PC Fan Airflow: Tights vs Traditional Filters - Custom PC Build Series #1

[@felipedeornelas8054]

My God. 15 minutes ago I thought to myself using stocks as a stupid idea, but then I come across this gem of a video. I really went through a rollercoaster of emotions watching it. Cynicism, surprise, amazement, joy and right now I'm angry at how unknown this channel is.

[@handsonkatie]

Love it! But don't be angry, spread the word! I've only started making videos at the start of this year, so it's no surprise really! ;)

[@gerceginpesindekos]

I came to learn about filtering efficiency of tights, but did not expect such a soothing effect from a tech video. We need more tech videos with a calm and soft voice and narration like this. Thank you young lady, you made my day better.

[@handsonkatie]

Plenty more coming up! ☺️

[@chrisdixon5241]

I just discovered your channel today, second vid I watch and what a great idea! As you point out, I suspect that the twist is introducing some disturbance to the airflow that creates extra suction to draw more air in. Very interesting to see your results!

[@handsonkatie]

Glad you liked it Chris! - yes, I've got a quick follow up to this on my 'to-do' list, some brilliant curious ideas people have suggested that would be worth testing (eg flipping the direction of the grille curve to be contrary to the fan blades direction). Just be interesting to test! But I was really surprised at how well these performed compared with the expensive professional versions - or rather how poorly the professional versions did! I'll also create a modularised, parametrised 3d print for this follow up so everyone can print their own fan covers really easily!

[@Mythor.]

Thank you for this, particularly the advice on which denier to select. I’ve been concerned my new case may become a dust magnet but now I have a solution! 🎉

[@handsonkatie]

Glad it was helpful!

[@justin_time]

The discovery of the 30° twisted grille having such a dramatically lower effect than the 0° twist is remarkable to me! My guess is that it has more so to do with the path of the inlet air matching the angle of the blades and less to do with turbulence after intake, but that is only a guess. Maybe reversing the direction of the twist and running the test again could help to prove or disprove that hypothesis? I'm curious if this effect that you discovered is why traditionally manufactured grilles are kept thin, or if that is simply a result of how the cases are manufactured? None-the-less, I felt it was amazing to watch your process and I think your filming, editing, and onscreen personality were phenomenal! Thanks so much for taking the time to make this and I hope you chose to keep posting!

[@handsonkatie]

I know!! I was quite surprised by this. I can't quite believe that the airflow matching can account for it all - remember a blade is spinning at many hundreds of revs per minute, so I'm not entirely convinced that the air can be creating anything like a matching vortex. I suspect the thinness of grilles has more to do with cost minimising/profit maximising also...! I've gathered all these mysteries into a list and I've got a video on the backlog to do some further testing - keep watching and we can see if we can solve it!!

[@spoonywan]

This is incredibly informative and useful. Thank you

[@paulmeynell5494]

Great work thank you I just bought some filter foam for a lathe control box enclosure ,will be an interesting to test

[@rowdydog]

I love how you backup your conclusions with real data. I learned two very important things. One, I need to get me some panty hose! I'm a fifty-nine year old man, I don't know much about panty hose, but if it works, it works! Two, I need to get me a 3D printer, so I can make neat things.

[@handsonkatie]

Well my plan is if I can get another 2bn men buying panty hose, then this will explode the market and radically reduce the unit cost for all the ones I wear, this saving me a fortune...🤣🤣. Thank you for the lovely comment and yes... definitely get a 3d printer, I might do a bit of a series on this, they're life-changing!

[@FanterA333]

Came over from the ocuk forum, great first video and I'm really looking forward to seeing it as it progresses :)

[@Neilhuny]

Side note - as a scientist working on fishmarkets in the North East of Scotland in the mid-80's, very early on cold winter mornings, I learnt that many fishermen would wear 4 or 5 pairs of their wives/girlfriends/mistresses tights that their ladies had given up on... far cheaper than longjohns and ideal for -10 or -15C gales for days on end.

[@handsonkatie]

Fishnets for fishermen?? 😂😂😂

[@yalmadiable]

Firstly, you are pretty . Secondly, you made a great great video with precious information I’m really grateful. Never saw such a professional video about the info and experiment! Just wow

[@handsonkatie]

Thank you, that's very kind - glad you enjoyed!

[@thefrankenator]

Looking forward to this series, i'm probably going to get ideas and want to change up my own build.

[@handsonkatie]

😊 Great idea - you can watch where I screw up something so you know what to avoid... !! 😂😂😂

[@kiplittle]

Wow, OK. I had been stretching tights over the provided dust filters . . so 3 layers in total - and they caught a LOT of dust. Still, thanks to your informative and detailed testing I will have to rethink this. Great work.

[@handsonkatie]

Thank you! Exactly what I wanted to test out! I've got a few ideas from other comments too that I'll add a short update in the future!

[@andrewedgecombe]

The twist in the grill was really interesting! It’d be intriguing to know if that result was consistent with the addition of the filter material, or if that extra disruption would undo the benefits of the twist. But really nice video! Thank you for posting

[@handsonkatie]

Oh I know, I've had a follow up investigation to this on my list for a few months...! I'll get it eventually!!

[@andrewedgecombe]

@@handsonkatie well, after seeing how well you did the first one, I’m already looking forward to it! I’m an excited newcomer to your channel

[@laughingjackaso8163]

twisting the grille holes will likely give the same effect as stator blades in jet engine compressor stages, meant to redirect the airflow to reduce swirling/twisting before the next rotor stage; non-turbulent directed airflow. a smoke test will definitely show what's happening. have you tried a much less dense grille, something more like a stator stage, even though it won't look anywhere near as good as the hexagonal design you made. also, that case design looks amazing! have you made it yet? i've always wanted to mod an old radio (art deco type era) as a case, but never come across one suitable.

[@envoycdx]

Just stumbled across this via Printables. Massively enjoyed the video, nicely presented and informative. New subscriber. Off to see how this PC build is coming along :)

[@TheRonskiman]

Interesting video, especially the different grills. One consideration, how quickly do they block up and thus reduce airflow. I've multiple computers and a server that is on 24/7. May be once a year I'll take the server out to the garage and give it a good blow out with my compressor, being careful not to spin the fans up. The other computers which aren't on 24/7 get cleaned far less frequently.

[@handsonkatie]

Yes - great point! I've designed that as part of the cartridge system I've built for my custom pc. Although the 'clogging up' isn't anything inherent to this or any other filter - it's an important design consideration that should be more prominent in case design. ie if you can pull out your fan filters in seconds to clean/replace them, you probably will. If you need to open the case, unscrew your fan mounts etc, then it isn't gonna happen... ;) This is why I've designed a cartridge system for my case - so you can click these filters in and out easily.... I'll release these files in the coming weeks free for folks so they can just 3d print themselves....!

[@EmbraceMaking]

Interesting results - I just finished my PC build and went with some of the metal mesh filters originally. They are the magnetic variant with small punched holes, so not quite the style of the intertwined mesh. Anyways they are terrible when it comes to airflow - so much so that I had to remove them... I may have to try the tights now. Any chance you benchmarked the metal mesh filters? I don't believe I saw that data but I would have liked to see the metal mesh up close and the flow numbers just to see how they compare to the nylon. Great work on the video overall!

[@handsonkatie]

Ooh great point, I didn't actually have a 140mm metal filter, but let me order one and I can do a follow up test! 😊

[@donovanjameson]

Very engaging! I love how thorough you are with your experiments! Looking forward to more of your tinkering

[@handsonkatie]

Thank you! 😊 Plenty more mad stuff to come...! 😂😂

[@alexusman]

Aside from airflow in cfm there is a pressure metric which is important with radiators and it may've suffered even with 30d turn mesh. So tbh these results only work for case fans.

[@handsonkatie]

Interesting point and yes naturally there would be some impact on pressure whatever you do!

[@gezafisch4030]

Do you think that measuring your results using a funnel like that might affect readings due to increased pressure vs a normal configuration in a pc case? Or do you think that any impact to results will scale proportionately accross each test?

[@handsonkatie]

Great thought! 😊 Given the funnel is consistent across all the tests, it should be equal across all the tests. But there's probably a marginal impact on CFM across the board - so can't see how it'd change the results, but there's possibly a proportionate difference in results. I'll do a quick test tomorrow and check! 👍

[@ianbeck5897]

This is a very interesting video. I recently went through the process of specifying a PC and, because I wanted a warranty backup, on this occasion I decided to pay a couple of hundred quid for somebody to build it and provide me with the warranty. Anyway, although not the GPU that you have, I went with a 4070 Ti, 64G DDR 5 and a 14700K with solid state drives. It's a PC for fun, not for work, so hard to justify something like yours that is probably specified by the Met Office or The Pentagon as a standard design! In designing it, when running full chat, I was aware that this thing can kick out some heat! I decided to go with a minimalist case - effectively one with a wide open front grille and a tight nylon mesh with with whole of the rear open and just protected with a honeycomb mesh with holes of about 10mm. I put three 120 fans in the base, sucking air from underneath up toward the graphics card and an AIO 360 in the front behind the front grille, pulling air inwards. This design chucks plenty of cool air up toward the graphics card while the AIO water cooler/fans push air from front to back. The PSU sits right at the top of the case , again, vented out the back. I was very keen to keep the air flow as undisturbed as possible so, while there is collision as up drafts meet front to rear drafts, the cabling attempts to minimise other disturbances. I was worried that the whole rig would sound like a jet engine, especially being on a desk. It's actually fine most of the time and, so far, the amount of dust penetration is minimal. It may be second order but keeping the influences of the internals of the case minimal is also important for air flow. Glass, I think, helps here. On the issue of dust, I would certainly advocate keeping any PC on the desk rather than on the floor, especially if the floor is laminate or tiled. PC's seem to accumulate far more dust if placed at floor level than at desk level. Also, as another poster mentioned, blowing the filters out with a compressor helps a lot. Indeed, blowing dust off the whole PC electronics and heatsinks is a must too as deposited dust massively reduces the ability to cool and can cause hardware throttling. I also have a garage compressor which helps with dust removal among many other uses. At the risk of sounding sexist (and this is definitely NOT how I want this to appear) : I think it's fantastic that you are producing content like this. Traditionally, this is a very geeky domain frequented by males (wood, electronics, computing, home automation, etc.). It's great to see a lady doing this in a data driven and scientific way - and also in a fun way, as it keeps people engaged. Out of interest, did you train in technology or has your content come from experience? FWIW, my background is engineering , although these days it's less technology and more toward natural and historical engineering (a necessity when you own an old property and some land out in the countryside!) - so your crafting content is also of interest to me too.

[@handsonkatie]

Hey Ian, loads of great thoughts here - great to read and sounds like a great rig you've built! I was just carving the new case front today, so your thoughts on airflow are very helpful - I've been musing exactly the same as you in this respect! As for me, I've always been interested in technology - studied electrical engineering as my first degree, worked in and with technology all my career ... so yeah, think I qualify as a nerd.... :) Great you enjoyed the content, I can't profess to have any experience at all in it, but I'm loving getting everyone's amazing thoughts and ideas - it's like for every project I post, I get 20 new ideas back!

[@ianbeck5897]

@@handsonkatie That's brilliant Katie, I'd take my hat off to you (if I wore one). Engineering degrees are difficult but open up so many avenues afterwards. As an engineer you think differently and that has life changing advantages. Add in, if you can, a business qualification or, if not, experience, and it's a perfect foundation for life. It literally changes outcomes. I studied electrical engineering to degree too and made a decent career out of it (applications engineering and management of silicon chip testing for the majority of my career). Much later I became rather bit bored with it and my wife and I started our own business in a completely different industry, and did well. It was a revelation to be honest. I learned more in six months than I had learned in the previous six years. We ran that for five years and then retired. Life now is enjoying the countryside just north of Dartmoor in a nice old converted mill on the edge of a village and, as I mentioned above, embracing more craft orientated stuff like woodwork, lime mortaring, chainsawing, Tractoring (a verb I just made up) and a fair bit of cycling. I don't miss the grind of technology as a job but I still retain an interest in the general sphere of it. In between outdoor stuff (when it isn't raining) my next plan is to get to grips with Home Assistant - I want to make Octopus Agile talk with our batteries so that we can charge them when the rates are cheapest .... suggestions welcome! .... plus integrating all of the internetty stuff that our house is full of, as yours probably is too!

[@jcdammeyer]

Have you done the 30 degree twisted grill for a 120mm square fan?

[@MrPeterJMilner]

Hey Katie, usually speaking tights are the work of the devil. In this instance, I believe you may just have found their true vocation. Good work. x

[@indigo2ks]

Hi, I enjoy your videos, if you don't mind sharing, what did you design you dome tests with?

[@handsonkatie]

Sorry, not sure I follow - do you mean what software did I use?

[@indigo2ks]

@@handsonkatie Yes that is what I was asking, if it's not prying or I can ping you directly if you have an email on your page.

[@fluffden]

Dude! this is neat! does the Fan Cartridge work with the 30 degree fan cover? :D

[@handsonkatie]

it does indeed! I'll release a whole range of these for folks to 3d print for free once I get this PC build done!

[@fluffden]

@@handsonkatie That sounds amazing, cant wait until the PC build is done! :)

[@lucasmonta1]

Hi Katie! How often you recon you would need to clean these panty filters before the dust clogging it to the point it would hinder airflow? This was a great video thanks a lot !

[@handsonkatie]

Well I guess that depends on a) how dusty your room is b) what you consider 'hindered' (eg is a 2% decline your threshold or a 50%) and c) the denier of the tights! But I've got a video in the pipeline to show the finished build and I'll include lots of free files for quick change filters! As you'll know from some of my later videos, this PC now commands devices in the room - like the robot vacuums so they automatically clean when dust is detected, so I haven't had to change the filters yet! My guess would be a 2-3 year task, but just a guess at this stage!

[@807800]

Interesting. Was looking for a case review and found your video. And now, I'm searching for tights... this is weird. lol.

[@handsonkatie]

....and down the rabbit hole another victim descends....!!! They really do work great, so I highly recommend!

[@milicsantiago]

Great!

[@TripleMonitorFun]

Great video! haha! just ordered some :P

[@handsonkatie]

For use in your PC?? 🤭🤭🤭

[@TripleMonitorFun]

yup. amazon. arriving tomorrow. ;) ..whatever is left I can wear in the eve :P @@handsonkatie

[@siliconpenguin]

Great video. However, you measured airflow, but I didn't see you actually measure the effectiveness of the dust catching abilities of the different pantyhose. I assume you just assumed it was directly related to airflow. I'm a heavy smoker that lives in an extremely dusty apartment. I don't expect any filter that allows a decent amount of airflow to filter out the cigarette tar. But filtering out the dust that would otherwise stick to the tar is crucial! I'll definitely give this a try!

[@handsonkatie]

Hey, great point - in later videos I touch on the air quality sensors that I'm looking to install, these track pm1-10, VOCs and more, so I'm going to use these as a proxy to then automatically vacuum the room, alert to dust levels. I'm not sure how cigarette smoke would be tracked, but it'd be an interesting test!

[@BruceHoult]

You should try with the twist in the opposite direction. I'm betting it matters whether the twist is in the same or opposite direction to the way the fan spins -- and you did it in the good direction, by luck. A 30º twist the other way probably sucks.

[@handsonkatie]

Brilliant thought - I'm going to do an extra test once I've gathered a few more ideas/comments from my discord channel and YT comments - I'll remember to test this!

[@Mehmet-q9k4g]

🎉 başarılar 🎉

[@2009numan]

control test with no fan, do you mean with no grill

[@handsonkatie]

Yes! Silly me - it wouldn't be much of a control without a fan!

[@goober-ll1wx]

I'd love to see you in a set of hold ups...

[@ATDistinction]

My wife... did not thank you.

[@handsonkatie]

...well I'd recommend just 'borrowing' the ones already laddered.....! 😂

[@SuspiciousAra]

You really need a decent microphone if you are going to make videos for a long time. What I have to my computers, got rid of colored fans and went for Noctua. If you want to light your PC from inside, do just that and forget about LED fans, Let's not forget about having a case that supports many fans for air intake and then also blow out. Power sourse should be isolated from the case. Do not go for water cooling, for long time cooling the air cooling is the best.