What do you do to keep dust out of your pc?

[Achilleslastand]

I have an semi old Antec 900 case and usually once a month use canned air and a vacuum cleaner to keep it as dust free as possible. Someone told me to stretch panty hose over the fans to keep the dust out but im afraid of restricting air flow. Your thoughts ?

[Crazyeyesreaper]

does it restrict airflow yes is it worse than todays cases which feature fan filters ? no

Either deal with dust or use the panty hose

Seriously I never understood why ppl are so worried over case fans, just because they cant push 99% of their rated airflow doesnt mean the PC is gonna magically melt

I have some oif the hottest components one can buy and I use a sound proofed case with 2 intake fans and 1 exhaust fan both spinning at 1000 rpm adding 2 more fans and upping speeds to 1500 rpm dropped temps a whole 2-3c which isnt enough to matter.

Its the age old battle of are you tired of cleaning your hold system or would u rather just vacum some clean some panty hose out.? up to you.

[Totalheadache]

replaced my antec 900. def a dust magnet that one....although my hafx also needs cleaning every few weeks or so.

i use a feather duster and a vac cleaner with a smaller nozzle.

[SinerAthin]

Aside from the obvious risk of fire; what danger does dust posses for a machine?

[Crazyeyesreaper]

causes loss of airflow / and in some cheaper PSUs as dust builds up inside it can cause it to short out killing it. Mostly its just gross and if you live in ahome where people smoke

Nicotine + Dust = eventually turns to cement. So if you dont clean it often you end up with essentially cement caked into heatsinks etc.

Also dust on the CPU heatsink or radiator when water cooling acts as an insulator thus eventually cause much higher temps. As not only does it insulate the heat it blocks airflow no airflow means heat continues to build and system can over heat.

Thus proper dust filters that are easy to clean is preferable to a machine with no filters.

[karamazovmm]

^that is so true, I smoke and sao paulo is a very smoky city, simply put if you leave dust unattended you are going to deal with a paste that is really hard to get off, just look at my kitchen, perfect example

just use the panty hose, my methods for acquisition are still the best

[SinerAthin]

I actually had a nasty surprise last time I switched build.

Opened up the case and was greeted with something that looked more like a strange creature occupying the inside of my case, the product of an undisturbed collection of dust accumulated over two years of laziness and lack of maintenance. How the machine ran just fine baffled me o.O

[Ybbon]

As to what happens without filters, I have a suspicion I am finding out now. My desktop gets cleaned somewhat regularly, opening up the caae and a air can outside, but for a while it was kept in a very dusty spot and not cleaned. Now the front fan is making a nice high-pitched whining noise - pretty sure it is that one as I disconnected all the other fans and disk drives and powered just that on (the connector is hidden away so that was why I never actually turned it off), anyway, as it is the front fan it probably gets the dustiest and I suspect the reason it is now having a problem is that dust has finally worn something away, but I have 3 others and room for another so
not too worried other than the noise. This has nothing to do with it being left on, just bad maintenance.