was a little strange, so I decided a few weeks ago to conduct a little experiment (*FSCKING NERD ALERT*). I have two black phones, so I dusted both of them and placed one on my desk and one on the floor next to my desk (though not under it).

After a few weeks, the phone on the desk is now gray, but the phone on the floor is astonishingly dust free.

This raises so many questions:

• WTF!?
• Is there some sort of inherent property of dust that causes it to just stop at one (1) meter above the ground and disappear?
• Is there some sort of environmental anomaly in the intervening space between my desktop and the floor that I should be reporting to OSHA every month and, if so, is it safe to put the lower half of my body (including my genitals) in this space?
• Are there little gnomish phone sanitizers going around cleaning my floor phone while I'm not looking, but who are incapable of restoring the jolly, candy-like surface of my desk phone of because of their vertical challengedness?
• No really, WTF!?

Calgone, take me away!!!!

Re:air purifier

[ForestGrump]

I'm about a year from getting a BS in environmental sci, and here's my 2 cents on the topic of ionic breeze filtration systems.

mmmm...ozone. Can't live without it, but let's not live with it aroun us. When ozone is up in the stratosphere, it's blocking out the UV rays and saving our hides from skin cancer. But when it's "down here", it's harmful to us. These ionic filters create ozone. Long term /high concentration exposure to ozone is believed to cause cancer. Ozone in the air we breathe is important enough that there are standards on acceptable limits. http://www.epa.gov/air/criteria.html

I don't think ionic breeze can generate high concentrations of ozone, but you'll be exposed to it 24/7 which isn't good either.

And here's my personal experience with ionic breeze filters.
Well, My uncle bought a few of these to put around his house while he was remodeling. He commented to me how wonderful they were b/c they would "pull" dust out of the air and onto the collection plates.

He loved them so much that he even stuck one in my parent's bedroom. My dad complained of breating problems soon after it was put there. I told him to turn it off, and turning it off solved his problems.

So, as another posted, get something with a real filter.