Is a Hamilton Beach TrueAir air purifier sufficient to prevent dust buildup in my PC, or should I also get extra case fans?

[freeagent]

What GPU do you have? I have a 6800 XT

3070 Ti

 

[Segundoh]

3070 Ti

I see it seems those temps would be about the same as a 6800 XT. This is definitely concerning then. Also, I forgot I was actually overclocked. It seems that the junction temp maxed out at around 100 degrees Celsius at stock settings and the GPU speed is about 70 degrees C which is at least lower. That is definitely still higher than your temps though which seems concerning.

 

[freeagent]

This is definitely concerning then.

Well.. you have to keep a few things in mind..

My ambient might be lower than yours.. the barometer on the wall beside my PC says 20c.

My case definitely flows more air than yours, that is a biggy. I do like this case better than my Meshify C.

I am using a tasteful blend of mediocre and high performance fans right now..

 

[Segundoh]

Well.. you have to keep a few things in mind..

My ambient might be lower than yours.. the barometer on the wall beside my PC says 20c.

My case definitely flows more air than yours, that is a biggy. I do like this case better than my Meshify C.

I am using a tasteful blend of mediocre and high performance fans right now..

I’ll have to buy a barometer and see what my ambient temp is then. The outside temp is about 21 degrees C though? So it’s not too different. What case do you have? I could try high performance fans too since I don’t know how good the Fractal fans are.

 

[freeagent]

I’ll have to buy a barometer and see what my ambient temp is then. The outside temp is about 21 degrees C though? So it’s not too different. What case do you have? I could try high performance fans too since I don’t know how good the Fractal fans are.

I am using a Torrent Compact right now, great case.. a bit tight to work with if you have a bunch of drives to wire, but completely manageable.

 

[Segundoh]

I am using a Torrent Compact right now, great case.. a bit tight to work with if you have a bunch of drives to wire, but completely manageable.

Oh okay I see. I’m not using any hard drives, so that should be okay. Maybe I’ll try out a Torrent Compact then. Thanks!

 

[mechtech]

Is an air purifier sufficient for preventing dust buildup in my PC, or should I also get more case fans? I heard dust buildup is reduced with more case fans; that makes sense, though I don’t know if that’s true. I was looking at this purifier. Is this good enough, or should I get something else? It’s the 160 square foot one since my room is 150 square feet. https://www.amazon.com/hamilton-beach-04384-eliminator-permenant/dp/b003riubg0

I have a Fractal Design Meshify 2 Compact: https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/meshify/meshify-2-compact/white-tg-clear-tint/

It comes with 2 140mm front fans and 1 120 mm rear fan. That means I have space for two 120 or 140 mm top fans and 1 120 mm bottom fan. I can replace the 2 140 mm front fans with 3 120 mm fans as well. What would be the best approach to reduce dust buildup?

Unknown, so many variables such as open windows, pollen, dust, pets, forced air hvac vs baseboards or other.

I have forced air and keep it on recirc 24/7 with a MERV 12 or 13 filter. I cleaned out my PC for the first time in 5 years and the dust was minimal.............minimal as in that it did not need to be done.
(basically what I have installed on the furnace)

https://www.supplyhouse.com/Honeywell-F200F2002-Media-Air-Cleaner-16-x-25-MERV-13-1400-cfm

In 6 months it's pretty nasty.

 

[freeagent]

No problem

 

[Segundoh]

Unknown, so many variables such as open windows, pollen, dust, pets, forced air hvac vs baseboards or other.

I have forced air and keep it on recirc 24/7 with a MERV 12 or 13 filter. I cleaned out my PC for the first time in 5 years and the dust was minimal.............minimal as in that it did not need to be done.
(basically what I have installed on the furnace)

https://www.supplyhouse.com/Honeywell-F200F2002-Media-Air-Cleaner-16-x-25-MERV-13-1400-cfm

In 6 months it's pretty nasty.

That makes sense. So there’s a lot of different variables at all. I keep my windows closed, at least, so I guess that eliminates a lot of that. I don’t have any pets either. The pollen doesn’t seem too unreasonable, but the dust may be. And I’ll look into if it’s forced HVAC or baseboards. I’m not exactly sure what I have right now. Ill buy that and Try it then. Thanks!

 

[LabRat 891]

Unknown, so many variables such as open windows, pollen, dust, pets, forced air hvac vs baseboards or other.

I have forced air and keep it on recirc 24/7 with a MERV 12 or 13 filter. I cleaned out my PC for the first time in 5 years and the dust was minimal.............minimal as in that it did not need to be done.
(basically what I have installed on the furnace)

https://www.supplyhouse.com/Honeywell-F200F2002-Media-Air-Cleaner-16-x-25-MERV-13-1400-cfm

In 6 months it's pretty nasty.

Very helpful 'anecdotal experience'.
(Providing the filter's specs, use/duty cycle, and frequency of filter changes, is enough info to empirically figure out 'how dusty' and give an idea of performance)

Also, this makes me seriously miss having Central HVAC.
I'd not appreciated just how much they help w/ dust until moving to WA*.

*Clearly, the PNW, USA (at large) does not realize that there are more reasons for HVAC in a home beyond "staying cool, the few months of the year that the PNW turns into SoCal".

 

[Segundoh]

Very helpful 'anecdotal experience'.
(Providing the filter's specs, use/duty cycle, and frequency of filter changes, is enough info to empirically figure out 'how dusty' and give an idea of performance)

Also, this makes me seriously miss having Central HVAC.
I'd not appreciated just how much they help w/ dust until moving to WA*.

*Clearly, the PNW, USA (at large) does not realize that there are more reasons for HVAC in a home beyond "staying cool, the few months of the year that the PNW turns into SoCal".

Oh okay I see. That's good to know that I can figure out performance based on that alone. What kind of HVAC system is used nowadays? I'm relatively young, so I don't know if I experienced that and all lol. As someone from the East Coast, I admit that I didn't realize how important HVAC was for other purposes like this; well, at least I know now!

 

[mechtech]

Oh okay I see. That's good to know that I can figure out performance based on that alone. What kind of HVAC system is used nowadays? I'm relatively young, so I don't know if I experienced that and all lol. As someone from the East Coast, I admit that I didn't realize how important HVAC was for other purposes like this; well, at least I know now!

It also matters how much ventilation you have on your PC and how long it runs as well.

I only have 1 intake and 1 discharge fan 120mm........I think 900 or 1200 rpm max? Also I turn on my pc when I use it and shut it down when I don't. At this point in my life, I'd guess my desktop might run 30 ish hours a week, if I had to guestimate (on avg.)

If you have more airflow and let it run 24/7 then yes it will get a lot more dusty inside your case for sure.

Like you mentioned first post, yes a room air filter could help for sure if you don't have forced air hvac.

diy model

 

[LabRat 891]

Like you mentioned first post, yes a room air filter could help for sure if you don't have forced air hvac.

diy model

Not sure about the bearings/sleeve liking that orientation, but 4 20x20x2 filters will make for near-nihil impedance to airflow. (Which means more CFM, meaning higher AER, meaning less (arrestable) particulate in the air.)

I'll try that design out this wildfire season.
(Maybe even 5 filters, and 'legs' to elevate the unit)


edit:

12-Pack Rheem Household Pleated High Performance Air Filter (MERV 8, Select Sizes) $20 + Free Shipping

Home Depot has 12-Pack Rheem Household Pleated High Performance Air Filters (MERV 8 - FPR 4) on sale as listed below for $19.97. Shipping is free. Thanks to community members tunabreath and spa ...

slickdeals.net

~$20 for 12 MERV 8 filters.
-not great for smoke, but will work to greatly reduce dust (as OP was interested in).
12x of those makes 3x quad-filter box fan units (as @mechtech 's video showed, but 1-inch thick filters.)

 

[bobbybluz]

I've had extensive experience with those Lasko fans. The bearings are their main weakness. For regular vertical use they'll last for years, horizontally they die rather quickly. For the price though they're great. Walmart usually sells them for around $15 during summer sales.

The higher the rating on the filter the lower the amount of air that passes through them is. A close friend that does HVAC informed me about that. I was using 12's for my home system and when I switched to 8's my utility bill dropped by around 20%. Also, the higher the rating the higher the price of the filters. I can buy two 8's at Menard's for the price of one 12 (I buy them two at a time when they're on sale, they should be replaced every 90 days for home HVAC use).

I use the dirt cheap blue filters for PC's. On my Cosmos 1000 it's interesting to see the spots where dust accumulates and some aren't where you'd expect. I used to cut them up and make custom filters but I'm too lazy to do that anymore.

 

[nomdeplume]

using a tasteful blend of mediocre and high performance fans right now..

I'm sure the exhaust note is quite refined.

 

[LabRat 891]

I've had extensive experience with those Lasko fans. The bearings are their main weakness. For regular vertical use they'll last for years, horizontally they die rather quickly.

Thank you for confirming my suspicion.

The same design as demonstrated in the video can easily be 'modified' to allow the fan to be oriented 'correctly':
-Use carboard (tip: flattened soda boxes are coated, they're 'more airtight' than corrugated) to make a 'bottom', and use the 4th filter as an 'endcap'.

After my filters show up (I've used through my years'-piecemeal thrift-store filters), I think I'll post a separate pictorial guide on 2 variants of the 'DIY box fan air cleaner' (and link to it here).

Warning, tangential thoughts:
DIY Air Cleaners absolutely work, but (to me) the biggest negative is how much floorspace they take up. I don't recommend it, but I have been cogitating on how to 'hang them' like most 'shop air scrubbers' are.
I'm also curious if those polyester 'fleece' blankets could be used as 'washable filters'? Fresh out of the dryer, "fuzzy blankets" are *insanely* 'static-y', and can keep that charge for weeks after folding and putting them away. (Not to mention, they're 'basically the same' material as the pleated filters' media.)

 

[A Computer Guy]

Another thing you can do is put your PC into a bigger box however this is probably not as practical for home use.

In the diagram below on the left my friends car shop PC get very little to no dust on the inside of the PC compared to the outside. Of course a car shop is a very dusty environment with a lot of heavy particles.

A better layout might be the diagram on the right.

Automotive air filters seem to work really well I was very surprised by the amount of dust they capture.

His Dell in the box never overheated even in the North East summer time. Sure it did get warm though.

 

[Segundoh]

It also matters how much ventilation you have on your PC and how long it runs as well.

I only have 1 intake and 1 discharge fan 120mm........I think 900 or 1200 rpm max? Also I turn on my pc when I use it and shut it down when I don't. At this point in my life, I'd guess my desktop might run 30 ish hours a week, if I had to guestimate (on avg.)

If you have more airflow and let it run 24/7 then yes it will get a lot more dusty inside your case for sure.

Like you mentioned first post, yes a room air filter could help for sure if you don't have forced air hvac.

diy model

Oh okay that makes sense. In terms of ventilation, I have 2 140 mm intake fans which max out at 1000 RPM and 1 120 mm discharge fan which maxes out at 1200 RPM I do also turn on my PC when I use it and shut it down when I don’t, so that should help with dust. I’d say I use it about 40-50 hours a week, but that’s still better than keeping it on all the time for sure and with relatively less airflow too. Thanks! I watched the bideo and I’ll try it out now.

Not sure about the bearings/sleeve liking that orientation, but 4 20x20x2 filters will make for near-nihil impedance to airflow. (Which means more CFM, meaning higher AER, meaning less (arrestable) particulate in the air.)

I'll try that design out this wildfire season.
(Maybe even 5 filters, and 'legs' to elevate the unit)


edit:

12-Pack Rheem Household Pleated High Performance Air Filter (MERV 8, Select Sizes) $20 + Free Shipping

Home Depot has 12-Pack Rheem Household Pleated High Performance Air Filters (MERV 8 - FPR 4) on sale as listed below for $19.97. Shipping is free. Thanks to community members tunabreath and spa ...

slickdeals.net

~$20 for 12 MERV 8 filters.
-not great for smoke, but will work to greatly reduce dust (as OP was interested in).
12x of those makes 3x quad-filter box fan units (as @mechtech 's video showed, but 1-inch thick filters.)

That’s good to hear that these barely impede airflow but are still very effective at reducing dust. 5 filters would definitely help for sure. As I’m not worried about smoke, just capturing dust is fine by me. I’ll try 3 quad filter box fan units for sure. Thanks!

I've had extensive experience with those Lasko fans. The bearings are their main weakness. For regular vertical use they'll last for years, horizontally they die rather quickly. For the price though they're great. Walmart usually sells them for around $15 during summer sales.

The higher the rating on the filter the lower the amount of air that passes through them is. A close friend that does HVAC informed me about that. I was using 12's for my home system and when I switched to 8's my utility bill dropped by around 20%. Also, the higher the rating the higher the price of the filters. I can buy two 8's at Menard's for the price of one 12 (I buy them two at a time when they're on sale, they should be replaced every 90 days for home HVAC use).

I use the dirt cheap blue filters for PC's. On my Cosmos 1000 it's interesting to see the spots where dust accumulates and some aren't where you'd expect. I used to cut them up and make custom filters but I'm too lazy to do that anymore.

I see, so is Lasko not that reliable? I suppose it’s fine for just $15 though as you said even if it breaks. And I see it makes sense that filters that filter out more stuff impedes airflow more. There are tradeoffs for everything, I guess. I’d certainly rather go for cheaper 8s as you said to save money on both the filters themselves and my utility bill.

Also, so, do the AC filters have to be changed every 90 days too or is that different than DIY home HVAC devices? If so, I definitely have to switch the AC filters since I don’t think they’ve ever been changed lol. I’ll definitely look for those cheap blue filters as well to improve my dust buildup. I’ll see where dust accumulates as well and adjust it accordingly.

I'm sure the exhaust note is quite refined.

Refined fans are always nice lol.

Thank you for confirming my suspicion.

The same design as demonstrated in the video can easily be 'modified' to allow the fan to be oriented 'correctly':
-Use carboard (tip: flattened soda boxes are coated, they're 'more airtight' than corrugated) to make a 'bottom', and use the 4th filter as an 'endcap'.

After my filters show up (I've used through my years'-piecemeal thrift-store filters), I think I'll post a separate pictorial guide on 2 variants of the 'DIY box fan air cleaner' (and link to it here).

Warning, tangential thoughts:
DIY Air Cleaners absolutely work, but (to me) the biggest negative is how much floorspace they take up. I don't recommend it, but I have been cogitating on how to 'hang them' like most 'shop air scrubbers' are.
I'm also curious if those polyester 'fleece' blankets could be used as 'washable filters'? Fresh out of the dryer, "fuzzy blankets" are *insanely* 'static-y', and can keep that charge for weeks after folding and putting them away. (Not to mention, they're 'basically the same' material as the pleated filters' media.)

Oh okay it’s good that it’s very easy to modify. I’ll modify it like that to make it work best. I’m definitely interested in seeing your DIY air cleaners!

I definitely should’ve considered floorspace, but I forgot about that. I don’t have a lot of floorspace, so I might need a small one. Well, I’ll measure my room and look at the measurements of these DIY ones to see if I can make it work. Also, that’s definitely an interesting idea! I didn’t realize they pretty much were the same material, but it makes sense for sure. That’d be interesting to see.

Another thing you can do is put your PC into a bigger box however this is probably not as practical for home use.

In the diagram below on the left my friends car shop PC get very little to no dust on the inside of the PC compared to the outside. Of course a car shop is a very dusty environment with a lot of heavy particles.

A better layout might be the diagram on the right.

Automotive air filters seem to work really well I was very surprised by the amount of dust they capture.

His Dell in the box never overheated even in the North East summer time. Sure it did get warm though.
View attachment 296976

I see, that’s a good idea and it certainly makes sense. I’m not sure if I could make that work, but I can certainly try. Itd definitely work in my room since it works in a car shop. I will try out automotive air filters for sure then. It’s good to hear that his Dell never overheated even during summer.

 

[bobbybluz]

I see, so is Lasko not that reliable? I suppose it’s fine for just $15 though as you said even if it breaks. And I see it makes sense that filters that filter out more stuff impedes airflow more. There are tradeoffs for everything, I guess. I’d certainly rather go for cheaper 8s as you said to save money on both the filters themselves and my utility bill.

Also, so, do the AC filters have to be changed every 90 days too or is that different than DIY home HVAC devices? If so, I definitely have to switch the AC filters since I don’t think they’ve ever been changed lol. I’ll definitely look for those cheap blue filters as well to improve my dust buildup. I’ll see where dust accumulates as well and adjust it accordingly.

Lasko is fine for the price. A few drops of very light synthetic oil into the bearing behind the fan blade will keep them running for years. You can tell when it's time to do that when you shut off the fan and the blade stops moving much faster than when new or freshly lubed. One of the cancer meds I'm on makes me sweat profusely so I almost always have a fan blowing onto me. There's a 20" Lasko running on low sitting three feet away from me as I type this, I just lubed the bearing last week.

I change my HVAC filter every 3-4 months. If your AC filter has never been changed do it now.

 

[nomdeplume]

That’s good to hear that these barely impede airflow but are still very effective at reducing dust. 5 filters would definitely help for sure. As I’m not worried about smoke, just capturing dust is fine by me. I’ll try 3 quad filter box fan units for sure. Thanks!

Smoke is being used relatively given how frequent PC damage from smoking indoors occurs. Particulates in the air coming from outside fully satisfy the smoke condition.

Think of how clouds and rainstorms form. Something very small in the air is sticky enough to attract and collect together particles surrounding it. Most of what fails to pass through the highly turbulent interior of a PC is clumps that formed in a similar fashion.

The most direct example is again that if you vape directly in front of a new PC for an hour and the entire life of those components will be dustier.

 

[dgianstefani]

Smoke is being used relatively given how frequent PC damage from smoking indoors occurs. Particulates in the air coming from outside fully satisfy the smoke condition.

Think of how clouds and rainstorms form. Something very small in the air is sticky enough to attract and collect together particles surrounding it. Most of what fails to pass through the highly turbulent interior of a PC is clumps that formed in a similar fashion.

The most direct example is again that if you vape directly in front of a new PC for an hour and the entire life of those components will be dustier.

Suspended water droplets in vapour are what carry contaminants, bypassing some barriers that may stop dust when dry but not necessarily otherwise, at least for humans.
Vaping is so bad for health as well as PC, popcorn lung, inflammation, permanent scarring etc. Plus the synthetic oils and such that coat everything the ecig vapour comes into contact with.

Keeping electronics room low in humidity and with a decent air purifier DIY or otherwise is good in general.

 

[phanbuey]

Seems expensive at first but pays for itself in savings from having to rebuy canned air.

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

Fans moving through air produce a static charge which attracts dust, ahir etc. The only way to keep any electronic free of dust is to have it hermetically sealed with water cooling or very low power fanless devices and using wireless tech on all input and output devices, and have the power plug hermetically sealed on the PSU...


I've killed ram and a a few usb drive via esd...

Except, that isn't the case.

Any fluid flowing has what is called a boundary layer or fouling layer. It's the area nearest the surface of the moving fluid and the solid interface. This boundary layer stagnates, and drops whatever is in suspension throughout the rest of the material flow. This is why really old pipes build up a surface of crud on their insides, and why the average house fan has one side of each blade coated in dust despite constantly spinning around.

A hermetic seal around electronics would only be viable if you then rejected all heat build-up into the surrounding environment via radiation and convection, because any conduction would also provide a source of flow and thus some minor deposits of fouled material...in this case dust.


You could, and can, decrease the build-up of dust. Positive pressure, and a venturi inside a single intake, can force the majority of dust out of suspension. An air purifier can decrease the amount of dust in suspension. Thing is...you are the problem here. That is to say most dust is dead human skin flaking off...and as a fellow human I think it's pretty obvious you aren't going to fix that issue any time soon.



Regarding ESD...it's the D part that's an issue. Static charge inducing an opposing charge, and thereby pulling dust out of suspension is a thing. Thing is, even a grounded case builds up dust, and the discharge of said static charge due to poor or insufficient grounding is less about removing dust from suspension and more about frying electronics. I've seen...surprisingly large...dust bunnies do nothing to electronics. My anecdote is as valuable as yours....which is to say neither of them is fact. You can read up on fouling here: Fouling It's not a comprehensive description...but the gist of it is good.

 

[A Computer Guy]

View attachment 297095

Seems expensive at first but pays for itself in savings from having to rebuy canned air.

How long before these typically need maintenance other than cleaning the filter?
I've had mine for about a year now, it's quite excellent.

 

[phanbuey]

How long before these typically need maintenance other than cleaning the filter?
I've had mine for about a year now, it's quite excellent.

I've had a shopvac with a similar design that I havent maintained (and use more often) for like 10 years now, so Im pretty sure it will last a while...