How to prevent dust/dirt from being sucked into the case?

J

jazzwall

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Jul 5, 2005
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My Antec p180 is really sweet and neat, but I fear the day when it's gonna be full of that dust... almost like a layer of lint you get in your clothes dryer... and it's gonna make it look ugly when all the tiny openings (like around the cd/floppy drives, front intake vents, etc) get choke full of that dusty fluff.

I know that p180 comes with some filters in the intake area... but air takes the path of least resistance... and it's gonna go around the cd/floppy drives just because there are no filters there.

Is there a fabric / mesh / etc you can wrap your entire case in (except for the back where air's blowing out)? Something that can let it breathe but keep the dust out altogether?

And I can't keep my windows closed or my room sealed because it gets too hot/humid.

Thanks!

-Jazz
 
Well, you can use electrical tape as a more practrical option, may not look the greatest though. Another thing to try would be like foam insulation, remove the cd-rom, floppy, etc... and wrap the foam around the front of the drive, then when you slide the drive back in, the gap is gone. Or just buy a box of swiffers, and dust it every week or so on the outside.
 
One thing you can do is keep the case in positive pressure. That means more fan sucking in than fan sucking air out of your case. That way, after you close the side panels, will create a positive pressure inside the case, which will keep dust or lint coming from the gaps of floppy drive or cd-rom.
You can do this by two ways
1. Have more intake fan than exhaust, or have a stronger intake fan than exhaust.

2. Use a fan controller and make your intake fans spin at higher voltage/rpm and exhaust fan spin at lower voltage/rpm.(assuming that you using same fan through out the case)


ps: Make sure you keep filters on your intake fan.

Good luck
 
Of course, relying on positive pressure will only work in conjunction with filters over the fans.

-Dustin
 
I use my 3 gallon air tank, pump it to 170Psi, then blow the dust out of my cases. No, it dont go at full pressure, I run it at like 20psi with the regulator.
 
i use an older style cut-to-fit fabric a/c filters, it doesnt eliminate all the dust, but 95% of it doesnt get into the case, you could put this fabric around the cd/floppy drives to fill in the gaps, just make sure if you put it in front of your fans keep them cleaned as not to restrict the airflow
 
To fix my brothers pile, it has one front 120mm fan intake. But, no fan there. You know that foam that comes in the mobo box? that 1/4" thick black stuff? I cut out a square of that and hot-glued it to tthe metal. It really helped cut the dust down. He still gets some dust, but hair and big wads of dust stay stuck on the front.

It makes it a lot easier to clean, because you only have to blow out one thing. Newegg, ebay, zimzoomfly, and the likes have fan filters.
 
I have a similar problem. I have a Wavemaster case. As you know it has a door on the front to hide the CD/DVD drives. After a week of computer use without opening the door I find that around my drives there is a layer of dust. There is a 1-2mm gap around the drives and it seems that the air from the room is being sucked in that gap and some of it sticks to the drives.
 
jazzwall said:
Is there a fabric / mesh / etc you can wrap your entire case in (except for the back where air's blowing out)? Something that can let it breathe but keep the dust out altogether?
Click to expand...
I have a PC in the garage where there is a lot of sawdust when I do woodwork. I put my wife's old pantyhose around the fan intake and psu fan. It works great.
 
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