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Old 07-15-2006, 09:51 AM   #1
rblampain
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home made cpu air filter


I live close to a big mine and my cpu heat sink is getting a lot of dust, I have seen home made modifications to a case, promoted in a pc magazine where a hole is made in the side panel of the pc, a plastic pipe of suitable diameter is fitted in right to the cpu fan and this is fitted with a filter made of hard thin kitchen sponge. I am thinking of doing that.

Has anyone any experience with such solutions, or hint?

Thank you for your help.
 
Old 07-15-2006, 12:38 PM   #2
xpromisex
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I've seen it done, but I've never done it myself. The only thing I could really thing of is to use an air filter for an air conditioning unit instead of a sponge, as I would think the sponge would "clog" and may over heat the CPU. (Although I doubt that would actually happen.) Sounds like a great idea, and I may actually take it down the road, as my CPU tends to run quite hot.
 
Old 07-15-2006, 02:03 PM   #3
Electro
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Use an ionic filter in the room. If your computer gets a lot of dirt in it, your lungs is also getting that dirt. Oreck's ionic filter unit should be ok. Sharper Image ionic filter does not have the air flow and the square area to clean a dusty environment.

The amount of power for a fan to suck in air through a near 100% filter is a lot. You can reduce a 120 mm fan to a 1 mm fan with that kind of filter. Also you will have to replace the filter every day.

This thread is not Linux related. It should be in the General forum.
 
Old 07-18-2006, 01:18 AM   #4
rblampain
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Thank you for your answers. The ionic thing is a very good idea and I will investigate, as for the filter made out of sponges that I referred to, it doesn't really work as a filter as such. Usually, filters are material with very small holes arranged in a manner that the total surface of the holes is greater than the surface of the receiving object.

The sponges I am talking about are kitchen utensils you can buy at the supermarket, they are about 5mm thick and dark green in color and their structure is similar to insulation bats. Apparently that structure is such that the air flow is deviated sideway and the dust hit one of those fine filaments and is getting stuck.

It's probably catching a large portion of the dust but not all and it probably needs washing or replacing regularly, but given its low cost, that shouldn't be a problem.
This sponge can be placed on the outside of the panel and would just take seconds to replace, according to the pictures provided by the magazine whose name I've forgotten.

I blew air through one of these and there is no air restriction whatsoever.

Hope this helps someone.
 
Old 07-18-2006, 08:55 AM   #5
onebuck
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rblampain
Thank you for your answers. The ionic thing is a very good idea and I will investigate, as for the filter made out of sponges that I referred to, it doesn't really work as a filter as such. Usually, filters are material with very small holes arranged in a manner that the total surface of the holes is greater than the surface of the receiving object.

The sponges I am talking about are kitchen utensils you can buy at the supermarket, they are about 5mm thick and dark green in color and their structure is similar to insulation bats. Apparently that structure is such that the air flow is deviated sideway and the dust hit one of those fine filaments and is getting stuck.

It's probably catching a large portion of the dust but not all and it probably needs washing or replacing regularly, but given its low cost, that shouldn't be a problem.
This sponge can be placed on the outside of the panel and would just take seconds to replace, according to the pictures provided by the magazine whose name I've forgotten.

I blew air through one of these and there is no air restriction whatsoever.

Hope this helps someone.
Hi,

Here in the U.S. you can get small aluminum filters. These are washable and can be adapted for the use you desire. I would put a pre-filter made of foam filter material on the aluminum filter. This will increase the surface area for the collection.

I use this scheme on several of my machines. I have heat sink pipes for most of my processors. I mount a fan on the side cover that blows directly to the blower/fan of the pipe heat sink.

I have a good positive air flow on these machines. I've used a plexiglass side cover and use smoke to check for dead space. The flow was even with good unified flow.

I have seen some installations that place the fan on the top of the case. I want to build one just to see the flow within the case. I think the best would be to have the fan on the top blow out through a channel space for flow control purposes. Then the inlets could be filtered. You would have to seal the side case covers. I use the self adhesive foam strip 1/4 x 1/4 inch 10 ft rolls that is used to seal doors/windows.
 
  


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