A "Filter Case" for my PC

[caveman16]

     Good Morning to all you Guys and Ladies,   May your day be a pleasant one.

     My Friends,   I'm going to describe a  box  for my "new PC " and I Invite you to in effect "shoot holes" through my idea.     This will help me if I'm on the wrong track  and may add  an improvement .       GET YOUR GUNS READY  ;D

     My house has the regular dust and whatever in the air with a central a/c and  heating to make sure that all this stuff stays air-borne  before  "its" filter can catch it for entrapment.

      After I get all my parts for my new PC  which will be just for my Flight Sim  and have it all put together,   then I will know the size of it ,   plus my present PC for on-line work.

      The  "frame" of this  "BOX" will be thin wood with screws and glue to hold it all together.      I will have a special table / desktop  to sit it on.

     The construction will be an  "open- frame"  and of the size that will take  a standard size  "Micron  pleated air filters" that can be bought at my local Wal-mart store.   [For easy replacement] .      All the air the PCs get will be  Filtered.  The Filters will be snap-on/off so access is total .  Even  the wood open frame can be lifted off and away from the PCs.The "filters" will not "crowd" the PCs.  The Front will  also  be a filter door for access.      [ Front/Back/Both sides/ and Top - - all Filters ].  

      Well- - -I guess that's it.      Where am I going wrong and can you think of some way I can improve on this.       I always appreciate your help.

         caveman

     

[dave3cu]

I can foresee a possible heat problem as you do not mention any positive exaust for the filter box.

With no positive exaust, the design will rely on convection (thru the top) and what

[ctjoyce]

Personally I use the Thermaltake Soprano that has a filter on the front intake fan, so there is absolutely no dust whatsoever in my case.

Cheers
Cameron

[Fozzer]

See if you can identify the "Caveman" capable of constructing a wooden PC and fit it with a micro-filter made from Mammoth wool, from these selection of photographs...>>>

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/human/species/

The first correct entry will receive a stone with a hole in it...!

LOL... ... ...!

Paul... ....!

[caveman16]

     Very Good Dave, I hadn't thought of the heat build-up or exhaust.   Your solution with just a taped on side filter sounds good and would do the job .  Saved me some work.

     Hey Cameron, didn't know the case came with a filter.  Must have missed that when I checked out the case.    Say - - - Cameron,  while on the thought - - -  would you recomend another case w/o wire  connections at  the top instead of the front.    Still learning about the "PARTS" for my new PC.

    Paul - - - don't know about you  ;D      I found my "picture",   it is either the first or second one in the row.  You guess which direction of which row .   I'm still chipping the rough edges off "that" stone with a hole in it.   The Pictures made me homesick  ;D  

     Hey Guys, - - -  always nice to "talk" to ya.

                                                          caveman

[ctjoyce]

Yes. Any case by Silverstone, Thermaltake, Lian Li, and most CoolerMaster will have a front filter. Also your going to pay a bit more for any of these brands, however they are absolutely amazing cases, and are worth every penny (Esp Lian Li)

Cheers
Cameron

[NicksFXHouse]

You do not want to restrict airflow with filters. The Antec Server towers have a removable air intake

[ctjoyce]

Well I must say that while all are good ideas, the filter on my Thermaltake is a very thin piece of mesh, and dosnt restrict ariflow at all. All of the fans in my case are 70CFM or more, so haveing a 2~3Cfm drop isnt going to be the end of the world.

Cheers
Cameron

[NicksFXHouse]

Well I must say that while all are good ideas, the filter on my Thermaltake is a very thin piece of mesh, and dosnt restrict ariflow at all. All of the fans in my case are 70CFM or more, so haveing a 2~3Cfm drop isnt going to be the end of the world.

Cheers
Cameron

The mesh filter is the same as the Antec.. yes, it does help and no it does not restrict airflow enough to be an issue unless the grill is not cleaned when it plugs up.

When I said I would not restrict airflow with filters I was speaking of the idea of putting a "Micron  pleated air filter" on a tower as caveman was thinking of doing, which would restrict too much air.

Without restriction and even with the mesh grill, reducing the airflow in the tower until needed for high load heat significantly reduces dust buld-up.

[ctjoyce]

Ah that clears it all up then.

Cheers
Cameron

[congo]

I love the way everyone closes up their PC's creating heat and dust problems.

Love the wood idea caveman, was toying with the idea of slatted diagonal design myself, just to keep the cat out of course.......... but then, who needs a case anyway. (the cat's not allowed in the house...)

Nah, it's not worth the trouble, no case, no heat, no fans, no dust. I'm totally over enclosures.

[Politically Incorrect]

I use the filter that you can buy for window unit air conditioners, for a couple bucks you can get enough to cover all openings and it won't restrict airflow.
Granted it won't stop all the dust but it manages to grab a lot.

That and my case has a almost completly open side so I just use one on the intake fan, there is a mesh filter there but impossible to clean it when it gets clogged without removing the hard drives, there is no way to access it from the front, very poor design.

Other than that I clean out my pc on a weekly basis so really no dust has time to collect heavily.

[NicksFXHouse]

[quote]I love the way everyone closes up their PC's creating heat and dust problems.

Love the wood idea caveman, was toying with the idea of slatted diagonal design myself, just to keep the cat out of course.......... but then, who needs a case anyway. (the cat's not allowed in the house...)

Nah, it's not worth the trouble, no case, no heat, no fans, no dust. I'm totally over enclosures.

[congo]

You need a secure environment to do that of course. No prying fingers, animals or light fingered passers-by.

I've explained my setup before caveman, but in case you missed it, I'll go over it again.

I buy a very, very cheap case. This case is a full Midi Tower standard. Some Midi Tower cases are not full depth, they are no good and components can interfere with the mainboard etc, you need a full Midi Tower with the long front to back dimension.

Some cheap cases are nasty pressed metal with sharp edges. The ones I buy have rolled edges with plastic caps on the sharp terminations sometimes. They should also have front USB ports and include a bag of fasteners and standoffs. The front panel needs to be nice enough to look at if you intend on leaving it on.

I then strip the case down, removing the side covers, top and front panel, leaving the frame exposed. I paint the bare metal frame (and inside the lid and sidecovers if they are to be refitted) with some metal spray primer and then respray with a bright colour, I usually go for fluorescent pink, orange, yellow, blue or green. The bright color gives better internal lighting than black.

If the front panel is discarded, the buttons wiring etc. can be hotglued into some of the perforations on the front of the frame.


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A plywood base is fine, but it doesn't, on it's own, provide good support for the components. This can be a problem when a heavy monitor cable is attached to the video card and it tries to twist the card out of it's socket. A wooden or other support bracket is indicated where required.

I removed my voice over IP/modem/switch/wireless router from it's case and built a slatted cedar enclosure for it out of a broken venetian blind. This type of router gets very hot and the supplied plastic enclosure seems designed to destroy them at 2 minutes past the warranty expiry date. Mine will last longer now.

The slab of wood the router sits on is a raw and very old chunk of Australian maple that stretches across the room and is my shelf. I found it in an abandoned sawmill.
My computer desk is huge and is made of maple and red cedar from the same mill.





PC cases are built to exacting tolerances and a pre-defined standard. Deviation from the standard will often quickly demonstrate why the standard is in place.


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The ATX standard metal frame is butt ugly, but it's quick and everything fits where it is supposed to.

I built the custom case below out of acryllic and I learned that it is no easy task to make it all work correctly.

[Politically Incorrect]

I must say your use of recycling the blinds is genius! and it looks great too!!!!!!