I wanted to add air filtration to my most recent build. I'm not sure why I began this tedious process. I'm single and probably don't vacuum as often as I should. My builds don't get very dusty inside and I blow them out at intervals, but why let dust in at all? There are vendors that sell filters that you can stick on your case but all that I found required replacement instead of just washing them out, so I bought a 5' roll of 1/8" 60 pore foam
http://www.mcmaster.com/?m=true#foam...ilters/=nyqxj7 (2195K102). The 60 pore foam had longer lengths to work with than the 45 pore that they label as "Electronic Equipment Air Filter Pads". More pores per inch catches smaller particles than foam with fewer pores per inch.
I originally intended to use metal channels to frame the foam filters but I found some plastic edging near the doors and flooring section of Lowe's Hardware and decided it would be easier to cut into the shapes I wanted. I cut each piece with a paper cutter and/or scissors, but the plastic flexes and it does a sloppy job. The frames are held together with superglue and scotch tape. None of the angles on the ends match up exactly with the next piece but they come close enough and the foam sandwiched in the channel covers any air gaps.
It was easy to make frames to cover the TAC2.0 openings on the side and top. They are held on with magnetic tape. The front of the case also was easy, with two removable vents in the 5.25 holes. I cut some foam and glued it on the back of each and glued another piece of foam to the air hole in the bottom. The 5.25 vents can just be popped out and run under the faucet but I don't know how I can clean that bottom piece when it gets dirty. I probably could have found a better solution there but I got lazy.
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There are openings in the bottom for the power supply fan and an 80mm case fan which are larger than they need to be, and there are stress bends and feet and rivets and lumps inside and out. I couldn't create easy rectangular frames that sat flush on the outside, and the inside was cramped and required measurements more precise than I could create with a carpet knife and plastic edging. Frames on the inside would have to go under the fans, and they would have to be removed to clean the filter, so I decided to just lay out loose foam in the shape I needed and clamp it down with the fan/PSU. Those will be an big pain to clean but the PC will be on my desk and shouldn't collect a let of dust.
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The back has an exhaust fan and exhaust doesn't get filtered. There's an opening about 1" x 6", and I took two lengths of edging and velcroed them inside the case on either side of the opening. There wasn't room for a full frame, I'll just slip the foam in and out when it needs to be cleaned.
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There were also a lot of holes that were in the back and bottom of the case that served no apparent purpose. I got some silicone sealer and plugged them up. It's messy, but this is a machine not a piece of furniture.
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Some of these vents may turn out to be exhausts when everything is assembled and running. I can just remove the framing around them and be good to go. If I had bought stronger magnetic tape I likely could have omitted the frames, but the Lowes stuff is weak sauce. The unused slots in and around the rear card panel can't be easily filtered. I could tape some foam across them on the inside but I'm really not that compulsive, I was just bored and looking for something to do until I could actually build the box. McMaster-Carr is a great place. It has raw materials for almost any project and they don't mind taking very small and inexpensive orders.