Air filtered PC cases

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Peter Chant

Any thoughts on air-filtered PC cases?

My suspicion is that unless the filters are of a far larger area than the
fans that they'ed restrict the airflow considerably compared to no filter
and would clog relatively quickly? On that basis unless in an industrial
enviroment I'm better off just going for good air-flow and just periodically
blowing the dust out the chassis.

I note that the relatively few cases with filters have filters that are only
fan sized.

Pete
 
Any thoughts on air-filtered PC cases?

My suspicion is that unless the filters are of a far larger area than the
fans that they'ed restrict the airflow considerably compared to no filter
and would clog relatively quickly? On that basis unless in an industrial
enviroment I'm better off just going for good air-flow and just periodically
blowing the dust out the chassis.

I note that the relatively few cases with filters have filters that are only
fan sized.

Pete
Click to expand...
I can't speak for every case under ever circumstance but I can say that
over the decades every case I've had with a filter in it has had that
filter ripped out pretty quickly. It is just too troublesome to clean out a
small filter which becomes clogged in no time but it is very easy to open a
case and blow it out.
 
Peter Chant said:
Any thoughts on air-filtered PC cases?

My suspicion is that unless the filters are of a far larger area than the
fans that they'ed restrict the airflow considerably compared to no filter
and would clog relatively quickly? On that basis unless in an industrial
enviroment I'm better off just going for good air-flow and just periodically
blowing the dust out the chassis.

I note that the relatively few cases with filters have filters that are only
fan sized.
Click to expand...

I'm a fan of filtered intakes myself, but this is due to the fact that I
use positive pressure cases (there's absolutely zero point trying to
filter normal negative-pressure designs, you can't) and I have three
cats kicking around.

My intakes are all on the front and visible, it's become part of my
patch-Tuesday ritual, cleaning the case once a month seems to be
sufficient.

My justification is that I'm using a water cooled CPU cooler with the
radiator mounted inside the case, it gets packed with thick dust and fur
if I don't and it's a *huge* pain to clear without a vacuum (and
obviously sticking a vacuum inside a case isn't particularly smart), so
by using filters on the intakes I can control where the dirt builds up.

All that being said, I wouldn't generally recommend filters, cleaning
the system out is probably better for most users.
 
Peter Chant said:
Any thoughts on air-filtered PC cases?

My suspicion is that unless the filters are of a far larger area than the
fans that they'ed restrict the airflow considerably compared to no filter
and would clog relatively quickly?
Click to expand...

I don't know, mine don't seem clogged. I just vacuum them on occasion.
Case is a Cooler Master HAF 912+, the front panel is mostly filter.
There's a 200 mm intake fan in the front, 120 mm exhaust in the back.
PSU intake is in the bottom and also filtered.

Anyways, these filters aren't perfect, some dust still gets inside the
case too. I'd guess to avoid clogging and not restrict airflow.
 
John McGaw wrote:

I can't speak for every case under ever circumstance but I can say that
over the decades every case I've had with a filter in it has had that
filter ripped out pretty quickly. It is just too troublesome to clean out
a small filter which becomes clogged in no time but it is very easy to
open a case and blow it out.
Click to expand...

I would have thought that unless the filters had a far larger surface area
than the fans they'd choke the fans and block up quickly.
 
DevilsPGD wrote:

I'm a fan of filtered intakes myself, but this is due to the fact that I
use positive pressure cases (there's absolutely zero point trying to
filter normal negative-pressure designs, you can't) and I have three
cats kicking around.
Click to expand...

I don't think I could acheive proper posative pressure my current case. Its
a rather old case and when I went from a 2.4GHz Athlon to a Phenom II x3 it
started playing up. So I took the side panel off the case. I've got fed up
with this. Put it back on, but now summer is coming.

Changing the PSU to one with large fan (the bearing was going on the fan on
the older psu) and cutting out the metal 'grille' over the front fan seems
to have dropped idle mobo and CPU temps from 36 and 46 respectively down to
31 and 40 degC.
My intakes are all on the front and visible, it's become part of my
patch-Tuesday ritual, cleaning the case once a month seems to be
sufficient.

My justification is that I'm using a water cooled CPU cooler with the
radiator mounted inside the case, it gets packed with thick dust and fur
if I don't and it's a *huge* pain to clear without a vacuum (and
obviously sticking a vacuum inside a case isn't particularly smart), so
by using filters on the intakes I can control where the dirt builds up.
Click to expand...

Fur is not good. I don't some and have not got pets - so I just have
regular dust. I was wondering whether a inexpensive cpu heatsink upgrade
would be worthwhile - with the improvements I've made above its 20 degC
above ambient at idle. I'd perhaps like to get a little more head room in
case we have a hot summer. That said, the stock heatsink is probally used
in many many systems in hotter parts of the world than the uk. On the other
hand I bet they have newer cases with more than two marginally effective
80mm case fans.
All that being said, I wouldn't generally recommend filters, cleaning
the system out is probably better for most users.
Click to expand...

That seems to be the concensus for normal use.

Thanks,

Pete
 
Anssi said:
I don't know, mine don't seem clogged. I just vacuum them on occasion.
Case is a Cooler Master HAF 912+, the front panel is mostly filter.
There's a 200 mm intake fan in the front, 120 mm exhaust in the back.
PSU intake is in the bottom and also filtered.
Click to expand...

From Coolermasters website I can see that the front panel is made from a
metal mesh - is there any filter material - I'm not sure as you can see the
fan through the panel.

If I can keep this case cool with the side panel on I'll keep it. But if
changing it I'd probally go for something like:

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/nzxt-source-220-black-mid-tower-performance-
case-with-usb-30-w-o-psu

Only dilemma is do I try to get a 3.5" floppy bay. I have drives, I have
disks - but I can't have used them in a couple of years!
 
Peter said:
Any thoughts on air-filtered PC cases?
Click to expand...

In tower case days, I just cut a hole on the top and mounted a 240V fan,
powered of the PSU shunt. Padded to reduce vibraton/noise with old mouse
mats and the filters were simple scourer pads, sometimes with a tissue
overlaying the top.

These tended to keep a lot of much out as they positively charged the case,
My suspicion is that unless the filters are of a far larger area than the
fans that they'ed restrict the airflow considerably compared to no filter
and would clog relatively quickly?
Click to expand...

It depends on degree of iltering. The finer micron, the more it will
restrict.
On that basis unless in an industrial
enviroment I'm better off just going for good air-flow and just periodically
blowing the dust out the chassis.
Click to expand...

Better to suck it up and only blow to dislodge, from deep areas.
Otherwise it is just spread itself around to re-enter.
 
John McGaw wrote:



I would have thought that unless the filters had a far larger surface area
than the fans they'd choke the fans and block up quickly.
Click to expand...
Yes, having a much larger filter would certainly be of help. I've seen
computer enclosures that were made for use on the shop floor and they were
inevitably entirely sealed or had large pleated filters that seem as though
they'd be suited for an HVAC system. I don't see a lot of use for either in
a home or office system so I just rip out the filters rather than clean them.
 
John said:
Yes, having a much larger filter would certainly be of help. I've seen
computer enclosures that were made for use on the shop floor and they
were inevitably entirely sealed or had large pleated filters that seem
as though they'd be suited for an HVAC system. I don't see a lot of use
for either in a home or office system so I just rip out the filters
rather than clean them.
Click to expand...

My Antec Sonata has a slide out filter, which is relatively large. It
slides out of the bottom of the case. When I get a Sonata case here,
I immediately remove that filter and chuck it back into the case cardboard box :-)
The filter would be a pain to get at, once the PC is set up.

http://www.bjorn3d.com/Material/revimages/case/antec_sonata_iii/cooling3.jpg

http://www.bjorn3d.com/Material/revimages/case/antec_sonata_iii/cooling4.jpg

The alternative dust control mechanism, is to observe what happens with
"positive" and "negative" pressure fan cooling setups, and how the
dust level inside changes with those. Once you figure out which
fan config does a good job on dust control, fitting filters is
less of an issue. (Both configs have dust, but the dust is light
enough with the good config, to ignore it.)

If equipment is in a dirty or corrosive environment, there may be good reasons
for "belt and suspenders" protection of the PC (like an external filtered cabinet
with its own fan, to hold the PC). High arrestance filters, need a fan similar
to the one in a vacuum cleaner, to get a good airflow. The one in the Antec above,
is similar to the lint filter in a clothes dryer, a simple plastic screening. I
don't think I'd really want to clean that once a month, as it means accessing
the bottom of the computer to pull the filter down and out. So I just remove
the filter entirely.

I have seen some pretty plugged up computers. On a machine at work,
I pulled enough hair from a Sun Sparc, to make a wig :-) The hair
was jam packed against the three cooling fans (they cool the processor module).
The computer had become so hot, because of the blockage, I couldn't touch the
heatsink on the processor, for about ten minutes after removing
power. I've never seen anything similar to that, on a PC. The funny
thing was, the computer wasn't throwing any errors at all. (The machine
had a processor upgrade, and I think those run pretty hot anyway.)
I only opened the machine up, because it "didn't sound right".
It sounded "muffled" for some reason :-)

With that much hair, I can only assume the user of that machine, is now bald.

Paul
 
My Antec Sonata has a slide out filter, which is relatively large. It
slides out of the bottom of the case. When I get a Sonata case here,
I immediately remove that filter and chuck it back into the case cardboard
box :-)
The filter would be a pain to get at, once the PC is set up.

http://www.bjorn3d.com/Material/revimages/case/antec_sonata_iii/cooling3.jpg

http://www.bjorn3d.com/Material/revimages/case/antec_sonata_iii/cooling4.jpg

The alternative dust control mechanism, is to observe what happens with
"positive" and "negative" pressure fan cooling setups, and how the
dust level inside changes with those. Once you figure out which
fan config does a good job on dust control, fitting filters is
less of an issue. (Both configs have dust, but the dust is light
enough with the good config, to ignore it.)

If equipment is in a dirty or corrosive environment, there may be good reasons
for "belt and suspenders" protection of the PC (like an external filtered
cabinet
with its own fan, to hold the PC). High arrestance filters, need a fan similar
to the one in a vacuum cleaner, to get a good airflow. The one in the Antec
above,
is similar to the lint filter in a clothes dryer, a simple plastic
screening. I
don't think I'd really want to clean that once a month, as it means accessing
the bottom of the computer to pull the filter down and out. So I just remove
the filter entirely.

I have seen some pretty plugged up computers. On a machine at work,
I pulled enough hair from a Sun Sparc, to make a wig :-) The hair
was jam packed against the three cooling fans (they cool the processor
module).
The computer had become so hot, because of the blockage, I couldn't touch the
heatsink on the processor, for about ten minutes after removing
power. I've never seen anything similar to that, on a PC. The funny
thing was, the computer wasn't throwing any errors at all. (The machine
had a processor upgrade, and I think those run pretty hot anyway.)
I only opened the machine up, because it "didn't sound right".
It sounded "muffled" for some reason :-)

With that much hair, I can only assume the user of that machine, is now bald.

Paul
Click to expand...

I have two of the Sonata series cases here. With both cases I chucked the
filters when I discovered how much of a PITA they were to get out. Both of
those cases live downstairs in the basement in the 'equipment closet' where
it is relatively clean and cool. One case contains a Celeron 12tB WHS (did
you know that if you don't have to move a computer much you can get away
with just laying drives on the floor of the case?) and the other is a
straightforward i7 BOINC number cruncher. Neither machine is overclocked
and I find that a simple blowout is enough to keep them cool so I try to
remember to do that when I roll one out for hardware changes.

In the old days I had a full ATX system that sat under the slab desk on the
floor in my office and my big yellow lab used to lay under there too to
keep me company. Every few months I removed enough hair from the old
Pentuim Pro to reupholster a Pomeranian.
 
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