Possible Antec 900 (Pre-Revision) Filter Solution

[CombatLibrarian]

So recently I changed my power supply, and took the occasion to do a more thorough cleaning than I usually do, completely removing and cleaning out the drive bays and fans.

...yikes. While I keep the hardware itself clean in the main case area, the amount that manages to collect in those mostly empty bays is frightening.

I started looking around online for any possible mod solutions (I want to eventually migrate to an antec 1200, but those don't come cheap...) to cut down on dust while still being easy to clean. All of the filter solutions I've seen had problems that I didn't particularly care for...putting prefit 120mm screens behind the fans still means the dust concentrates in the fans, which are not easy to clean by any stretch. putting the filters at the end of the bay would cut hard into the airflow.

I have thought of one idea, and wondered if anyone else has tried this, and if so how it worked out for them.

Each of the drive bays has 3 separate grill fixtures on the front. The idea would be to cut filters to the size of the fixtures themselves, a small rectangular shape, then fit them in and affix them, most likely with velcro or some other changeable solution. The idea would be to fit them as flush against the grills themselves as possible, so that most dust would collect on the front of the grill for an easy wipedown. Some amount of dust might get trapped in between the filter and the grill, but cleaning this would be a much less frequent maintenance event.

 

[kyle2020]

That idea is whats used in cases like the Armor Jr - its a good idea and really does block out the dust.

A ghetto method would be using womens tights . . .

 

[Levi28001]

My antec 300 already has a front filter that catchs dust. Works really well; easy to clean. I tryed making 1 myself for my side fan which i use as an intake also, but fan gets noisy if even a small strand of fabric rubs. (I used pieces of an air filter from a house AC intake)


If you can get it to work post what you used.

 

[Creatre]

A ghetto method would be using womens tights . . .

I've thought about doing this in my 900. The thing moves an incredible amount of air, so I have to regularly clean it out. I'm not too lazy to clean it out but too lazy to get some sort of filter for it, lol.

 

[CombatLibrarian]

I checked out the local Lowe's, and the closest I could find to something that might be usable is a sheet of polyurethane filter for window air conditioners, roughly $1.50 for a large sheet.

It's essentially a thin layer of foam, 1/4 inch thick. I'm debating using it, not sure how much it'd cut down on air flow.

If I do, there's still the fitting...

I could try a rough and dirty fit to the outside, simply cutting a 6" x 12" section and fixing that to the outside. this would have the bonus of extremely easy cleaning with the downside of looking rather ghettotastic.

The other option would be to cut 6" x 1 3/4" sections and mount them to the inside of the individual grill fixtures that form the front grill in front of the front intake fans. This would be a bit more neat-looking while still hopefully achieving the desired effect. The drawback would be the need to remove the grill fixtures every time I needed to do a thorough cleaning. For those playing at home, that's a grand total of 6 fixtures that would need to be unscrewed, removed, and cleaned.

The removal would probably be unavoidable in the 2nd setup as the foam would probably trap the dust in, rather than on the surface of, the filter material. I may just try the easy frontend method while I look around online for a better available material.

 

[CombatLibrarian]

Update

For the time being, since I'm not sure how effective this material is going to be I went for the outside the box method. Fortunately, the filter is black so the visual impact isn't too glaring. I picked up some small velcro tabs and cut them into thirds along the width, and used those at the corners to affix a 6" x 10 1/4" secton of the filter material to the front, in front of the fans. I also have the optional side 120 fan installed on my 900, so I cut a much more odd shape to fix there. When I have more time later and can go dig out the xactos I may try to cut something more circular and fitting to that area.

So far it doesn't appear to be negatively impacting airflow. With a case ambient of 20C, my temps are the same, with the 9800 gtx+ idling at ~37C. I'll have to see how much it impacts internal dust buildup.