Dirt-proof case?

[Samantha]

My home PC lives in a house that is constantly (or so it seems) undergoing renovation. Needless to say the parts like the CD-ROM drive, the floppy drive, and the tape drive collect a lot of mucky dust. I'm afraid to look inside the box.

I'm buying a new PC and am wondering if there are dirt-proof cases. I remember reading a long time ago about an IBM PC that had a cover on the front that helped protect the drives. I also imagine that PCs that are designed to be used in some business settings must have some better sort of protection from grime.

Can anyone recommend such a case?

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[ReddDogg]

I have a case that is very dirt resistant, I don't know of any dirt proof. Mine has filters on the air intakes, which means if it gets dirty, I better change the filter. I don't have to change them yet, I bought the case in march. it is 69 dollar case, and I had to buy 2 fans to make it dirt resistant, intake on the front, and exhale on the back, and those run about 5 to 10 dollars each, depending on where you get them.

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Joe Redd
MCP

[Son of Zeus]

Samantha,

I used to worry about opening up my case & cleaning it out to. That was until a friend of mine, who runs a PC store in South Brisbane, installed a newer, faster HD for me.

When he had finished he said "& now to give it a good clean out". With that he picked it up &, much to my horror, gave it a good shake or two. In fact I counted them, there were three (3) shakes in all.

Seeing all the colour drain from my face he quickly added "oh don't worry there tougher that u imagine". I hope so. Well we're still friends. My PC still works fine & after the "clean out" we found a few paper clips & a case screw or two, left over from the previous owner no doubt.

But alas none of my missing socks.

In terms of compressed air he advised me to never spray it directly onto any electronic components but just around them & inside the case in general & around the fan. For the motherboard etc he advised to just blow gently, but firmly over it. You can actually buy special vacum cleaners designed specifically for PCs. But after watching him in action I thought “what the hell” & now just use my household vacum cleaner turned down low.

Cheers.......Son of Zeus.

[ixl]

The place I used to work was a manufacturing plant. The PCs inside the shop used to get so dirty you could barely identify the contents of the case. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif
As to the original question, they do make special cases for industrial apps, but they are expensive and generally overkill for most people. Perhaps a filtered PS would be a good way to start..

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Charles M. Kozierok ( ixlubb@PCGuide.com )
Webslave, The PC Guide (http://www.PCGuide.com)
Comprehensive PC Reference, Troubleshooting, Optimization and Buyer's Guides...

[Samantha]

Thanks for the replies!

I was overstating with "dirt-proof". Dirt-resistant would be fine.

I don't know anything about using filters on a PC. Are these things I add to the computer? What's a "filtered PS"? Power supply? Is that a type of PS I would buy?

Besides protecting the inside of the PC, I'm also concerned about protecting the drives. Neither the floppy drive nor the CD-ROM drive on my current PC has worked for awhile now (new ones still sitting on the floor waiting for me to install them). I think this mostly because of dirt problems. Here's a picture of an Enlight case (http://enlightcorp.com/pc_cases/7654-b.html) that looks like it has a cover over the drives. Does it look that way? Unfortunately, Enlight doesn't describe it and this is also a mini-mid tower. I'm finding it difficult to find information about cases on the Web!


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