Best dirt free cabinet

C

captivating

Disciple
Guys I have a current cabinet I don’t know which brand but pic’s attached below . Comes with dust filter but I am not happy with the performance of the cabinet. Too much dust still manage to reach inside the cabinet. Please suggest me a cabinet with best performance regarding keeping the dust away
 

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Depends on your budget. The Lancool 216 is a brilliant case for the price (I'm using it) and the mesh does a good job of keeping dust to a minimum.
 
PunkX 75 said:
Depends on your budget. The Lancool 216 is a brilliant case for the price (I'm using it) and the mesh does a good job of keeping dust to a minimum.
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yeah i own this too. Very nice case and mesh is quite fine, so front mesh with intakes catches a lot of dust.
It also has a extra dust filter accessory too ( purchased separately ) which i thought i would buy but so far don't feel the need. Case has great cooling too.
 
I only have my experience to share and general suggestions on what to look for.

PunkX 75 said:
Depends on your budget. The Lancool 216 is a brilliant case for the price (I'm using it) and the mesh does a good job of keeping dust to a minimum.
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I'm not familiar with the latest hardware, but unless the quality of design, mesh and fit (panel gaps) has improved, I'd say this is the minimum budget required for OP's requirement. I'd be surprised if things like dust control is now taken into consideration by manufacturers for cases, say, <5k.

I've used Antec's NX230 and currently using CM NR200P. In my usage with the NX230, there was a lot of dust all over the inside when I had just the exhaust fan that came with the case. After I added 5 case fans - 3 intake at the front and 2 exhaust up top - dust accumilation was fairly less inside, except under the PSU shroud (resembled a lot as in the OP's picture). The PSU fan was a downfacing intake; it was supposed to exhaust towards the rear, but I guess some air found it's way out via the hole for wires (PSU is non-modular), resulting in dust accumulation over time exactly as in the picture. Raising the feet height, helped a bit but wasn't enough. There are useless gaps in some cases, that aren't meshed enough to prevent dust getting in (refer attachment). If there's any negative pressure in the cabinet, dust will enter the cabin through the gaps.

So, my suggestions would be to:
1. Look for a case without useless gaps that aren't meshed enough/at all!
2. Have more intake fans than exhaust, running at sufficient speeds to create positive pressure inside the cabin.

captivating said:
Budget is flexible
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3. Stating at least an upper limit might help with the suggestions coming in from fellow members. Other than the mentioned Lian Li case, I've read about Fractal Design's Meshify 2 being good at keeping dust out, and is the only case I've noticed that has no gaps and finer mesh on the PCIe slot covers. But you can clearly see the price difference.
 

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Or build a dust filtrator! I call it the normal person's Corsi–Rosenthal Box https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corsi–Rosenthal_Box

Construction is straight forward and simple, you need two fridge stands, a few sheets of cardboard, and an exhaust fan.

Roll up the cardboard into tubes and join the bottom sides of the fridge stands together.

Use another sheet to mount the exhaust fan on top, and connect it to a two pin plug.

Wrap super thin disposable non-woven bedsheets around this contraption.

You should end up with something like this:

dust-filtrator.jpg

Tuck it into a corner somewhere, and after a few days:

change-sheets.jpg

If it gets dirty then you know it's working. (because that's dust that otherwise would've ended up somewhere else)

Some thoughts:

It doesn't have to be this big and unwieldy, you could make it smaller or taller, the idea is to trap dust that's floating around before it reaches your computer. I change sheets about every three days, and they're only a few rupees each so I buy packs of 50 or 100 at a time. They're available at medical supplies shops and on Amazon. Power consumption can be kept at a minimum by using a BLDC fan but yes, it has to be turned on all the time for this thing to work. The disposable bedsheets need to be thin as possible, like 25 GSM or so. It's not very effective if they're over 45 GSM.

The stands are usually under 350 in local shops: https://www.amazon.in/UR-LITTLE-SHOP-Refrigerator-Dishwasher/dp/B081B62NHT/

I chose this stand because I intend to inset the fan and use this as a table to hold stuff, so I wanted something sturdy.

This has been in use for two years now and has helped a lot.
 
rsaeon said:
Tuck it into a corner somewhere
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Either you are too subtle with your sarcasm, or your house has eight corners on the floor per room!

Anyway, thanks for sharing this! I thought such filtration would only be effective if it's like an expensive Dyson product. I want to try this. However, I'd have to tuck myself out to make room for this. So, is there any disadvantage in doing this very thing in a smaller scale, other than may be having to change the sheets more often, if I only intend to keep the area around the PC, from which my PC fans can pull dust in, relatively dust free? Or does this require keeping the entire room dust free?

I have a few spare PC case fans and I can try to make a low profile filter - a tubular one that I can fit under my desk, behind the door, etc. These are the places that I find dust in my house anyway; ceiling fans seem to push the dust towards these places. Size would be what is viable with the fans that I have for now.

Would this be enough?
 
No matter what case or air filtration device you get, dust will still get inside your case. Only way to prevent this is to place the case in an airtight chamber with external cooling. Dead skin cells from your body will form dust, so even if you install filters on all doors and windows, dust will still be present inside the room.

So the best option is to get a vacuum cleaner/blower and clean the PC every few months depending on how much dust is present. Cases with removable filters on the intakes may help slightly by trapping the larger dust particles.
 
BullettuPaandi said:
Either you are too subtle with your sarcasm, or your house has eight corners on the floor per room!
Click to expand...

Sorry, I was pretty sleep deprived when I wrote that. And I was probably a little too invested in waiting for the chaotic aftermath of someone wanting to annoy 600 people on WhatsApp.

The idea is to use this non-woven material to trap airborne dust before it reaches your intake fans. If you can map out how air circulates in your room (like does it flow in through your door and out the window or the other way around), you'll be able to "catch" the dust before it reaches your system. Whichever fans you use, they need to have more airflow/pressure than the actual fans in your system.

Dust hiding in corners on the floor isn't getting into your system, so you can ignore that. If you have windows that are always open, you could just put these sheets over the windows and change them out weekly. You'll still get plenty of light and airflow, but a lot less dust.

photo_2023-12-17 06.52.43.jpeg

After about two weeks:

photo_2023-12-17 06.52.45.jpeg

You can use binder clips or cabinet magnets like these to hold up the sheets to the metal grill: https://www.amazon.in/Axtry-Catcher-Cupboard-Wardrobe-Bathroom/dp/B08JCR4SMT/

I used to dust my systems weekly but after adding this filtrator, it's become more of a monthly exercise. We've had non-stop construction in our locality for the last few years so this was made out of necessity.

Of course the best option is to have an actual air purifier, but those are expensive and filters are expensive and we usually have a hard time prioritizing quality of life purchases over necessities like pizza and fps. A filtrator like this is a good compromise since you could make it for around 2k in materials including the fan and there's no shortage of disposable bedsheets (they're usually used in a medical setting).

The key is to change the sheets often, because after a while it just stops trapping dust and doesn't help at all.
 
Many good suggestions are already given so I am asking something offtopic just out of curiosity, is that a cloth hanging contraption I see on the front panel of cabinet:
1703003761073.png
 
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