Starteling discovery: Antec 1200 filters block probably 70% to 90% of airflow.

[Skybuck Flying]

Hello,

I am taking it very slow with re-building my PC and thinking and checking
about everything, every little detail gets examined.

I was just cleaning the dust filters and noticed some water vapor on the
center or so... I started to wonder if they are perhaps obstructed by "white
stuff in the water".

So I started blowing against the dust filter and keeping my hand behind
it...

I didn't feel much airflow go through so I thought "that's odd".

Then I started blowing more focusedly and still very little airflow went
through it...

Then I removed the dust filter and blew directly towards my hand ! It felt
very cold and strong... then I placed dust filter back and almost nothing.

So the dust filter is actually blocking 70% to probably a more realistic
percentage of 90% of airflow !

No wonder the fans have to spindle at medium to keep it cool and it still
barely keeps cool. (Motherboard 45 degrees or so)

I received an e-mail from somebody asking and wondering how a big case like
antec1200 could possible still overheat a system.

Well the answer my dear is a very simple answer:

"The antec 1200 dust filters block 90% of the airflow !".

This is very counter productive because now I have to set the airfilters to
medium (double speed) it sucks in more dust, so filters get filled sooner.

Ultimately I suspect the dust filters don't help much at all... and dust
still gets sucked in from all kinds of corridors and such.

So I am going to do more experimenting with this case.

This time I will leave the dust filters completely out and I will run it at
low settings.

This will probably cool everything inside with ease... also less dust will
be sucked in and low noise, though I always have airplugs in anyway.

This is also better for back and top airfan otherwise they also getting
dusty.

Hopefully this won't turn my PC into a vacuum cleaner... but it's worth a
try ! =D

(I think it will be less than previously because the dust was insane ! )

Bye,
Skybuck.

 

[Beryl]

Hello,

I am taking it very slow with re-building my PC and thinking and checking
about everything, every little detail gets examined.

I was just cleaning the dust filters and noticed some water vapor on the
center or so... I started to wonder if they are perhaps obstructed by "white
stuff in the water".

So I started blowing against the dust filter and keeping my hand behind
it...

I didn't feel much airflow go through so I thought "that's odd".

Then I started blowing more focusedly and still very little airflow went
through it...

Then I removed the dust filter and blew directly towards my hand ! It felt
very cold and strong... then I placed dust filter back and almost nothing.

So the dust filter is actually blocking 70% to probably a more realistic
percentage of 90% of airflow !

You're supposed to SUCK thru the filter, not blow on it! Try again. Suck
hard. Feel all that dust in your lungs? Well, there ya' go.

Air flows slowly toward, and into, the fan from all angles.
Air is forced out the other side at higher velocity, in a narrow stream.
Place the filter on the slow side. The fan sucks. Your computer sucks.

 

[RoyLFuchs]

You really should change your nym to one that matches your mentality,
such as:

"SkyTard Masturbating"

 

[Jasen Betts]

I was just cleaning the dust filters and noticed some water vapor on the
center or so... I started to wonder if they are perhaps obstructed by "white
stuff in the water".

So I started blowing against the dust filter and keeping my hand behind
it...

I didn't feel much airflow go through so I thought "that's odd".

Then I started blowing more focusedly and still very little airflow went
through it...

Then I removed the dust filter and blew directly towards my hand ! It felt
very cold and strong... then I placed dust filter back and almost nothing.

if it felt cold you were doing something wrong, or perhaps you're dead!

So the dust filter is actually blocking 70% to probably a more realistic
percentage of 90% of airflow !

probably closer to 10% you should measure it, and not measure something
totally unrelated.

 

[Skybuck Flying]

if it felt cold you were doing something wrong, or perhaps you're dead!

Now that my PC is working I can clearly feel cold air going into the front
fans
and coming out of the front fans even with the dial at diagonal down right.
(25%)

I have never felt so much cold air go into my case at even low settings.

I am gonna try medium settings to feel how cold it gets right now !

Yeah with this puppy I could probably freeze my hand off over time lol at
full settings.

It makes a huge difference.

probably closer to 10% you should measure it, and not measure something
totally unrelated.

Can't measure it, no measuring equipment, but why measure... the human body
is marvelous

Anyway I am 100% convinced this could have been a big problem.

Now that dust filters are removed the antec 1200 is going to do what it was
designed for.... keeping stuff cool !

Added benefit: air speed much higher thust dust gets no chance to settle and
gets blown out... makes sense to me !

Bye,
Skybuck.

 

[Skybuck Flying]

Your theory sux.

My new theory:

No dust filters for antec1200 is 10x to 100x times better !

Bye,
Skybuck.

 

[Skybuck Flying]

Also the manual of the antec 1200 case confirms that if the dust filters are
full this can lead to high system temperatures and system instability.

So this is known behaviour.

My recommendation for now would be too simply remove the dust filters all
together and be on the safe side.

However I will test what happens if the PC is run without dust filters the
coming years

So far I think it's for the better !

No more hot systems for me I would think.

So far when my living room door was open I saw a CPU temperature of 25
degrees for my 90 watt processor ! This was with case doors open.

I am now getting close to actually running my system under normal
circumstances so it will be most interesting to see what a real/normal
temperature will be ! All this info coming soon near a website near you !
=D

Bye,
Yours truely,
Skybuck =D

 

[Skybuck Flying]

Also I have another little theory:

The dust filter itself and perhaps in combination with the dust could
actually heat up the air that goes through the filter because of the
friction.

So by using no filters the air stays cool, which should be good, but be
carefull; too cold might be bad too

Just lower the fan speed after removing the dust filters and all should be
good !

Bye,
Skybuck.

 

[[email protected]]

Also the manual of the antec 1200 case confirms that if the dust filters
are full this can lead to high system temperatures and system
instability.

So this is known behaviour.

My recommendation for now would be too simply remove the dust filters all
together and be on the safe side.

However I will test what happens if the PC is run without dust filters
the coming years

So far I think it's for the better !

No more hot systems for me I would think.

So far when my living room door was open I saw a CPU temperature of 25
degrees for my 90 watt processor ! This was with case doors open.

I am now getting close to actually running my system under normal
circumstances so it will be most interesting to see what a real/normal
temperature will be ! All this info coming soon near a website near
you ! =D

Bye,
Yours truely,
Skybuck =D

The grills that cover the output fan on power supplies can block a good
percentage of air too. Just a little blockage can be enough to raise temps
within the system.

 

[[email protected]]

Also I have another little theory:

The dust filter itself and perhaps in combination with the dust could
actually heat up the air that goes through the filter because of the
friction.

So by using no filters the air stays cool, which should be good, but be
carefull; too cold might be bad too

Just lower the fan speed after removing the dust filters and all should
be good !

Bye,
Skybuck.

The cooler the better I would say.

 

[John KD5YI]

Also I have another little theory:

The dust filter itself and perhaps in combination with the dust could
actually heat up the air that goes through the filter because of the
friction.

So by using no filters the air stays cool, which should be good, but be
carefull; too cold might be bad too

Just lower the fan speed after removing the dust filters and all should be
good !

Bye,
Skybuck.

My monitors say my System is at 39C and my CPU is 50C. Is that normal?

John

 

[Norman Peelman]

Also the manual of the antec 1200 case confirms that if the dust filters are
full this can lead to high system temperatures and system instability.

Common sense...

So this is known behaviour.

Common sense...

My recommendation for now would be too simply remove the dust filters all
together and be on the safe side.

Bad choice...

However I will test what happens if the PC is run without dust filters the
coming years

So far I think it's for the better !

No more hot systems for me I would think.

Bad choice...

So far when my living room door was open I saw a CPU temperature of 25
degrees for my 90 watt processor ! This was with case doors open.

That's only 77 degrees F. You need to find out what the operating
temperature range is for your CPU and motherboard. I'm sure they can
handle a lot more than that.

I am now getting close to actually running my system under normal
circumstances so it will be most interesting to see what a real/normal
temperature will be ! All this info coming soon near a website near you !
=D

Is there some particular reason why you can't simply clean the dust
filters on some sort of schedule, like once a month maybe? If you even
remotely think that the dust won't have time to settle because the air
is flowing faster, you're going to be in for a big surprise. It doesn't
work that way. Those dust filters are there for a reason, they are also
named after that reason.

 

[Norman Peelman]

Also I have another little theory:

The dust filter itself and perhaps in combination with the dust could
actually heat up the air that goes through the filter because of the
friction.

So by using no filters the air stays cool, which should be good, but be
carefull; too cold might be bad too

Just lower the fan speed after removing the dust filters and all should be
good !

Bye,
Skybuck.

You need to look up the definition of 'filter'.

 

[Skybuck Flying]

After 5 years of using dust filters there was enough dust inside my case to
fill my entire longs or so !

So it ain't helping.

Might as well get rid of it all together and see what happens, so far you
not explained yourself so I think you full of unfounded fear ! =D

Bye,
Skybuck =D

 

[Skybuck Flying]

You need to look up the definition of 'filter'.

Why ? Filters are not helping, BURN THEM I SAY !

Bye,
Skybuck.

 

[Norman Peelman]

After 5 years of using dust filters there was enough dust inside my case to
fill my entire longs or so !

So it ain't helping.

After 5 years of neglect, what did you expect.

Might as well get rid of it all together and see what happens, so far you
not explained yourself so I think you full of unfounded fear ! =D

Get a can of compressed air (Dust Remover) for computer/electronic
use and simply blow the case/filters out once a month. Don't use an air
compressor unless you have a moisture filter on it.

Whether you use the filters or not, you are going to need to open the
case and blow it out on some sort of schedule. Dust will be attracted to
the electro-magnetic properties of the components inside.

 

[GMAN]

Also the manual of the antec 1200 case confirms that if the dust filters are
full this can lead to high system temperatures and system instability.

So this is known behaviour.

My recommendation for now would be too simply remove the dust filters all
together and be on the safe side.

Are you fuckin kidding me??? You are supposed to remove and clean these out
regukarly. Its designed that way.

Do YOU even bathe???

 

[Bob F]

Now that dust filters are removed the antec 1200 is going to do what
it was designed for.... keeping stuff cool !

Added benefit: air speed much higher thust dust gets no chance to
settle and gets blown out... makes sense to me !

And only you.

Visually inspect the heatsinks/fans in a few months. You'll find plenty of dust.

 

[Skybuck Flying]

Look at the fences in front of the fan blades, it hardly has any dust on it,
then look behind the filters, huge amounts of dust there...

that must be telling you something.. though I did clean the fences
sometimes.

Anyway I have now cleaned the front fans, I got some nice pictures of it.

Unfortunately I also break something when cleaning my PC...

This time I let one of the fans fall onto the table one apperently one of
the leds broke... at least that's what I think happened.

So one little blue led not shining, oh poor baby... oh well not to bad !
=D

I wonder if the led can be replaced ! Or perhaps a little tick against it
might get it working again ?

I am now in the process of figuring out how to transer my files from my PIII
to my DreamPC 2006 (I must say, so far I am liking Windows 7 especially with
the new chipset, everything is working much better, I only wish I had two
ethernet ports and my file transfer program was working... but besides from
that I have little complaints so far... except perhaps that file system
browser/explorer is a bit slow sometimes, and starting programs a bit slow
sometimes and copieing files seems a bit slow sometimes as well but that
might be because other things are busy... anyway sleep works too which was
unexpected and cool to see but I turned it off (it went to sleep after 1
hour... I can't use that because I want to run programs sometimes for a long
time but I think I am gonna put windows into sleep mode or so from now on
it started up real fast... might be special feature of new motherboard... I
am not yet sure about that )


I think I also noticed the case now working as a "personal cooler" when it's
on 50% with the filters gone... but maybe I imagined it... I'm not yet sure
about that, but I think the effect was real I can imagine the whole thing
working as a big air displacer now ! ;?) yeah.

During the cleaning of my PC and during the using of my PC I said: "unreal"
a lot of times... and "that's unreal" and "dude" ! =D

Bad and Good signs lol.

Bye,
Skybuck.

 

[Skybuck Flying]

Yesterday my new/fixed/partially passively cooled system without the filters
was at:

32 to 36 celcius temperature for CPU (90 watts) and 29 to 31 celcius for
motherboard this was at a room temperature of 22 degrees celcius.

So I think your system can do better.

But until it dies it's not a problem

Bye,
Skybuck