Computer. Off. Floor.

[Brian Boru]

Paul's Hardware posted a video on 5-6 reasons to keep your PC off the floor. This is something I always do, since my first one turned out to be a dust hoover. Paul recommends at least 18 inches, 45cm, which is something I hadn't heard before.

Where do you keep yours?
What are your experiences—if any—of leaving it on the floor? On carpet?

My first one was on carpet, and I quickly got tired of needing to clean it out every month or two. I was living on my own at the time, so I can only imagine what it would have been like if there had been extra people or pet traffic!

Ever since, I've made a point of making sure my desk is big enough for it and my two TVs which act as monitors.

0:00 Intro
0:36 Reason 1: Dust
2:26 Reason 2: Aesthetics
3:32 Reason 3: Kicks/Scuffs
4:42 Reason 4: Pets (or Kids)
5:55 Reason 5: Pride
6:42 Extra Bonus Reason - Language
7:40 Solutions: How To Get PC Off Floor

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6VGXLW6hWM

 

[Colif]

For about 3 computers I had a computer desk that had a base like this which my PC could sit in. sort of... it was never long enough.

but eventually My PC cases got too big to fit in that gap, unlike mum's PC above that is about size of an A4 sheet of paper

I then just used the floor for probably about 10 years until some time in the last few years I got a table to use monitor on and I decided to use a box I store books in as my PC stand, it had been my monitor stand for the period between using the table above and the one below. Yeah, I am not normal, no normal table set up here.

Current day

Main reason I do it is I figure PC is going to get more cool air at that height considering my room is pretty cluttered and small. I guess the lack of dust does help, I haven't had to clean my new case much at all yet. I have its all mesh front pointing at window opening too.
The 1st case (without window) had its air vents at the side of case so having it higher up just gave it a better chance to breath

It also means I look into it at any time. I bought extension cables for Display Port, and Mouse/Keyboard so PC could be pretty much anywhere in my room, i have had it up against a far wall before.

 

[Alm]

I've got a sheet of rigid plastic under my PC desk to stop the chair wheels ruining the carpet. So my PC sits on that, but yes, it's on the floor. I would have to buy an extra table to keep it off the floor. Maybe something to consider though.

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

My desk have a "shelf" for the PC. Won't be making any photos, nothing to see anyway

In "old times in the days of yore" I had PC on this huuuuge wooden desk. Looking at it now I could totally see it being able to support 3 monitors and a case + all the peripherals. But that damn thing is heavy as nine hells and by Hood's breath, I surely do not want to try and bring it up to the current floor.

At previous job, all the PC's I used or repaired had been laid on tables - the only thing allowed on the floor was some broken parts in one place. There was separate place to store fixed hardware waiting for customers to get them back.

 

[Frindis]

I keep mine on a table. I got the Phanteks Eclipse P500 Air with a couple of RGB components, so it is also nice to look at. Once a day, I open all the windows so I can suck the majority of dust outside. I also have this habit of removing any dust particle from the mesh with my hand before I turn on the computer. Kind of like I am saying hello to my computer With the tempered glass I can also see if any dust is accumulating inside, so that is good.

 

[Colif]

Mine is so dark inside I can only see dust when I take a photo or have my rgb set to bright colors, which is currently isn't. I know some is in there, sprinkled ontop of my GPU backplate. Case is overdue for a clean, it is almost 13 months old and I haven't taken all the sides off it yet. Only dust I see is above the exhaust fans on top of the case, but I do have negative pressure so there is that. The fans need a dusting.

 

[DXCHASE]

I have a corner PC Desk, as it sits right now, i have my tower behind my monitor. I really dont care if anyone can see it, but the back of the case is angled towards my window/AC unit which is immediately to my left. Some times ill have it sitting to the right of my monitor along the wall with about a 3 or 4 inch space between. but it is MOST DEFINATELY not on the floor.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I always want to have mine off the floor if possible, circa 2012 I had this machine up in the air. It still got pretty dusty but there were four of us in the house and we may or may not have been hoovering quite so often as the next two..

Current wife is a bit more minimalist then me, and my machine was then being stored on a small trolley with castors to at least keep it off the wooden floor and avoid the worst of the dust. Still got dusty, but the filters on the case kept the worst of it out.

I cant really tell if this machine got more dusty than the old house as its not really easy to compare the two directly.

Cant be having a tower under the desk when you have a toddler running about, this position probably gets less dusty than the last one though.

Whatver happens its a terrible idea to have your case directly on a carpet, if the PSU is bottom mounted its going to choke.

 

[Colif]

my last case vented air out its top so I couldn't put it under anything

this was before it got a box to live on

non traditional layout. I love that case lol.
its fans never choked as it has a metal bar running under case that acts as a stand, and all the air intakes are in the gap between bottom of case and stand. Helps to clear the gap of dust occasionally... took me a few years to work that out. Fans were all filtered so never got dust inside box. Very little anyway

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Worst thing about getting dust in the PSU is that its really hard to get it out of there. Dusting a filtered case out every so often isnt so bad, just a bit annoying. I guess the PSU wasnt a problem with that Silverstone case as its side mounted.

Are those 180mm Air Penetrators 38mm? Surprised that thing didnt hover above the floor

 

[Colif]

38mm? do you mean height? I have no clue.They used to keep PC really cool and it was only in the last year I thought to run fans at a slower speed. I remember seeing 16c on my ssd in that case. it could really keep things cool. Coming from a PC that at most hit 50c in summer to this Ryzen that does that every few seconds just took adjusting. Only thing that broke on that PC in 5 years was the exhaust fan. I was going to replace it but lowering fan speed meant I didn't hear it.

PSU dangling from side had me worried. the case actually had a vent in back of case for PSU outlet but the PSU was too short to ever use it so it faced into case.
Back plate for motherboard was on top so all the cables had to run through a gap above backplate and the plastic cover on its roof. Only thing on back of case was PSU vent. handy design, could almost put case in a corner and not worry about cables behind it. I did for a while.

Main reason I haven't given the PC to a friend is he has young kids and its last PC you want to pour anything in top of.

I should look at dust filter on bottom of my new case, i always forget its there, I been meaning to clean case on a weekend but I always have a reason not to do it or I think of it at wrong time (middle of night not ideal time) It sits on a towel so not sure how much dust would get in. PSU fan only runs at 40% power or higher so might not be any suction there most of time.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I've been meaning to buy a datavac for about 10 years but never do. Trusty old canned air and an old make up brush does it well enough.

Yes I meant the width of the fans. 25mm are standard, higher than that generally provides more static pressure to drive more air through filters or high fpi radiators. I think most Delta server fans are 38mm for example, people used them a lot on water cooling radiators 10 or so years ago before RGB became the norm.

Nice case that Raven, didnt end up getting the Fractal yet but lets see how long I can talk myself down before I give in.

 

[Colif]

Mine was the Fortress model, raven was mostly plastic, this was all metal. Heavy... it didn't get moved a lot. Still exactly the same inside, this just cost more.

They were best 180mm fans you could get at time. Steve likes them

Not sure how new Fractal stacks up on that chart, I didn't look at it as I am not buying a new case any time soon. Once I do need one, I will look.

I actually use a set of paint brushes to clean my fans. it keeps mum happy as she doesn't like compressed air, and its cheaper anyway. MY PC doesn't get dirty enough to need a vacuum or anything fancy. I might do it soon. Main indicator of dust in case is top of the case and its currently not going white.

 

[Lutfij]

Apart from the IBM PC300GL I had in late 1998, the system's I built initially, early 2000's, had their PSU's mounting location at the top, that's the era where cases/builds were on the floor. The only exception I had at that time was that in Bangladesh, carpeting is somewhat of a luxury since access to cleaning carpets are hard to come by, so the majority of folks live with tiled(wooden or otherwise) floors(worst case, concrete mixed with color floors) or mosaic. For me, that meant some dust built up due to the front 80mm/120mm fans intaking from the lowest point of the chassis but they were kept to the side where someone could sit next to the case and admire the innards.


Thermaltake Armor Jr. Yes, that was my bedroom. Chittagong, 2006-2013.

Moved out of my folks house for university in the next district;

Still had to resort to the case being on the floor but it was to the side for admiration and because it was just too big to be on a desk. Thermaltake Spedo Advanced. Dhaka, 2009-2015.

I decided to revamp my room as well as my little brother's room in our Chittagong residence with some functional furniture.

The system I used to work/game on went to my little brother when I left for University.
Chittagong, 2013-now.

I then resorted to a smaller form factor build, courtesy of the InWin BP659 case for the interim period until I could get (1 of my)Compact Splash(cases) setup.

Chittagong, 2014-2017

The APU build morphed a little and is now inside a Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX(first iteration, non-TG).

Dhaka, 2017-now.

Yes, I move between two residence's, Chittagong(my folks house) and Dhaka(where I live). Sorry for the long winded post but for context, I moved my system's above the ground to make it easier for cleaning the house and the system. In doing so, it only made me inject more personality to the build and it made life easier when trying to identify an issue before the issue morphed into a hydra(AIO pump failing, fan failing, HDD failure noises). Bangladesh, being a developing country with apartment's springing up, right, left and center, mean that there's dust everywhere whether you like it or not, either on the highest or the lowest shelf. That 18" reference by Paul is random, completely random. 18" is the height of your chair.

These are the Compact Splash cases if anyone's interested;

2/105. Still a W.I.P. The furniture I designed for myself was with Compact Splash in mind.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Mine was the Fortress model, raven was mostly plastic, this was all metal. Heavy... it didn't get moved a lot. Still exactly the same inside, this just cost more.

Ahh I didnt realize the Fortress was a chimney type case as well, always thought that was only the Ravens. My case doesnt get too bad either, but over time the canned air doesnt quite get everything out of the GPU and CPU heatsinks. I'd also just like to be a bit greener and not use disposable cans.

Apart from the IBM PC300GL I had in late 1998, the system's I built initially, early 2000's, had their PSU's mounting location at the top, that's the era where cases/builds were on the floor. The only exception I had at that time was that in Bangladesh, carpeting is somewhat of a luxury since access to cleaning carpets are hard to come by, so the majority of folks live with tiled(wooden or otherwise) floors(worst case, concrete mixed with color floors) or mosaic. For me, that meant some dust built up due to the front 80mm/120mm fans intaking from the lowest point of the chassis but they were kept to the side where someone could sit next to the case and admire the innards.

The couple of crappy prebuilts I had in the 90's were desktops, so they lived with a CRT on them on top of the desk funnily enough

I do remember the ones I had in the 2000's had top mounted PSU's, before the last ones crappy PSU blew up and left me unable to afford a new one for 4 years. That's where I developed a slight over sensitivity to PSU selection.

Nice builds btw

 

[Colif]

5 minutes in you see the Alta S1, the new version of my Silverstone case. If last year had been normal I would have got this, but I think its still not released since all videos I find are 2 years old

its still not out, but this has same fans, only 2 of them

maybe by my next PC the S1 will exist

 

[Lutfij]

Did you know that the way the GPU's vents exit the top of the case, i.e, the PCIe slot being oriented vertically, upwards is patented by Silverstone?

@Kaamos_Llama thank you! I liked your minimal builds, more! Love the hidden potable hard drive under the desk, backup drive, huh?

 

[Colif]

NO, but its one way to stop cheap rip offs of your design as has happened in the past. They show a design and 20 cheap cases look identical in a few days.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Did you know that the way the GPU's vents exit the top of the case, i.e, the PCIe slot being oriented vertically, upwards is patented by Silverstone?

@Kaamos_Llama thank you! I liked your minimal builds, more! Love the hidden potable hard drive under the desk, backup drive, huh?

Thanks, they don't always look quite that clean, but I try. Velcro tape is amazingly useful stuff!

@Colif thought for as sec I found it for sale here but it was the F1. Still looks pretty nice.

 

[Colif]

F1 has shrunk air penetrators, they only 140mm. Still, 3 of them. It looks small form factor, hard to tell under AIO and GPU really.

I think S1 is likely a dream but F1 is closer to reality when it comes to pricing. Need to wait to see if it ever gets tested by somneone I know.

 

[mainer]

I've never kept any of my PCs on the floor, I just find a way to move things around, adapt, and make room for it off the floor. In addition to the reasons you've listed about (primarily dust & aesthetics), I also find it much easier to swap or change out various components, or drop in another drive in a hot swap bay, if the PC's home is at desk height; rather than me crawling around on the floor banging various appendages while uttering increasingly nasty curses.

A few years ago I switched to a 43" monitor that took up my entire desktop. I have a "L" shaped desk that has a large surface area, but also has shelves attached to the right hand side. So I had to improvise a bit. I took the wooden crate that my Origin PC was shipped in, attached a table surface to the top, and now have a rock solid stand for my PC live on, which fits snuggly up against my desk. Good air flow, very little dust, and room to work on it if I ever need to change a component.

 

[Colif]

Z906 speakers? I have some of those
I see the controller unit now, its not on so its not obvious

I had Z5500 and I still miss them

 

[Lutfij]

My eyes were fixated on the Netgear router, mine died...well my siblings killed it. Never got myself to buy Mad.Catz gear even though I love the R.A.T 5!

 

[mainer]

Z906 speakers? I have some of those
I see the controller unit now, its not on so its not obvious

I had Z5500 and I still miss them

They are indeed Z906 speakers. They've got great sound and deep, thumping bass; but the unfortunate thing for me is that I live in a 6 unit apartment building, and when I'm gaming late at night, my neighbors become a bit upset (some of them anyway). So I bought HyperX Cloud Revolver S Headphones so I can game without neighbors banging on the walls. I've come to love those cans, and very rarely even switch to the speakers.

My eyes were fixated on the Netgear router, mine died...well my siblings killed it. Never got myself to buy a Mad.Catz gear even thought I love the R.A.T 5!

I love my Rat! I used a Rat 5 years ago (still have it somewhere I think), went to a Rat 7, and now use a Rat 8. I like a heavy mouse and I find it perfect for me. Adjustable weight, length, side panels, and not overburdened with too many side buttons. Rat's never get the credit anymore. As far as the Netgear router goes, I've had it for about 6 or 7 years with no issue. I don't know much about routers, but it's been good to me so far.

 

[Lutfij]

These were the routers I've worked with;
Asus RT N-56U
Netgear WNDR3800
Asus RT-AC55UHP

The Netgear died, siblings replaced it with a TP-Link Archer C60, it does what it needs for them, in my folks house but I personally liked the design on the Netgear but I love the Asus GUI, more than anything.

Ever since Mad Catz was bought out, didn't think much about the brand. Back in the day, people didn't buy them due to the cost but they offered a lot more for the time and the price and prior to Razer's rise...Razer's still have QC issues(for the device's I've worked with, at least).