Anyone else have a problem with dust and/or pet hair?

[icsy7867]

Just curious what other people around here do. I don't have a huge dust problem, but my Siberian husky sheds like crazy. How often do you guys clean your systems?

My FreeNAS box is currently running in a cooler master HAF 922. A pretty good case, but I had to buy some foam and cut out sections to cover the vents for all the hair!

My ESXi box was an older HP i5-4440 system I had lying around. Does okay for the 3-4 VM's I run. It is more enclosed than the HAF 922, but still not great.

I think I am going to rebuild everything into a Node 304. This thing looks pretty great and has removable and cleanable dust filters which looks right up my ally!

Side note... I am thinking about combining both boxes into a single box by using BHYVE instead of ESXi, but I am not sure how reasonable it is to have everything running on one box, or perhaps I should just make a separate ESXi box using a Xeon D-1521 and FreeNAS as an iSCSI target. Of course I have to worry about dust and hair for these builds as well! I prefer my computer systems remain clean.

 

[SweetAndLow]

I have a dog with double coat. I clean my filters every 3 months. And by clean I mean run my fingers over it to get the dirt and hair off.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I wouldn't say I have a problem, but it is something I pay attention to periodically. Don't forget to look and see if the CPU heatsink is getting clogged. You may have to remove the fan to clean it.

 

[brando56894]

My NZXT H440 came with dust screens for all the fan intakes, so I do the same as SweetAndLow.

Side note... I am thinking about combining both boxes into a single box by using BHYVE instead of ESXi, but I am not sure how reasonable it is to have everything running on one box, or perhaps I should just make a separate ESXi box using a Xeon D-1521 and FreeNAS as an iSCSI target.

Bhyve works pretty well but it is nowhere near the stability (it's stable, but no where near the rock solid stability of ESXi, considering the latter has been in development for far longer) and feature set of ESXi (PCI passthrough, v-motion like features, etc...). I've been using it for the last few weeks straight in FreeNAS 10 and haven't really had any issues directly related to Bhyve (more FreeNAS related).

 

[JackShine]

Whenever I start intense use of my network, I make sure there are no critters in any of my servers.

 

[ECCfrenaslover]

I clean my units about 2-3 months. Thank God for compressed air. I use very low pressure.

 

[Jailer]

With a wood stove and 2 dogs dust and hair a huge problem for me. My FreeNAS server is housed in a Antec 1200 that has removable screens on each of the 4 drive cages I have installed. I clean them as needed. I'm still trying to decide what case I want for my desktop as my Lian Li V2000 that it's currently housed in has no filters of any kind and makes keeping it clean a lesson in futility.

 

[Dice]

I had so little dust problems that I went the opposite route - removing filters.
Drive temps have remained approx 5-6c lower since.
The case is a Fractal Design XL.
At some point I'll probably need to clean out the inevitable dust.

 

[Tigersharke]

It is too bad that the average case does not offer a way to install any common/standard HEPA filter. When my beast, a Sun 3/160 was running, I put a HEPA filter (small one 4x12 or so) across where two of the seven muffin fans were. I was amazed some time after when I retired the machine how much that filter was caked with dust. Of course any filter will decrease air flow and with increased fan power also brings noise.. it is a balncing act between the two or three qualities (if filters themselves are one), but I did not choose the fans on beast and did not change them. I have neither adequate tools nor skills at the moment to do as I would prefer, to add HEPA filter to my box, its always on anyhow, may as well take advantage of it :)

 

[HolyK]

I have three cats (british shorthair) and i don't have much issues. Vacuum-cleaning flat once per three days. Most of the hair/dust is stuck outside the Fractal Design Define R4 case (on sides where the intake is) i just grab these gently with fingers. Also under the case (tricky to get rid of it without moving the case). And time to time i clean the dust filter in front of the FANs - open doors, open the fan cover, unlock the FAN case and cast it down a bit. Remove the dust filter out, suck the mess by vacuum cleaner (small brush head). Slide the filter back and lock the FAN case. Close fan cover, close doors. I am doing this carefully while it is running. Everything is plastic and it is done in one min so no worries about screwing something or melting HDD in the meanwhile :D

Yea and once per year (Christmas cleaning ^^) i complete dismantle the server and clean everything...