Dust Cover/Protector - Do these work?

[Mr Bob]

I'm looking into a new build and see a lot of the latest motherboards are coming out with dust covers on the board.

Is this actually worth it? I don't understand how protecting just a few components on the motherboard will actually make a difference, the PCI cards, heatsinks, etc.. are still all exposed. There are only certain parts of the motherboard that is not.

If anything, it almost looks like they would do more damage by blocking airflow in certain circumstances.

Is this just a marketing ploy? Or are these dust covers on motherboards actually useful?

 

[Fallen Kell]

It is a mix of several things. Most of the "dust covers" are actually shrouds to force air over the components to increase cooling performance on the components. These actually do work, but need the case to already be fairly well protected from dust in the first place, otherwise, as you noted, they can clog up with dust and severely restrict the airflow. The only marketing ploy is that any of them call them dust covers in the first place.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

It is a mix of several things. Most of the "dust covers" are actually shrouds to force air over the components to increase cooling performance on the components. These actually do work, but need the case to already be fairly well protected from dust in the first place, otherwise, as you noted, they can clog up with dust and severely restrict the airflow. The only marketing ploy is that any of them call them dust covers in the first place.

Maybe I missed looking at other motherboards that have this feature, but the first that comes to mind is the Sabertooth line -- which may very well have pioneered the feature.

Motherboard ducting actually does work, and it works better if the duct has a small intake fan at one end and an exhaust fan at the other -- or -- if air flow from other fans is channeled to move across the motherboard consistently and in one direction.

Eventually, any spikey fins on heatsinks of the mobo may catch kruft as air flows through the narrow spaces. I've never noticed this in my own ducting concoctions to be a significant worry, but it pays to clean once in a while. I even suspect that you don't need to remove the "TUF" or other type of duct to remove significant kruft buildup: You can probably do it with the canned air or other air-blower products (like the Metro electrical blower). The canned air blowers come with a small flexible plastic straw that fits the nozzle, so this might help directing the air blast through the narrow spaces without removing anything.