dusty envornment

[fractilian]

Hi all I am building a system that will need to be in a dusty environment. It is going to be in a shop were it will be exposed to alot of saw dust in the air. Would it just be a matter of covering the vents through which the air enters the computer with a filter of some kind. I though of making it a sealed box with a water cooling system but I would really like to avoid that. I haven't chosen a system yet but it will be a bare bones low power system. Please give me your thought on this. Thanks

 

[MarcVenice]

Yeah airfilters would be pretty much required or fans will start dieing pretty fast. If you want an idea of how to get some airfilters going, look at the p180 from antec to see how it is done.

And watercooling is kinda overkill, especially since you'll still be stuck a PSU that might get clogged and lotsa sawdust on other hot components is just a bad idea.

 

[fractilian]

Thanks for your input. I am going to be building this case myself so that I can incorporate it into the case of the machine the computer will be controlling. I will probably go check out various filters and built the air intake to accommodate it. Thanks again for your input.

 

[Jhhnn]

Might want to check out these products-

http://www.computerdust.com/order.html

You probably want to use a high efficiency psu and a low current processor to keep airflow needs to a minimum.

There are mini-itx Via Epia systems that use external power brick psu's and totally sealed chassis, too...

 

[Zepper]

Set up a positive-pressure system (total CFM is at least slightly greater than total CFM out) in the case with good filters on the intakes would keep most stuff out of the case. Though those shop filter things may do OK. I wonder how does one access the optical drives, etc. with one of those on there. Pos. pressure allows access to all as normal.

.bh.

 

[VinDSL]

Put it in a dern enclosure... 🙂

Here you go...

You could probably pick one up (or something like it) on eBay for 100 bones!

EDIT

w00t! 😉

 

[Modelworks]

If your going to build the case yourself then what I would do is design a positive airflow case.
I would duct the air into the case from one central point that is filtered and if you seal off the case so the only airflow is through that duct it will creative positive pressure inside the case forcing air out through any cracks/crevices.

Thats what we did at cray research when a unit was sensitive to dust or in a dirty environment.


Almost all pc cases are negative airflow.
They use the power supply or maybe a fan in front with a filter.
The problem with that is that creates a vacuum in the case and it will suck dirt/dust in through every crack and seam.