Can I paper over this problem?
November 8, 2020 11:58 PM   Subscribe

I just blew two years of dust out of my computer tower. Now I'd like to keep dust out of it. I've got a single fan inside, and an intake vent on the front of the box. Can I effectively tape a paper face mask over the vent to keep the dust out? Would that negatively affect the rate of air going through the case?
posted by bryon to Computers & Internet (12 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
You can put a filter over the vent, yes. It will reduce the air flow though, and eventually it will clog up with dust itself, and you'll need to take it out and either clean it, if possible, or replace it.

A better solution than a flat sheet of filter material sized to the vent, is a much longer sheet that's been folded back and forth many times to fit in the vent area. That way it has more surface area, so it presents less resistance to airflow and has more capacity to absorb dust before clogging.

If you look at the air filter on your car, or the ones in HVAC systems etc, that's how they're made.

Measure the vent and see if you can find an off-the shelf air filter to fit, or buy a bigger one and cut it down to size. You'll need to take care about sealing up the cut edges if you have to use the latter approach.
posted by automatronic at 2:54 AM on November 9, 2020


I would not cover the air filter on your computer as it will elevate the temperature inside significantly. If it gets too hot your computer will start shutting down with zero warning to protect itself. even if it's not shutting down it could drastically reduce the lifespan of your computer.
posted by noloveforned at 5:09 AM on November 9, 2020 [5 favorites]


Yeah, that's a pretty small case. I would expect it to struggle to get enough cooling airflow through it as is is.

Just blowing the dust out at one year intervals from now on will stop it getting to the point of making that urgent.
posted by flabdablet at 5:17 AM on November 9, 2020 [2 favorites]


You could try a filter... but you will reduce airflow, or force your fan to run faster/noisier to maintain the same airflow, or reduce the lifespan of components due to increased heat, or some combination of those. You can monitor temperatures to see how much of a difference it makes, but of course not everything has a sensor. And computers do immediately shut off if they hit certain temperature limits... resting poorly designed laptops on flat surfaces is my own personal way to remind myself of this every few years ;)

As annoying as it is ( seriously, all modern technology feels like a Tamagotchi, with all that entails ) I'd set a periodic reminder just to blow the dust out every few months and/or whenever you reboot. It's the "least worst" option rather than a solution, but is the most likely to succeed with the least effort IME.

From looking at this YouTube video to get an idea about your system ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr6K-8EqnPk ) I assume it's relatively easy to remove the panel, but I'd expect you can get away with blowing canned air in through the front.
posted by DancingYear at 5:38 AM on November 9, 2020


Probably, yes. If it can't push enough air through to cool to device, it will shutdown in self-preservation and may overnwork its fan

Instead you might want to consider running your vacuum cleaner around much more often will create a less dusty environment for that device.
posted by k3ninho at 5:47 AM on November 9, 2020


And/or you could run an air purifier in the same room. As long as the purifier is moving substantially more air than your PC, which any machine designed to keep dust out of human lungs pretty much has to, more of the dust that circulates in the room is going to end up in the purifier's filter than stuck to the PC's cooling fins. You could even position the purifier's outlet vent in such a way that it blows over the PC's case, improving that ratio even further.
posted by flabdablet at 6:42 AM on November 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


Try this stuff. It's a pretty common practice in industrial plants to put this over the intakes of cooling fans for electrical control panels and other equipment that requires air flow for cooling, to help keep the dust/metal particles at bay. The nice thing is that if you stick some of the "hook" side of self-adhesive velcro to front of the air intake then the material itself will hook in. Makes it easy to remove and clean/replace. It's not a very fine filter so unless you let it seriously clog up I don't think there will be much ill effect on cooling efficiency, but I can't really say what will or will not work for your particular machine.
posted by dudemanlives at 7:02 AM on November 9, 2020


Tons of cases nowadays have removable filters. Maybe your case is one of them.

I'd just leave it alone, unless this PC is in an industrial environment or some other particularly nasty place.
posted by neckro23 at 8:02 AM on November 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


I'd be careful with anything that lowers the airflow. After a quick look at the linked video it looks like the case is packed full and cooling was carefully engineered (with the heat pipe and dedicated internal fan). I'd just keep it of the floor and blow out periodically.
posted by achrise at 8:47 AM on November 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


I've serviced PCs in a casting plant that converted iron ingots into car parts using huge blast furnaces. Everything was covered with a layer of the worst sort of grime (including anyone who walked on the plant floor). The PCs were fine. You're much more likely to break something by restricting the airflow and overheating the capacitors or chips. The CPU/GPU will thermally throttle themselves but cooler is almost always better. There are very few moving parts in a PC, mostly everything is sealed up. Dust isn't great but it's not the end of the world, either. If possible you can move the air intake so it's away from the floor, or dust the area around the PC more frequently.
posted by wnissen at 11:00 AM on November 9, 2020


2nding getting an air filter rather than trying to filter the air going into the PC.
posted by Candleman at 11:11 AM on November 9, 2020


I think paper is going to be too flow-restrictive for a typical computer setup -- and given that you have a "retail" computer, the manufacturer has designed it with the assumption that the air intakes and outputs will be unblocked.

My computer case has built-in filters with a 0.5-1mm mesh. There is still some amount of dust that gets through but it is probably greatly diminished by the filter. I think a filter of this granularity is probably safe to add; I can attest that it still picks up a lot of dust. Just make sure you clean it regularly (and thanks for the reminder... I am going to add a monthly check to my calendar now!).
posted by Standard Orange at 8:29 PM on November 9, 2020


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