questions for antec 900 owners

[PotGoblin]

How feasible is it to add dust filters on this bad boy? I mean how much room is there between the fan and the front mesh?

I was thinking of adding 2 of these filters

I know the filters kill some airflow. But I figure the front 2 fans on medium with the rear and top on low will still provide decent cooling and not be to terribly loud.

The main reason for them is my house is fully carpeted so it gathers alot of dust even though I will probably place my new system up about 2 feet on a small printer cart next to my desk. And I also own a cat that sheds alot (and soon to be 2 shedding cats if my wife has her way 8O ).

Otherwise I am pretty dead set on this case just wondering if the filters would fit so that I could hopefully not have to bust out the can-o-air every 3-4 weeks.

Edit: or better yet would it be best to just remove the front mesh on those 2 hdd bays and use these filters - that way I can just unscrew the front part of the filter every couple of weeks and just wash it off

 

[immagikman]

As is stated above, there isn't much room, which is my only complaint about the 900.....its not really roomy enough for a full on gaming rig. Cabling space is tight and if you have ANY noisy fans, you are going to hear them.

HOWEVER, if all you car about is keeping things cool. This is a great case.
I overclock my system by 10% and I have no problem with heat...but I only have a single Nvidia 7800 AGP card and 3 HD's in it.

On a side topic...what the heck is with all the advertising in peoples sigs lately?

 

[PotGoblin]

thanks for the reply's, front and formost i have 2 priorities for this system

1) keeping it as cool as possible while on air
2) hopefully minimize the amount of dust in the process

while I know these 2 statements or contradictory to one another I figure I can achieve this in 2 ways

removing the front mesh to install filters or for ease of cleaning while keeping the dust out, or placing the filters between the fan and the harddrive.

the noise doesn't really bother me, and i don't spend the day staring at the front of my system so if it is slightly out of sync i don't think it would matter to much

but going with a black aluminum mesh instead of the stuff that comes on the drive bay wouldn't detour from the looks to much I think, I was just wondering if it would be possible. because I am assuming the fan is screwed on to the drive cage anyways is this correct?

however if i install it on the backside it would be a royal pain to clean it - no better than if i was to just leave them off and blow it out every couple of weeks.

Now I do know regardless of the case i pick, just to the cats and all the carpet in my house it will get dusty fast. Thats why I am considering those filters. I just curious if they would fit well without the fan coming off in the process

I have read other suggestions of putting used laundry drier sheets between the mesh and the fan as well. and just replace them every other week. Again that would involve pulling out the cages and removing the mesh every time.

any other thoughts?

 

[rickkipp]

This from another post I read - doesn't sound too difficult, and it must be a great filter, based on what they're made for.

Quick way to add Air Filters to Antec 900 Case

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thread Rating:


With all the deals going around for the Antec 900 case, I thought I'd share a way I found to add air filters to the Antec 900 case.

I got the Antec 900 case on the CompUSA deal. Great case. Versatile, nice looking, and great cooling. The one problem I have been seeing people complain about this, is the lack of filters on this case. With 2 120mm intake fans (or more if you have the side fan installed), dust could be an issue. I figured out an easy way to add filters to this case. I remembered awhile back that one of our old window air conditioners was not cooling like it used to. So I took off the front panel and found out that the problem was that the air filter was dirty and falling apart. So I went to Wal-Mart to see if I could find a replacement filter. I found what I needed, replaced the filter and put the unused portion of the filter in a closet. Fast forward to today, and I was putting my parts in this case, and I got to thinking about the posts people wrote about how they like the case but didn't like the fact this case didn't have filters. Then, I remembered the extra air filter material I had left over and thought I'd see if I could get that to work in this case. It worked like a charm. The air filter material can be cut to any size needed, so I just cut 2 pieces for the front 2 intake fans. I unhooked one side of the fan from the drive cage, put the air filter in, and snapped the fan back onto the drive cage. So the air filter sits between the fan and the drive cage, and I had no issues with fan blades touching the air filter material or the material getting caught up in the fan at all. So now I have air filters on my 900 case, while they may not be as fancy or easy to access as the ones on the P180 case, they get the job done. Plus the air filter material was pretty cheap ( I think it was around $7.00), plus there is alot of material in one package (I'm sure I could easily get a dozen or more filters out of one package), and you can rise and reuse them if you wish. So there you have it, cheap air filters for the Antec 900 case.

In summary here is what you need to do if you want cheap air filters for your Antec 900 case.
1) Go to Wal-Mart ( or any other place that would sell window air conditioner air filters), and get 1/4" thick air conditioner air filter.
2) Cut air filter material to size needed. (I'd recommend cutting extras out so you have them ready when they need to be replaced.)
3) Unhook one side of 120mm front fan from drive cage, place air filter between drive cage and fan, snap fan back onto drive cage.
4) Replace filters as necessary.

While they may not be as fancy or as easy to access as the air filters on the Antec P180 case, they will still get the job done at not too bad of a price.

Hope this helps.
Reply

 

[cardio]

I have the 900 and have not found it is any more prone to dust than any other cases I have used. As far as cooling, I have seen no reason to run the fans on any speed other than LOW. My case temp is only slightly higher than ambient. My case is completely loaded including 2 8800 750's in SLI on an EVGA680i. 4 HD's, 1 DVD, OCed C2D at 3.56 with Thermalright 120 Ultra Extreme with a Scythe 120mm Fan. My power supply has 140mm and 80mm fans. The case is on a desk rather than the floor but is is about as dust free as it was a couple of months ago when it was built (no filters). Right now the system temp is only 3c above ambient and its been running for 8 hours.

The main thing I like is that it is almost silent. The quitest computer I have ever had. Silent at 1 meter away. Unless, that is, the Optical drive is running.