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drfish
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Shop-Vac® filter "mod"

Fri Mar 04, 2011 11:22 pm

Ok, first of all I'm fully aware heat rises but I say natural convection be damned I've got fans! :P This was intended to be a ridiculously cheap and easy mod (if you can really even call it that) and honestly I'm not hugely concerned that it made my case/CPU temps rise a couple degrees (literally ~2ºC). ...feel free to Dremel the crap out of your case and install the intake on the bottom if you must, I'm happy as is. Anyway...

The pictures pretty much tell the whole story but I'll ramble anyway... I wanted to cut down on dust in my case and after some thought this seemed like the best course, I set all my fans to exhaust so the "only" (edit: I am aware of cracks, etc) air coming into the case is from the 140mm vent on top of which is sitting a $12 canister vacuum filter, that's it. I dig the aesthetic, it fits in with the Bio-Wheels on my aquarium filters, and without any actual modding it was a perfect fit first try, really "clean" (pun intended). I figure it'll be easy enough to clean the filter as it collects dust, no big deal if it isn't sitting up there for a day or so while it dries...

The only thing remaining is going to wait until miss Sandy B. is able to move into her new home, like many I'm waiting for a B3 mobo but when I get it the whole system gets a good scrubbing and this bad boy gets installed for air pressure reasons (I mean, I haven't just given up on those 2º ;)). I've never been able to fit a vent fan in my current build because the CPU socket is so close to the top of the board, doesn't look like that will be the case with the P8P67 I'm waiting for...

Bit of advice if you want to give this a try, let the filter air out in your garage for a week or two after you take the shrink wrap off it and before you slap it on your PC, it's a little smelly, those plasticizers needs some time to breathe out... :o Case is an Antec 300 BTW, YMMV with other cases of course.

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Last edited by drfish on Tue Mar 08, 2011 10:38 am, edited 2 times in total.
 
FireGryphon
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Re: Shop-Vac® filter "mod"

Sat Mar 05, 2011 12:03 am

drfish wrote:
ridiculously cheap and easy mod


Pretty cool mod, but yeah :)

What's the cfm intake vs. exhaust?

You can probably use filter material to modify fan filters and make them more effective.
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drfish
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Re: Shop-Vac® filter "mod"

Sat Mar 05, 2011 12:21 am

Yeah, but then they're a pain in the butt to clean... ;) This is a one stop shop, no disassembly, no fuss... All the 120mms in my case are low CFM so I think the single 140mm opening should be enough especially once I get a fan in it to help... New fan is something like 60-100CFM, the other four are like 15-20 each... Bought the AeroCool because it actually advertised it's pressure rating, high pressure being useful trying to pull air though the fine filter...
 
Mr.Lif
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Re: Shop-Vac® filter "mod"

Sat Mar 05, 2011 1:38 am

I'm guessing you've taken the liberty to air tightly seal every orifice and crevasse throughout your case so the top 140mm is the ONLY possible intake, yes?
 
drfish
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Re: Shop-Vac® filter "mod"

Sat Mar 05, 2011 9:45 am

I was this close to putting "only" in quotes - I knew someone would call me out on it. My hope is that when I install the 140mm fan I'll end up with a positive pressure situation so the little cracks won't matter... Otherwise time will only tell how well it works because I don't intend to bust out the duct-tape for this one... I may remove some of the exhaust fans though, we'll see...
 
mmmmmdonuts21
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Re: Shop-Vac® filter "mod"

Sat Mar 05, 2011 10:04 am

Very nice. And I thought my pantyhose idea was pretty suave as a dust filter :wink:
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Mr.Lif
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Re: Shop-Vac® filter "mod"

Sat Mar 05, 2011 2:00 pm

Haha. I don't think there's anything wrong with Red Greening your case a little. Supposing whatever 140mm fan you choose can move more air than the other fans remove, then you'd have the positive air pressure you're looking for.

Actually I'm starting to think about doing something like this for my own computer. It's got a layer of dust and parakeet feathers all up in it.
 
drfish
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Re: Shop-Vac® filter "mod"

Tue Mar 08, 2011 8:00 am

Woohoo! Snagged a MSI P67A-GD65 from NewEgg last night. Couldn't wait for the Asus. Should be building by Thursday. :D
 
flip-mode
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Re: Shop-Vac® filter "mod"

Tue Mar 08, 2011 10:18 am

drfish wrote:
I set all my fans to exhaust so the only air coming into the case is from the 140mm vent on top of which is sitting a $12 canister vacuum filter, that's it.


IMO, the best way to keep the dust out is to set all your fans to INTAKE and filter the intake.

Setting all the fans to exhaust means that now you're sucking air in through every hole and crevice in the case.

I used to have a 100% filtered intake case with the only exhaust being the PSU and it was certainly effective at keeping dust out. :D
 
drfish
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Re: Shop-Vac® filter "mod"

Tue Mar 08, 2011 10:34 am

I realize that's the norm, but I think this could work... We'll see how much installing the 140mm/positive pressure changes things...
 
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Re: Shop-Vac® filter "mod"

Tue Mar 08, 2011 10:41 am

Even with the "sucking dust in through every crack" issue, the inside of the case should stay cleaner than before. The main downside I see is that it will probably kill the DVD drive eventually, because you'll clog the optics and tracking mechanisms with dust. IMO optical drive longeivity is the one big difference between positive and negative case pressure (assuming that your intake vent is filtered either way).
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blorbic5
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Re: Shop-Vac® filter "mod"

Tue Mar 08, 2011 10:48 am

Kinda irrelevent but what's the penguin thing?
 
drfish
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Re: Shop-Vac® filter "mod"

Tue Mar 08, 2011 11:28 am

Pfff, optical drives, who needs them? All I ask for is one good Windows install. ;)

Ahh, the penguin thing... :lol: I'm actually not a huge Linux nut, have just always liked penguins so I have a bit of a collection.
 
drfish
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Re: Shop-Vac® filter "mod"

Sat Mar 12, 2011 9:17 am

Lovin' this new setup. :D With very non-scientific testing I'm fairly sure my intake is even or a little ahead of my exhausting CFM, time will tell as I check for dust around the cracks...

Regardless, my shiny new system went together perfectly, didn't even have to open up the case once after I sealed it up. System (i7-2600k) seems rock solid at 4.4Ghz with no extra voltage, I'm going to leave it there for now and fuss with voltage later... Still hoping for 4.8Ghz... Current load temp (OCCT) is maxing at 68°C and I'm idling around 34°C. Temps may get better during the week as my AS5 cures or whatever...

Also, not that I care much about my "Windows Experience Index" but I am really loving the fact the my previously highest rated component, a 120GB Vertex, is now my lowest rated one at 7.3. :lol: It's going to be hard to resist a Vertex 3 when they come out...
 
UUU
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Re: Shop-Vac® filter "mod"

Wed Jul 27, 2011 1:28 pm

This is really a senseless mod once you realize the power of compressed air. I just hook up a trigger-action air nozzle to an air line on my compressor and blast out the dust in-place. If you use a vacuum in combination with this technique, you can prevent the dust from getting into your living space otherwise take the computer/equipment outside. No longer is it necessary to remove heatsinks and components to clean them out. The compressed air wins everytime! Why buy expensive filters that need to be frequently cleaned or replaced?
 
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Re: Shop-Vac® filter "mod"

Wed Jul 27, 2011 1:55 pm

UUU wrote:
The compressed air wins everytime!


(Until an eddy rips off a surface mounted component.)
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