antec ultimate gamer case and my new pc

[lodore]

hello,
ive got my new pc.
you can view the specs under the pc specs thing on the left.
i still cant belive how big the fan on the top is.
my house is very dusty and i think the case will fill up with dust very fast espically with that big fan on top. ive got compressed air. is their anyway without restricting airflow to help stop dust falling in to the case via the big hole under the fan on the top?
im sure you havent answered a question quite like this before
thanks in advance
lodore

[staffsMike]

If the fan is an intake then just get an old pair of tights cut to size as a dust filter.. or you can buy dust filters from places like KustomPCs etc..

Or, if its an extractor which I think it is, just block the fan up with a book or something while the pc is off and when it's on it will take care of itself. Don't use a filter on an extractor though as that will keep dust in.

[donkiddik]

Hi,
I am building a system very similar to yours, and the top fan extracts the air from the case. You can get filters to fit the two front input fans and this will help reduce the dust problem, you may be able to fit one on the top fan too. I am thinking of getting the Asus P5K Premium/ WiFi mobo, how do you find yours, is it worth me paying extra for mine?
Cheers

[donkiddik]

your answer is better than mine Mike

[lodore]

hello donkiddik,
my main reason for the p5k wifi ap version over the bog standard p5k was the wifi and two esata ports.
my asus p5k wifi ap has one gigabyte ethernet port where as the premium version has 2. seems that scan and even the asus uk site had a misprint with the spec of the standard p5k wifi version. cant really find any other differences.
my pc works fine my OS is vista home premium 32 bit. you have to understand that ive only used it for like 20mins to make sure it works. its my xmas present and now im not allowed to use it till xmas
havent had any issues when i did use it thou.
hope that helps.

lodore

[iranu]

With proper ventilation (and filtration as per staffmike's suggestion) most cases/PCs will last a good while before dust starts to cause an increase in temps. To clean away dust then I recommend using an old paint brush which gets into all the nooks and cranies - obviously whilst the PC is turned off.

[moogle]

i had a 900, and the best filters for it are aluminium alphacool ones like scan have. i had 3 of them, for the front and one for the side.

[t0v3]

the best way ive found to get rid of dust is buy a can of compressed air, an just open the case an spray it in. the dust will be blown off everything in the safest way possible

[colinloves]

A sexy case indeed. Again, I use two filters on the fronts and they collect 90% of the dust - scrap off dust mank 3 times a year.
Top fan blows, so not much goes in there. Best thing is leave ya PC on 24/7. No worry about dust then.

[staffsMike]

I think i prefer my book idea.. as would the person paying the power bill

[b0ned0me]

I have very few dust problems, due to the wonders of Ikea Ivar shelving. I have 50cm deep units, so it's about the same depth as a standard case. The PCs sit on a shelf about 5cm off the floor (so enough room to get a hoover underneath, and keep them off the carpet) and the second shelf is about 5cm above the top of the cases and stops dust settling on top. Airflow is unaffected but I estimate my dust issues have dropped by 90% or more since the old days when I had them sitting directly on the floor.

[mroz]

i had a 900, and the best filters for it are aluminium alphacool ones like scan have. i had 3 of them, for the front and one for the side.

I was just going to start a new thread on this subject but your post & this thread has saved me the trouble. Cheers.

For the record, I built a machine four months ago & it's been on nearly 24/7 since, sitting on a carpetted bedroom floor under a bookshelf. The spec is in 'my system'. While I was originally stability testing my overclock, I was getting load temps around 56+/-3C. Yesterday while troubleshooting another issue I realised my load temps were climbing to 73C, a 14deg rise

I took it apart today, anticipating having to reseat the hsf & possibly lap the cpu, only to discover the space between the cpu cooler & its fan was stuffed with more dust than our vacuum cleaner. I've got four PCs running here atm & have had boxes kicking about for decades. I've never seen one get into this state so quickly. It must be a combination of the environment & the Antec 900.

A quick clean has dropped load temps to 64+/-3C but I suspect I'll have to take the hsf right out in order to clean it thoroughly as I want my original temps back or bettered, to give a bigger margin for some subsequent dust build up.

I think I'll be ordering three of those filters along with a side fan & a minivac. If anyone has additional suggestions I'd welcome them.

[Thorsson]

As said earlier use compressed air to move the dust. Do not use a vacuum cleaner as these can cause a static charge which could fry your delicate components.

[mroz]

Not even the little ones sold for keyboards n such like? I didn't know about the static issue. You mean the devices tend to carry static or they actually put a charge onto the air as it passes through?

I'm feeling generous & stupid, so have a small laugh at my expense: My post clean temps of 64+/-3C are a result of me reinstalling the cpu fan back to front. Not only that, it's the second time I've done that & taken an age to notice.

Now I've put it back on the right way round I'm getting core load temps of 50+/-2C, which is 6deg better than when I built the system, presumably as the AS5 has had plenty of time to settle in (ambient's the same around 22C).

Edit: after a couple of hours of Prime95, long enough to stabilise temps, it's at about 53+/-2C, which is roughly what I'd have hoped for.

I've had 2nd thoughts about the filters too - they'll be a pain to remove to clean every couple of weeks. I think I'll improvise something with an old pair of stockings - the front of the 900 pops off easily & should be able to retain a simple fabric filter quite tidily against the air inlets on the drive cages, which will make it easy to brush clean & almost as easy to change.

[Thorsson]

Dust often carries a small static charge. Vacuum cleaners gather dust... Probably you'd get away with it in the case of a mini, especially if you didn't use it for anything else, but why take the risk?

[Pob255]

As said earlier use compressed air to move the dust. Do not use a vacuum cleaner as these can cause a static charge which could fry your delicate components.

No, Static is generally not the problem.
The problem is spinning fans.

I cannot stress this enough, you can kill stuff even with a can of compressed air.
I've done it twice, Once I killed the power regulator of a projector and once I've killed a motherboard (resisters are not supposed to catch fire) both times were done with a can of compressed air.

The problem is simple, a fan is a basic electric motor, put power in = fan spins
However if you spin a fan it becomes a dynamo, spin fan = generate electric current.
So when you spin a fan you are feeding power back into what ever it is connected to and the faster you spin it the more current is generated.
So it is more than possible to generate some quite large current by spinning a fan far faster than it normally would within the pc, even with a can of compressed air.

I'm not saying don't use compressed air or a vacume cleaner, just be carefull.
It's best to fully immoblise all fans in your pc before useing any form of compressed air/vacume cleaner.
I find coctail sticks stuck through the fan so the baldes cannot turn work well.
Unpulgging generally does work, because wheil they still generate current the wires cannot actually store that much, but some fans like your PSU fan, you generally cannot get to to unplug.

I agree with t0v3 here, the best way is a paint brush, it does a better job of removeing dust than just air, which will tend to leave a thin layer behind.
With added human lungs you can actually blow quite a lot of air out of your self but you cannot keep up a constant flow so are in far less danger of spinning a fan.

It's often a good idea to take your case outside when giveing it a clean, so your not just putting dust back into the air which will get sucked in by your pc again.


On filters it does depend on your environment as to how often you need to clean them, start off by checking every week, increase the time by a week if it's not too bad and again if two weeks is ok, etc, etc
generally speaking once a month or 4 weeks is fine, but does depend on the environment.

Other tips.
As already mentioned, if you have carpeting don't keep the pc on the floor.
Try to raise it up a bit if it is, I've found that a couple of thick plants of wood to make a base to stand a pc on have worked wonders in the past.

One other if you smoke, don't do it in the same room as the pc, not only is it a lot of air born dust but it's "sticky" as well and is far harder to shift.
I don't know howmany people keep a pc in the kitchen, but frying and the air born oil frying generates would generate the same effect to a greater degree (feel the wall behind an ovan top and you'll understand)