Hopefully someone has been in a similar boat and can recommend just a plain basic case without silly mesh and top vent gimmicks.
Well I thought I was explaining similar scenarios. I myself live in a dusty family home with three kids, and have dealt with loft PC installs, workshop, and kids rooms, and next to a huge window while the whole street was knocked down and rebuilt.
The Phanteks I have has a window, I can still see inside the PC, it has full mesh roof, a full mesh floor, full meshed rear, all meshed enough to take 3 120mm fans or 2 140mm fans on each section. And it has two front fans with a meshed section behind a panel. Two 140mm fans in front, one 140mm on rear, with a Noctua 120mm fan on the CPU cooler, and two fans on my MSI GPU. System is used every day for gaming etc.
To clean my filters, easy, the Silverstone just pushes out and can be hoovered or ran under a tap, and the Phanteks are sprung loaded. Easy as pie, as is the Fractal R4, no need to remove panels or floppy slap on magnetic flaps.
Right now I can write my name upon the shelf it sits on, but I am happy with the PC's filters and though there will be dust inside, I am fine with that as there is less dust inside the PC than there is on the outside.
Anyway, as others have mentioned, Fractal, though again I would recommend only using a front input fan to maintain a positive air pressure. As even with positive air pressure a case with a 360 meshed top will have little dust ingress.
For instance, I had a Silverstone GD02 running as an HTPC with a passive NT06 cooler and two rear mounted 80mm Sharkoon SE fans at quietest setting, GPU was a passive Powercolor HD5750.
It ran a stock E8500 and 4gb of Dominator GT, still got pretty hot, still filled with dust.
Same system in a TJ08 had no dust issue and was more than happy with the fan on low.
Q9550 system in a plain Gigabyte case that was exactly the same as your Coolermaster elite 334 internally, (the 334 has no filters), front and rear 120 fans, no GPU, the inside looked like a 6 year old ash tray no matter how often I cleaned it out. The most pathetic case I ever owned.
Same sytem in a Fractal Core 1000 with a single 120mm fan has no dust issues. But for a server I prefered the TJ08B as it's simple to clean the filter. The Core 1000 is a pain to clean.
So even if you do get a basic plain simple case, it is still worth thinking of positive air pressure within, as it stops any dust from getting sucked into unfiltered gaps in the case.
If I was building a server with an ATX motherboard, it would be a Fractal R4 or R5 with no window. The meshed panels are all sealed unless you remove the coverings to utilise them, the front is reasonably filtered, but importantly, easy to clean, it comes with two fans, I would either add a second front, or put the rear fan in front also to ensure positive air pressure.
If I was building a real server/workstation to live in the loft, it would be a Silverstone MM01 case.
I will say this again, cases such as Silverstone FT02B, TJ08B, and the like, they have large fans and real positive air pressure that pushes air out the case, and dust too to some degree, the filters are effective, but over time you do get a build up of fine dust. The best dust filters I have used have been on Silvertone and Phanteks, both very easy to clean, and the big Fractal R3/R4/R4 cases are the same, the R4 is an excellent case and was one of the most popular home server cases.
Any PC with a fan inside will pull dust into the case, any case with exaust fans only will pull dust into the case, only fans pushing air into a case offer more control over dust ingress, and then your filters and the room conditions are factors.
Even if your PC is not requiring a lot of cooling, it still generates heat, therefor your CPU cooler fan spins, the less airflow, the more it spins, and it always generates negative air pressure and will atract dust. Even a large grill with a large fan, as long as filtered will be more dust proof than a standard case with no fans. Because the air flow will be dictated by that front fan, and it will be filtered.
It's an urban myth that large front grills and big fans equate to dust. And all the front door offers is less noise in most cases. Mesh grills require dust filters, the more unobstructed air flow into a PC through dust filters, the less dust and and fan speed required.
Fractal R4 or R5 is probably the best. But before you condone their design and meshed panels, try using Google to watch some reviews. Personally it sounds like anything with a filtered intake is going to be better than what you currently have, also look up Google regarding dust within PC's and the benefits of positive air pressure, because so far your responses seem a little sharp and poorly informed. Sorry!
Regarding yor experience of meshed front panel cases, what cases have you been using and what are you replacing? How are you utilising your magnetic flappy mesh?
YOUR BASKET
1 x
Silverstone SST-MM01B Mammoth Full Tower Chassis - Black (SST-MM01B) £259.99
1 x
Silverstone Raven 3 Full Tower Windowed Case - Black/Gold (SST-RV03B-W USB 3.0) £91.99
1 x
Fractal Design Define R5 Midi Tower Case - Black Pearl £84.95
1 x
Corsair Carbide 330R Ultra Silent Midi Tower Case - Blackout Edition (CC-9011076-WW) £79.99
1 x
Fractal Design Define R4 Midi Tower Case - Black £72.95
1 x
Cooler Master Silencio 452 - USB 3.0 ATX Case - SD Card Reader £64.99
1 x
Antec P100 Mid Tower Silenced Computing Case £62.95
Total : £717.82 (includes shipping : Ex.VAT).
and hence into the cases.