Considering the lowly dust filter

[BachOn]

See if any of this sounds familiar to you. You’ve done your homework. You’ve read lots of reviews and selected the components for your water cooling system. Maybe you’ve posted your short-list of components and obtained feedback from the more experienced people here. You’ve calculated what kind of Delta T you need for the watts of heat produced by your computer components. You have a pretty good sense of how it will all go together and what kind of cooling you should get.

But there is the often ignored matter of dust and dander of various kinds. It’s in every home or office. I don’t care how clean the environment is, there is some dust that your highly researched fans are going to blow into your highly researched radiator – often on a 24/7 schedule.

Some don’t really consider it a big deal. They put their systems together and they often get terrific numbers. But over time, the cooling steadily becomes less effective. And the temps start to climb on their computer’s water cooled devices. The inevitable dust coats the radiator fins and the fan blades. It acts like an insulating blanket to reduce the effectiveness of the system.

Others do consider it, but the amount of information out there about dust filters is nowhere near as complete as for other water cooling components. Think about it: have you ever seen a Dust Filter Shootout? We’re often forced to fall back on our intuition. Some add some sort of thrown together filter – almost as an after-thought. If they are lucky, they might get pretty good results. If they aren’t so lucky, the cooling may be far less than they had hoped for based on the components they selected.

While recently checking the noise from my fans, I put a dust filter inline with the three fans blowing into my radiator. Without the filter, I could really feel the air blowing through the radiator fins – even with the fans running at a fairly low speed. Putting the filter in place greatly reduced the air flow coming through the radiator – at least judging by the feel of the air on my hand. Obviously, that’s not a very scientific measurement. But it’s all I’ve got.

I did a search within this forum on “dust filters’. And I’ve read all the threads that mention the subject. It’s not all that surprising to learn that the dust filtering methods vary.

Some don't use dust filters. They just go in and clean the components on a frequent basis.

Some use women’s panty hose stretched over some type of frame. The portion that covers the legs is a single thickness. The portion around the hips is usually a double thickness of the nylon material.

Speaker grill cloth is designed to allow sound waves to pass through. This kind of fabric can probably filter out some types of dust and dander particles.

Rubberized foam – such as for air filters is another type. Some seem to use that. Thicker foam may negatively impact on the air flow.

And it appears that some use a metallic filter.

It appears the process is one of finding a balance. Finer dust particles will be stopped by some filters. But the air flow is diminished a bit more when using such filters.

I’m going to include some of the links for commercial dust filter solutions. I got these from a search of posts within this forum. Do with it as you will.

These are categorized by type.

Radiator Grills (At least some have a rather course wire mesh that might be called a filter.)

http://www.performance-pcs.com/cata...57_362&zenid=c025369ad7ec88af045e0cb1c82307e6

Metallic Filters:

http://www.jab-tech.com/120mm-Aluminum-filter-Black-pr-1501.html

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/9..._Silver_-_Steel_Aluminum_Plastic_Chassis.html

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/bicudera360b.html

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/bimeraii360b.html

http://jab-tech.com/120mm-Black-Frame-Aluminum-Fan-Filter-pr-2696.html

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1394

http://www.watercoolinguk.co.uk/p/120mm-Aluminium-Fan-Filter-Black_140.html

http://www.suntekstore.co.uk/produc...er_dust_guard_12cm_120mm_for_pc_case_fan.html

Non-metallic Filters

http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/12filfanguar.html

I know this list is nowhere near complete. Some may want to post their own solutions. This is just a start.

Some of the experienced gurus here have chided me about over analyzing things. And maybe I do sometimes. But I’ve noticed that when everyone describes their water cooling setup, they almost never mention the dust filter. Some absolutely prefer to use 9/16 or 1/2 inch tubing over 3/8 inch to gain a degree or two of better performance. But dust filters just seem to fall beneath the radar. IMHO: They may play a bigger role in our results than some believe.

Bach On

 

[BachOn]

Right after posting my long-winded diatribe, someone posted this in another thread.

It actually appears to be a Dust Filter Shootout.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?209801-Some-Wire-Mesh-Filter-Fan-Grill-Testing...

Thanks, mor!

BO

 

[Conumdrum]

I use these.
http://www.jab-tech.com/120mm-Plastic-fan-filter-pr-2470.html

Blow them out every month to few months, rinse them out on my rebuilds

Buy the one you like, it's just a fan filter.

 

[BachOn]

One of the reasons I decided to go with the outboard box was to make that regular dust cleaning a little easier. We have two dogs and a cat and the box sits on carpet. So the dust does build up. I think cleaning could be more of a chore if you've got the components tightly packed into a case.

Yep. I think a lot of people figure "it's just a dust filter." But the comparison showed air flow diminished by 10-40%, depending on the filter material used. Thus, my contention was (and is) that maybe it's something that shouldn't just be an after-thought. I doubt you'll remember, but some of you guys urged me to open my water block and clean it out. The idea I received was that restricted flow and gunk could reduce the cooling. A poor dust filter or dust build-up seems to be similar issue, at least to me.

Opinions are like rear-ends: most people have one. I had my long say on the subject and got it out of my system. And nobody was hurt.

BO

 

[caddi daddi]

I use cheap over the counter foam filters, they cost about 2 dollars each on sale.
they reduce the airflow somewhat but the reduction in cleaning time and the all important fan noise makes them well worth it.
I run a high speed high airflow fan on my case side and run filters on both side of that fan to keep the noise down.