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Every time I open the casing (tower type) of my computer, I can see a lot of dust inside. The dust is often all over the blades of the fans.

As we all know, it is not a good practice to cover the vents. So is there a hack to prevent this and control the dust?

My thoughts:

  1. Are there any chemicals which can attract dust? (As same as silica gel absorbs vapor)
  2. Are there any dust resistant computed which can be applied on the surfaces that are exposed to dust?
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    Similar to How to remove large quantity of dust from electronic/mechanical equipment?. In this post there may be something to help you.
    – Pobrecita
    Jan 26, 2015 at 8:25
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    Thanks a lot for the comment. But my concern is not removing dust. I want some trick to prevent it. Jan 26, 2015 at 8:30
  • I know,but I thought might help a bit. You should analyse the carpet and curtains for dust.
    – Pobrecita
    Jan 26, 2015 at 8:31
  • Computers are always pulling in air, so to prevent dust, you'll need to have dust-free air. I've seen this almost accomplished by the use of several air purifiers in the house running 24/7, but if there was an easy way to prevent dust, I'm sure a lot of people would be doing it already.
    – J. Musser
    Jan 26, 2015 at 16:50

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You can use any type of textile from an old pair of tights to professional HEPA filters, as long as the surface is big enough to let a sufficient amount of air through. Therefore you could maybe create a long mesh tube, apply the filter material around it and roll it up in order to get the largest possible surface within the smallest volume.

I think there is no way you can reduce the amount of dust by some chemicals, as they would have to get in direct contact with the dust particles. So smearing some glue onto the fan grid will not have much effect.
But you could possibly increase the humidity in your room to reduce the amount of dust flying around. This however would also affect you yourself.

A possibly more effective but also dangerous idea of mine would be to build a box with two metal capacitor plates that can be charged with static electricity (you would have to buy some electronic parts and do some soldering). This would draw the dust onto the plates while the air passes by. However, you have to make a case around it that is connected to the ground to shield the outside from the electrostatic field. And you will have to put it in some distance to your machine, connecting them with maybe some kind of paper/textile tube with wires in it to make it keep its shape.

However, the easiest way is to buy some prebuilt dust filters. For example, there are filter panels with magnetic or adhesive tape to place directly onto the fan grids.

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  • Dust becomes attached to the blade as the airspeed near the blade surface is zero or near zero (the boundary layer) and as you move away from the blade the airspeed will increase up to the flow speed. So thus entering the boundary layer can become settled on the blade surface. This is a simplification but that is basically it. The best way to avoid dust entering the chassis is filter all intake fans, don't worry about the exhaust fans. Seal up everything but the vents. Then obtain a couple of washable fan filter plates which can be screwed onto the fans. Dust shouldn't go any further.
    – jCisco
    May 30, 2017 at 23:41

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