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Oct 31, 2024

This $25 Mini HEPA Air Purifier Is an Effective Way to Keep Your Gaming PC Dust-Free - IGN

Ahead of Black Friday, Amazon is offering a great deal on a small desktop-sized air purifier. Right now there's a Lightning Deal that drops the GoveeLife Mini Air Purifier to only $25.48 after you

Ahead of Black Friday, Amazon is offering a great deal on a small desktop-sized air purifier. Right now there's a Lightning Deal that drops the GoveeLife Mini Air Purifier to only $25.48 after you clip a $4 off coupon and apply promo code "HH3T8BF1S1F5" (just click on the "redeem" button to automatically apply). This little purifier is meant to be placed on a desktop or bedside table and cleans the air in its immediate vicinity. However, it serves yet another very practical purpose for PC gamers; it minimizes the dust going into your gaming PC and reduces the frequency that you need to clean it out.

Update: So it looks like the 10% off coupon is YMMV.

A proper gaming PC has plenty of airflow, and that air is inevitably going to bring in a lot of dust. The most common way of dealing with this is to install air filters in front of the intake fans. I personally do not like using filters. They reduce the amount of airflow going in and that progressively worsens as the filters get clogged. Proper maintenance eliminates that issue but let's be honest; most gamers don't clean out their case often enough. I've personally done away with fan filters entirely. Instead, I stick my bedroom air purifier right next to my gaming PC so that the purifier's exhaust flows right into the intake vents on my PC. Despite having no filters, I blow out my case only once a year and even then it's really just a fine layer of dust that has accumulated. Gone are the cobwebs and dust balls that plagued me before.

This particular GoveeLife purifier measures only 6.2"x10.7"x6.2". It's officially rated for 182 square feet of space, but at only 50CFM, I'd recommend it for a section of a room like your desk or bed area. Like most Govee products, the purifier can be controlled using Govee's mobile app. The three-stage filtration system includes a pre-filter for larger particles, a HEPA filter for particles as small as 0.1 microns, and a carbon filter for odor removal. If you've owned a purifier before, you're probably aware that the real cost of a purifier is in the cost of replacements. Fortunately, the replacements for this purifier aren't too expensive. For example, right now a 2-pack costs $21.99 on Amazon. You might find them cheaper on a site like AliExpress. The app will remind you when to change the filter, but user reviews point to about 4 months. I would probably stretch it out to 6 months or longer since the HEPA filter lasts a lot longer than the carbon filter. If you do swap the filter out every four month, the cost comes out to about $2.87 per month, which is still pretty reasonable.

If you do plan on keeping up with maintenance and routinely clean out your PC, you'll definitely need some kind of PC dust blower or vacuum to help you get the job done. Old school compressed air canisters will certainly work, but now there are other more powerful options. I personally use a Datavac Dust Blower that I purchased off Amazon over a decade ago. This is an extremely powerful (and loud) vacuum with a powerful 7.5hp 500W motor. It still works great today and I haven't needed to buy any replacement parts or attachments for it. This model was less expensive back then, but if I were to buy another one, it would still be this same vac or something like it.

Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.