Do you leave your case open?

A

Ali Man

[H]ard|Gawd
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Aug 25, 2012
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I've come to think of it many times that there's no better air flow than leaving a case open and having a few fans openly blowing over a few parts. In that way, there isn't any ambient temperature variances with inside the case and outside of it.

What do you guys think?
 
Every case is different (pun intended). I have tried that. No side panel - only CPU fan - small table fan blowing into case. Looked rather ghetto, but worked well.
 
Not on systems I cared about. Way back in the day my family's home server ( Powered by Cyrix PR 233 IIRC ) ran without either side panel since it was an AT case. Never had an issue but it was also quite old at that time and it simply didn't matter. We had boxes that could replace it but didn't because it worked.
 
One time I dropped a fork into an open case.

Got lucky that it caught itself on the power cords. No again Jar Jar!
 
It seems to be best to have a wind-tunnel airflow - intake at bottom/front and exhaust at top/rear. Depends on the case, but that usually works out better than a bunch of fans just blowing air into the case.
 
Yeah but I shouldn't. the AIO in my current setup is loud as fuck( Deepcool gamerstorm captian 240( the originial one)).
 
Ali Man said:
I've come to think of it many times that there's no better air flow than leaving a case open and having a few fans openly blowing over a few parts. In that way, there isn't any ambient temperature variances with inside the case and outside of it.

What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

Sometimes, I have been known to put the side panel back on... it varies sometimes.. eg. if it is dusty ect.
But this is why I like having the panel off LOL
 
Yea, I also used to always think that:

1) No panel = live component look, surprises everyone.

2) Everything runs cooler.
 
I have panel closed. I saw tests that shows that it's cooler when the panel is closed.
 
Between work and home I would have to say I leave the case open on almost all systems that only (or the other admins) work with. Well that is except for the rack servers which I have the doors of the rack open but the individual servers are closed. On all user systems I close the case. I don't really do this for cooling but more of I left it open after I added a few hard drives or changed something inside in the case that something did not work but it worked fine and I never got around to putting the side back on.
 
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Nope, I always mod cases I use for really good airflow... Side panel fans to specifically help cool the video card and any other add-in cards.

My current case also has a pair of 180mm intake fans on the bottom of the case. With ASUS software fan control, it stays silent except for when I am gaming. The case fans never really even speed up, just the video card fans and maybe the CPU fans.
 
I usually keep it closed but sometimes I get lazy or I am actively switching out hardware over a few days and then the side panel gets misplaced and it has been on in months. I am to lazy to find the side panel.
 
Since I never got around to chopping the cover to my Node 304. I run open. I have 2x 140mm blowing from top down through radiator over motherboard and out the side opposite the GPU. I also flipped the psu fan to keep with the same flow.

Pic of exhaust side.
20160217_202906 by Outlaw
 
the 750d cooling is good enough that inside temps = ambiant, even with low speed fans...
 
I run closed but I do keep an eye on the ambient temp in the case measured from the top (hottest) via Aquacomputer's Aquaero controller. I have a Cosmos S case that has a lot of mesh (front, side panel, top) which helps it breathe naturally. I run almost a fanless SLI setup (with the exception of the PSU fan). @26C room temperature the inside ambient recorded is 31C. That's not too bad for an almost fanless setup. My radiator is passive but outside the case which helps in keeping the insides cooler.

This is where all the heat is:

rad.jpg
 
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Well, right now my desktop is a Fractal Design Core (2-slot ITX) with a Gigabyte Xtreme Gaming GTX 1070 (3-slot) running on its side (since I have limited desk space) with the cover off.

I have an NCase M1 on order (3-slot ITX) which I plan on replacing it with. I might take off the panel that faces the wall for better airflow.

(and an HTPC with a similar configuration to what I'm moving the desktop to, but all the panels are on that one)
 
with proper airflow, I have lower temps with the cover on vs off.
Cover off creates turbulence and prevents proper airflow.
With the side panel on, there is a flow of air front to back. Cools better.
140mm fans with temp control on mobo are very quiet at idle. almost silent.
 
Decent cases are designed to channel air in from the front and out through the top/back. If you keep the side open, you create spaces that don't get air flow. Sure, some spots might be cooler, but others will be warmer.
 
The only way its cooler is if you have exterior fans blowing into your open case. Otherwise, close it up and let the fans channel the air like it was designed to do (well, hopefully designed to do).
 
I never run my case like this. The test bench is another story entirely.
 
My main rig has the case on, my folding@home rigs are a mish mash depending on time of year and how much tinkering i'm doing, currently the side panel is off on that one as I need some more fans
 
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