On the Matter of Dust

[Phoxtane]

The loft we\'re renting while we wait for our house to sell has concrete floors throughout -- great for cleaning, but absolutely horrid for dust production. I need a way to prevent dust buildup inside my computer, mainly to save myself a dusting every now and then. Any tips? I\'ll be looking into seeing if I can rearrange some fans, but what I\'m really looking for is preventing it in the first place.

[Reflector]

Vacuum frequently (Absolutely do not go 'lol but canless' here. Unless you go outside, mist a bag and dump it in there), buy fan filters. Then tell the mesh filters 'up yours' and put a fine sponge foam filter or a fine cloth filter over that. You\'ll be set. Oh and a filter unit (Like these dudes http://www.kaz.com/kaz/honeywell/honeywell-air-purifiers/ Don\'t get an Ironic Breeze, they\'re a pain to maintain. Go Craigslist something nice and then vacuum it and/or change the filters) and you\'ll be set really.

Well, you\'ll have to vacuum your filter occasionally too and you\'ll have fine microdust buildup on the inside anyways (Don\'t worry, it isn\'t as horrible as the chunky and fluffy flavors of dust you\'ll have to deal with)

Feeling real OCD? Go tape your case off too or use strips of foam/weatherseal to seal the case. Positive pressure setup.

You\'re talking to the person who used to deal with this in the Pentium 4 days:

And enjoy the microdust: (This is before I added finer filter paper behind my foam and my side fan.)

And trust me, 20 year old carpet with cotton clothing will do much more hellish things in terms of dust generation.

[Phoxtane]

Ah, fan filters. I was thinking of those, until I realized that I didn\'t have money to spend on them. I did hear that an old pantyhose can work in a pinch... I\'ll go bug my mom

[TwoHedWlf]

I\'ve got a sheet of filter wool jammed in mine between the grill and the mesh.

[Reflector]

I\'d test if those pantyhose (This is very desperate of you, a piece of A/C foam costs only a few dollars/pounds/euros) for airflow restriction. Most people don\'t run server fans like I do. Ergo you could end up with a computer with very, very little airflow.

[Phoxtane]

I\'d test if those pantyhose (This is very desperate of you, a piece of A/C foam costs only a few dollars/pounds/euros) for airflow restriction. Most people don\'t run server fans like I do. Ergo you could end up with a computer with very, very little airflow.

Not desperate... just cheap, lol. It\'s not *that* big of an issue anyway, and you\'re probably right about the restricted airflow.

[Reflector]

So you\'re willing to risk a multi-hundred to (one to-a-few) thousand piece of hardware for a dollar or two?

Uh...

[Capt'n Skunky]

That\'s not dirty and not even close to the worst I\'ve seen. I had to do a software upgrade to the IBM PS/2 4680s that run IBM\'s super market application in some grocery stores in NJ late one night. These computers were stuffed under the counter in the little office every store has. They had been put there some 15 years prior and never touched again until I got there. The entire inside of the cabinets had become stuffed with dust, hair, lint and who knows what else. I mean there was literally NO open space in the cabinet. When I took the cover off, it looked like I had just opened a fully packed box of lint. It was a testament to the durability of those 4680s that they could continue to function in that state for so long without failing. They really were indestructible.

Arrr!

Capt\'n Skunky

[TwoHedWlf]

They really were indestructible.

Don\'t you man 'industructible'?

[RichieD76]

Concrete floors can be (and should be) sealed with an epoxy sealer to stop dust and damp. If your gona be there a while, PVA mixed at 20:1, vacume the floor as best you can and then use a paint roller to seal the floor. I\'m looking at it from the wrong point of view i\'m afraid but i own a construction company so....Hope you fine a better way than what i recommended! lol

[Phoxtane]

So you\'re willing to risk a multi-hundred to (one to-a-few) thousand piece of hardware for a dollar or two?

Uh...

I dust it it out maybe once a month, and the only actual buildup I\'ve found so far is tiny bits of stringy dust in the heatsinks of the CPU and video card. Since I\'m a fat lazy American slob, I was just looking around to see if I could stop that.

[bandit4910]

I have concrete ceilings...

My compuer get\'s dust buildups so the fan can\'t spin...

I just use an air can to clean it out...