Dust filtering system

['putertutor]

Two of my customers are auto body shops. I don't know if you've ever been inside a body shop, but they are notoriously dusty. The inside of their computers are some of the worst I have ever seen.

I've seen many sorts of filters and filtering ideas, everything from using a dryer sheet over the vents, to fans with built in filters, to an entire filter 'bag' that you stick the entire tower into. I'm wondering if anyone here has had any experience with air filtering for PCs and what your results were. Of course, its easy to filter stuff, but doing so without fouling up the airflow seems to be the hard part.

 

[Knightsman]

I've used swiffer cloths over the vents and have had good success

 

[tekunlock]

I have used the filtered enclosures that you put the the case inside. It has a locking plexiglass door on on the front and the cables go through a rubber grommet. IIRC They're a little pricey but definitely worth it with washable filters. Mine was installed in a bus garage. They are also reusable so when you sell them new computers later you don't have to buy a new filtered box.

 

[frederick]

Dryer sheets do a decent job, or a case that comes with filters. They produce the same result, w hich doesn't help much.

I got three automotive clients, I do monthly cleanings on their systems. You price it in.

The enclosure, if they woll swing for it, is your best bet

 

[SAG]

I got computers in laser cutting shops. It's not just dust in there, it's metal dust... and slag.
I use bulk mesh filtering to cover the air intake, and have the computer in a cabinet. Aside from that, and blowing it out once in a while (readften) there isn't much that can be done. We use cheaper computers in this situation because we know that they are never going to reach peak life expectancy.
With a whitebox computer and regular image backups, it's easy to replace (parts or whole) and drop the image on a new rig should that be necessary.

It works in this situation, YMMV.

 

[TAPtech]

I wonder if with modern day CPU's you could just get them setup with a fanless system that does not draw in any air.

Maybe just a heat spreader that goes externally on the case, just working off convection. Hmmmmm

 

[nlinecomputers]

Water cooling might be of help with that. No fans needed for that kind of setup.

 

[jbartlett323]

Water cooling might be of help with that. No fans needed for that kind of setup.

I was just thinking that, however, unless you use a geothermal solution, you still need fans on your Radiator. Also, this would stop the heatsink from clogging, but not the layer of metal dust that will build up on the board itself, possibly eventually killing the mobo.

So, for liquid cooling in this scenario, I could only recommend a fully-submersed closed-loop system. Very nice, but prohibitively expensive. That, and I wouldn't want a vat of mineral oil just sitting around my body shop if I wasn't using it....

 

[tekunlock]

What about some type of virtual solution? May be kind of a stretch but setup setup the system in a clean(er) area and maybe use something like a thin client or NComputing x300 where the terminal should be?
Might be slight overkill but definitely good word of mouth if you make a system in a dirty environment last longer than ever before.

 

['putertutor]

Water cooling is not going to happen at either of these locations. Basically, both of these guys would do everything paper and pencil if they could, so selling them on what they would see as way too futuristic stuff like a water cooled computer will be difficult.

After a thorough cleaning, I have implemented the dryer sheets and 'pc in a bag' solution at one place - two different computers. At the second, I will be trying the vent filters. If I remember (fat chance there) I will update with results in a month or so.

 

[frederick]

Do the dryer sheets, and sell em on a blow out/ vacuum service once every couple months

 

[onkyo]

Furnace Filters.