Which ATX case has the most effective dust filtration?

[PhoenixOrion]

...thanks for all suggestions.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Not kidding. Vacuum the house. Keep all rigs 8~12" off the floor.

Cutting home AC filter material to size, makes for an effective and clog free filter.
How you fit it to the case is up to you.


...Galvanized

 

[PhoenixOrion]

I hear ya but I vacuum once a week and wife does the swifter once a week for the hardfloors.

I may need to do something coz all of my rigs are on the floor.

With cases, the only design I found with good filtration is the P180, currently own one. Gigabyte Aurora would have been a good one with its huge "fabric" filter upfront but the screened side panel negates it.

Other cases I should look into?

 

[Operandi]

The CoolerMaster PAC-T01 has a very good filter up front, thats very easy to clean. The case itself is also built extremely well with liberal use of thick AL throughout the case.

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

I'd look for cases with a 120mm intake fan and fit the home AC filter material to it.
A very slight positive pressure keeps the opticals clean, floopy if you have one or card reader.

The Antec SLK-3000B has a 120 intake but it also has a door. *shrugs* Good news, it's about $50 at Amazon or Froogle.

My two rigs are in a garage office and stay pretty clean but they are 24" off the floor. You can not believe the difference 8" makes


...Galvanized

 

[Operandi]

Unless you are running hardware that dumps a ton of heat into the case the 4x80mm fans in the CoolerMaster won't be a problem.

Another good but much more expensive option would be the Lian Li PC-V1100.

 

[Zepper]

As G-Y said, getting your system boxes at least 8 or 10 inches off the floor helps a lot. I use a pair of Rubbermaid step-stools under mine - the gunmetal gray colored ones that WalMart is selling now look pretty good under either silver or black cases. Creating a positive pressure environment within your cases (CFM in > CFM out) will keep the dust out too - requires closing off any large areas of extraneous vent holes in the cases so you can control air flow to be almost totally via your fans. Also will require a pretty powerful intake fan to overcome a filter and both your exhaust fans (case and PSU) and misc. leakage. Will probably also require a fan controller to get the optimum conditions with lowest total noise.

Foam AC filter material with sticky-back Velcro hook material make good impromptu filters. For my 120mm fans I use the two-piece plastic frames that hold a piece of foam or other filter material.

.bh.

 

[grimlykindo]

You said you have a P180 right? I have NEVER had to clean my P180 out in over a year and it sits right on my tile floor. Heres what I did:

If you haven't already you really need to seal the holes in the rear where the VGA duct was and also the border around both front fans with some tape. I also removed my top fan and sealed it completely (temps actually dropped) I'm using the stock fan filters - Just make sure they are snapped in tight and put some tape around the edges to get a good seal. Be sure to clean them often - my temps will go up 3-4 degrees with clogged filters. Positive case pressure as mentioned above is good rule of thumb too.

I should also note that my room is EXTRA dusty due to the fact that I smoke in my computer room and everything gets covered in dust - Except the inside of my P180!

 

[Boyo]

I use FilterRight for my fans and they do an excellent job of keeping the dust out. Easy to clean also.

 

[tylerdustin2008]

Antec P-180 filters work great.