Dust filter and mesh front bad?

Rockbox

Rockbox

Rockbox

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Should I use a dust filter on a mesh front pc case? Used one behind it for years, but I heard it impedes air flow a little.

I have a 230mm fan half-blocked by hard drive cages, and my cable management isn't great in my Bitfenix Prodigy, but it's unsolvable.
 
Mr Mcgoo said:
mesh front can usually get away without a dust filter as the mesh does a fairly good job to minimize dust.
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Do the pros outweigh the cons? I'm revamping my cooling, and every bit of airflow helps. But the room's pretty dusty, and holds up well thanks to filters on every intake.
 
Only you can answer that really. Test your thermals with and without. If the difference is small enough then keep the filter in as well.
 
The difference is usually minimal but it depends on how restrictive the mesh is and other factors like static pressure of the fans etc.
 
As has already been pointed out difference is minimal. However low static pressure fans would struggle with a second mesh/filter. i would say you fine without an additional filter in front of the mesh :)
 
Thanks all. I've removed the filter, so we'll see how much of a difference it makes.

I have 2 120mm filters on the side panel, which is just holes, no filter. Where would a 230mm filter be useful? Cases with 230mm side fans? Because the front panels I see are either closed off or mesh.
 
Rockbox said:
Should I use a dust filter on a mesh front pc case? Used one behind it for years, but I heard it impedes air flow a little.

I have a 230mm fan half-blocked by hard drive cages, and my cable management isn't great in my Bitfenix Prodigy, but it's unsolvable.
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Depends on how much dust buildup is acceptable and how often you want to clean it. I haven't seen but a very few case grills that had fine enough mesh to keep dust out of system .. and many fans have such low ability to overcome airflow resistance (too low a pressure rating) only makes it worse. I always use filters and case relatively high pressure rated intake fans that have ability to draw decent amount of air through grill and filter. Most fans (especially big ones) are not up to the task unless ran at or near full speed.

The only Prodigy I've built had 2x PH-F120MP top and 1x PH-F140MP back intakes w/ filiters using front as exhaust w/ no fans. Owner hoovers filters when doing house so they stay pretty clean allowing it to cool well.
 
See, that's what I'm worried about. My front fan is a 230mm Spectre (non-Pro). I assume high static pressure fans have the thick fins, while high air flow have the scythe fins. The Spectre has the latter.

I measure my temps, and it might take a day to work out how much of a benefit it brings, but filtering every intake keeps the inside dust-free for weeks, if not months.

I'll probably end up keeping the filter, as the fan is large, and runs on quiet mode, so how much of a difference will it really make? The only filter giving me trouble is the PSU one that slides in, as it can amplify vibrations in the case sometimes if all the way in.
 
On top of that, the Spectre was installed with anti-vibration pads and sits tightly between the front and hard drive cage. Removing it wouldn't be easy. For my next case, I'll strongly consider high static pressure with my mesh front, but for now it looks like this fan will die with this case.

Would you say it's best to avoid large fans in general? And what do you consider large? >140mm?
 
I have a pair of 200mm Bitfenix Spectre Pro intake fans and a pair of 200mm Aerocool Silent Master exhaust fans. Like you, we have a very dusty house due to being next to fields. I had a pair of mesh intakes over the front intake fans but found that they didn't cut down on the dust enough so came up with the idea of knicking a pair of the wifes black tights, cutting panels out of them and stretching them over the mesh intakes to double up on filtration. It doesn't seem to have cut down on the airflow very much as I can still run the fans at 480rpm while still having decent airflow through the case. it has massively cut down the amount of dust entering the case although I have to hoover the filters weekly.

The filter for my psu intake has had the same treatment but my psu is mounted on foam pads and the fan rarely spins up anyway.
 
Thanks. On my 2nd day without the filter. Need to go through my coretemp logs, but from what I've seen, I'm not seeing a huge difference with the filter off. Then again, I don't have GamersNexus style standardised testing.
 
Options:
1) Do nothing and a year or more have dust in your PC parts needing to be cleaned out of GPU/CPU cooler and fans. Your temps will be impacted 'later' by having allowed dust in there

2) Use filters to reduce the need to clean PC parts. Minor change to airflow. Clean dust from filters routinely each month or so.

3) Scrub your body many times each day, insuring you remove any loose skin cells and eye lashes. Only wear lint free clothing. Wear a cap for your scalp. Vacuum your room each day and wipe down surfaces to reduce dust intake. Consider a full body clean suit.

4). Laser treatment to remove all body hair. This also increases your perceived epeen during competitive play.
 
I can recommend the demifex filter, I have a full set on my phantek evolv x and the difference over the stock ones is amazing.
 
DEMciflex are very good. That said I'm using filters that came in my Evolv mATX and Luxe builds with good results. I hoover them when I do house (weekly. Don't need to be done that often, but if I don't they get forgotten until so dirty system starts running on hot side. Evolv mATX build is year old and is so clean inside it looks like new build. Luxe is couple years old and just as clean inside. Not a lot of dust in house as it's just wife and me with no pets on quiet street with no thru traffic. Maybe that's part of why stock filters are fine for me. Case fans running at higher speeds will suck more dust thru filters too, and mine run kinda slow at 600rpm idle and 900-1100rpm full load.

I've used SilverStoneTek filters in some in builds that cases came with no filters and found they did fine.
 
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Scougar said:
3) Scrub your body many times each day, insuring you remove any loose skin cells and eye lashes. Only wear lint free clothing. Wear a cap for your scalp. Vacuum your room each day and wipe down surfaces to reduce dust intake. Consider a full body clean suit.
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sounds like the movie Gattaca
 
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