SMALL BIZ ADVICE
What would you ask Michael?
The Dell Community has contributed: 9799 ideas | promoted 668499 times | 76315 comments

How IdeaStorm Works:

Post Promote Discuss See
580

Air Purifier / Filter for the Dell desktop PC

580 points posted to Desktops, Environment by kyliemanders 04/06/07

Most people leave their desktops on 24/7. Since we already have a cooling fan in place why not give us a removable cleanable air filter.
This would keep the inside of our Dell PCs free from unsightly dust as well as purify the air we breath.
You can make additional profits selling replacement filters. These could be scented or offer health benefits such as reducing allergens. These would be applicable for both Vista and Linux PCs.

phubert28
04/06/07
I've LONG wondered why home and x86 servers haven't been shipping with air intake filters.

Yes, people WILL forget to change them, they'll get clogged and the systems will overheat!

And, the only solution to _that_ end of it is to have overheat sensors/software installed to warn that the filter likely needs changing... I think it would be 100% worth the additional cost in better reliability.
coulton20
04/07/07
Nice idea.

The systems do alleady have heat sensors so that side isn't too much of a problem!
reg
04/07/07
Good Idea - Indoor air pollution is a constant source of illness in office environments.

A 1-micron filter combined with an activated carbon filter panel, in an easy to remove and replace cartridge,
would greatly improve the air quality where you need it: Right at your Desk!

60 Dells in an Office building would act as a nice little air cleaning team.

A sensor inside the PC would tell you when it was time to change the filter,
and gracefully shut down the system before it got over heated - along with another Nagging message to Change Your Air Filter.
badblood
04/07/07
Great idea, since they have failed at making decent computers they can produce air purifiers that can connect to the internet. They are almost there and only need to add a sock to their fans, which are about the loudest in the entire universe.
skippydaroo
04/27/07
Merged Idea originally posted 04/26/07
Supply a dust filter on PC's

Supply an externally accessible dust filter for the air intakes on your pc's.
not all pc's are deployed in nice clean office environments. We deploy a load of ours in factories, a number of which are at recycling plants. Nothing stops a P4's cooling than some of that fine paper dust you get there that clogs the CPU fan fairly quickly and spells death not long after.
If you could offer a filter that sat on the outside of the case that a user could just take out and wash this would make life so much easier.
thejedimaster
04/27/07
Merged Comment originally posted 04/26/07
then the filter would get stuffed from all the dust on it not leeting air in... and you're comp will overheat..I'd rather have the dust on the component and clean it once a month..it's much easier..i just take a powder brush take one cover off and it's done..
jbonefx
04/27/07
Merged Comment originally posted 04/26/07
I like the idea, it takes a lot less time to change out a filter than it does to open the case and blow all the dust off the components. A filter would make it easier to dispose of the dust rather than relocating it...
thejedimaster
04/27/07
Merged Comment originally posted 04/26/07
what'll you do when the filter rips or cracks or gets old? pay dell $50 for it? and a filter would stop a good portion of the air from going in..say goodbye to your comp!
raskren
04/27/07
Merged Comment originally posted 04/26/07
Functional, practical, and inexpensive to implement.

The only caveat is that the end user must be able to clean/replace the filter and it must be cheap to replace. Bundle a few extra filters with the PC too.
aussie_guy
04/27/07
Merged Comment originally posted 04/27/07
I have 20 years experience of installing and maintaining electrical and electronic equipment in various environmental conditions. Dust filters can become blocked very quickly in dusty environments... resulting in little or no air flow to the interior of your case... This WILL cause widespread component problems on your main board and ancillary boards. Then you will try to blame DELL for the faults... Integral dust filters are not a good option. If dust is a problem, consider other measures to address the problem.
make_it_better
04/27/07
Merged Comment originally posted 04/27/07
aussie_guy and thejedimaster are correct.
tech_granny
04/27/07
Merged Comment originally posted 04/27/07
Integral dust filters on your new pc... trying to overheat it are we?
the_main_man
04/27/07
Merged Comment originally posted 04/27/07
I hope you are happy to clean/check your filter VERY regularly... if not, you can cook bacon and eggs on your CPU.
kyliemanders
04/27/07
Merged Comment originally posted 04/27/07
premcv
04/27/07
Merged Comment originally posted 04/27/07
So, Duplicate/Shared/Borrowed it is
skippydaroo
04/28/07
A dust filter doesnt have to be anything fancy, something the user can take out and wash would probably work. As somebody pointed out you already monitor the internal ambient and the cpu temperature. Given that you only need to monitor that temperature, when it starts to spike you can get your software to suggest cleaning the filter as one of the troubleshooting actions.
It's all very well juffesting cleaning the components once a month with a powder brush, but that is ludicrously impracticall. We have nearly 3 thousand pc's located over australia and new zealand. Whe woudnt have time to do that. Let alone trusting our users to do it.
I'd rather have an option we can ask our users to check regularly than haven them opening up their pc, or waiting till the fan fails and the cpu toasts everything else.
 
Atom feed track comments for this idea
Please log in to post a comment