Air filters

[minihack]

Thought this might be interesting for you.

My computer in the workshop is getting the good old BSOD ad OSX is also doing it occasionally. The board has served me well, and temp.s are fine but my conclusion is that my workshop environment is a pretty harsh one. Laser machine, aluminium cutting and all sorts goes on there so it's not a surprise that particles and nasty stuff is slowing killing my PC.

So, it is time for a rebuild and my next case is going to be a G5 (again), This time though I want it to stay clean on the inside.

I looked at the usual fan filters, but they look awful and in any case I'd like to filter almost all the case intake side. Being a car enthusiast, I love some of the air filters you can get and they look good too. So I searched K&N and PC filter as I felt sure someone somewhere will have done it. I found this:

http://www.knfilters.com/news/news.aspx?ID=163

I then started to look on eBay for a flat K&N filter I could use inside my G5. I have one on order now for my next mod.....and I'll post details in a while. After ordering it though (and I found the one I ordered by tediously checking the spec.s of a load of them) I found a nice little resource for selecting K&N filters by the size you need them to cover. Here's the link: http://www.knfilters.com/search/universal.aspx I went for a flat panel filter that will sit behind the G5 grill and filter everything coming in the front.

In my opinion K&N filters really look the business and something that can do 100,000 miles and keep microscopic rubbish out of engine cylinders without causing any blockage to airflow has to be good....

I'll post pic.s on the build in due course.

 

[coronaflyest]

I was thinking of doing some type of filter work on my Mac Pro mod too, I'm looking forward to your progress.

 

[shokka9]

This is going to be interesting.

 

[neilhart]

I think that you are on the correct path. I have been using K&N filters on my babies (cars) for years and use the K&N filter cleaning kits as well probably not as often as I should. However, my red car has about 125K miles on it and the engine has never been apart and is running strong. K&N filters should work great on computers that are exposed to harsh conditions.

Looking forward to seeing your project and the details.

neil

 

[valkeriefire]

I could be totally wrong here, but I don't think you will get the necessary cooling if you run an automotive grade airfilter on a PC. In order for it to really help you would have to tape off or otherwise close every other opening on the PC (because air will follow the path of least resistance and will come through the other grills if you don't tape them off). If you did that, you would need to get all your air through the K&N filter, and I don't see PC fans generating the kind of pressure necessary to flow air through that kind of filter. In such a scenario, your PC would be in a negative pressure situation and would be starved for cool fresh air. It might work, but I don't see modern high heat CPUs and GPUs doing well in it.

You may want to try a case other than the G5. Many cases have good filters built in. I have the Fractal R3 and it has removable filters on the front and bottom. They stop airborn dust, but are fairly unrestrictive. Even if you taped off all the non-filtered openings, the case should still get plenty of air. Now they have the fractal R4 which is basically the same case only better.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352024&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-NA-_-NA

 

[eelhead]

I think the point of this is to try and set up a filter system into a modded case and not just buy an off the shelf case.
Part of the customization into the G5 is trying to incorporate modern PC case options, such as air filter, into a custo G5.
There are ways to seal off the front of a G5 or Mac Pro and have it funnel through a filter system, just part of the modding challenge.