Question PC Cases [AIR-TIGHT vs AIR-FLOW]

[BTBuilder]

Building a pc case to suit tough environments means looking at case building from a whole new perspective.
One of the best concepts I've seen yet is a rather large case tested by Linus Tech Tips.
It used a very conventional flow through system with some very unconventional extras.
Basically it turned the box into a horizontal pipe or tube, with 2 x 180mm high capacity air intake fans at the front covered by a downwards directed vent cover and pushing the air through a large HEPA filter the size of the front panel.
This gives the rest of the case a positive air environment, forcing everything else out of the case, including water (though I would not suggest submerging - it did give the case a fairly impressive IP43 rating).

So why this discussion?
Simple is there a better solution. I'm interested more in the theory so get creative and draw on some of all this new/old technology we keep hearing so much about.
Look forward to all the suggestions, esp' all you DIY'ers out there.

BT Builder

 

[hotaru.hino]

This thing?

To answer "is there a better solution?" requires more answers from you. What requirements are you looking for? You could probably achieve something like an IP67 or IP68 rating, but you're basically sealing the case up at that point, which you now have to rely on using the case itself or use some sort of other external cooling mechanism.

Which Linus also covered, sort of

You could conceivably seal this case up from the elements completely such that all of the electronics won't have a problem with dust or water.

However you have a problem now: your I/O isn't watertight. Sure you could probably make something like a watertight connector that plugs directly into the I/O on the motherboard (which I've seen in some outdoor military equipment), but you can't hot plug anything at that point. Actually, heck, just look at military equipment in general, because they're meant to survive working in everything from desert dust to rain storms.

 

[Karadjgne]

Start with the basics. Electronics do not need air. At all. The only thing that's necessary is cooling.
Technically, if you turned the case panel into a giant passive heatsink, that'd suffice to cool the cpu/gpu, especially in colder climates. Could even use liquid transmission.
Downward pointing, covered i/o like on the back of many monitors solves dust/rain issues.