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Keeping case open

A

Acaid

Weaksauce
Joined
Apr 22, 2005
Messages
83
To combat undesirable temperatures, I removed my side panel, top panel, and all the metal shits from my unused PCI ports. I then aimed a fan toward my PC to blow cool air all over the exposed components. My temperatures have dropped dramatically.

My question is, what risks other than the obvious (dust) am I taking? This has worked so well for me that I wonder why so few people seem to do it.
 
spilled pop, cats, bugs. Outside of things actually getting into the computer the only real thing to keep an eye on is EMI, so keep it away from any CRT's or your TV, subwoofers and don't let anything get in there to mess it up or short it out.
 
Acaid said:
My question is, what risks other than the obvious (dust) am I taking? This has worked so well for me that I wonder why so few people seem to do it.
Click to expand...

Because it's ghetto as hell.
 
I would suggest more fans inside the comp, get a few 120mm fans and it should be ok :)
 
Acaid said:
My question is, what risks other than the obvious (dust) am I taking? This has worked so well for me that I wonder why so few people seem to do it.
Click to expand...

Its easier to nick your components :)
 
I dont even use a case right now ;)

I have it on like a test bench desk thing. And have a big ass box fan blowing on it.

It ownza :)
 
Adding one intake fan at the bottom of my computer solved all my heat problems. It's not even at the front, it's secured to 4 empty pci slots with some cable ties... :D

hard disks and graphics card are now getting cool air blowing directly on them, and better overall circulation to keep cpu/board temps down
 
meatfestival said:
Adding one intake fan at the bottom of my computer solved all my heat problems. It's not even at the front, it's secured to 4 empty pci slots with some cable ties... :D

hard disks and graphics card are now getting cool air blowing directly on them, and better overall circulation to keep cpu/board temps down
Click to expand...
Thats Ghetto, but I have done it. You do what you have to do to keep it cool.
 
Ghetto is the way to go. The case is under my desk, no one sees it :p :


Ducting brought my CPU temps down a good 3-4C, not to mention it "added" another 92mm intake.
As far as that case fan goes, you wont have any dust problems, I think, because that much air constantly moving over the parts won't let the dust settle. Still, your components are now unprotected and you do have to watch out for EMI, as mentioned.
 
Yeah, I'm not too concerned about dust. I have my trusty compressed air canisters.

What's EMI?
 
Acaid said:
Yeah, I'm not too concerned about dust. I have my trusty compressed air canisters.

What's EMI?
Click to expand...
Electro Magnetic Interfeacence... Something you dont want.
 
I was hoping someone would tell me what EMI could do to my system and how it can be avoided.
 
i'm not expert or anything, but im assuming it's magnetic force against your components (most of which are some type of metal) which could move a few things out of place and cause some of your components not to work. don't quote me on any of that though.
 
It's not going to physically move anything, or else you couldnt keep anything metal on your desk. What it will do is cause eletrical signals to get "mixed" up, meaning your video card can be display corrupt images, crash's, that kind of thing. Something like a subwoofer puts out a elctro-magnetic field, your motherboard, videocard, have 1,000's of electrical traces with power going through them and if they are fighting off interferance, bad things happen. For the most part it won't ruin a computer, but it can cause data corruption and crash's. EMI isn't a huge problem if you place your computer just a couple feet away from major sources. Subwoofers, CRT's, things like that.
 
It won't really do very much as almost all components are now shielded. What i suggest that you do to keep temps down is get a zalman fan bracket and a 120mm fan.
maybe cut a hole into the top of your case and put one in there too.
that should really cut down on temps.
leaving it open is not good for your components, and it increases noise and dust.
f
 
MrMitch said:
It's not going to physically move anything, or else you couldnt keep anything metal on your desk. What it will do is cause eletrical signals to get "mixed" up, meaning your video card can be display corrupt images, crash's, that kind of thing. Something like a subwoofer puts out a elctro-magnetic field, your motherboard, videocard, have 1,000's of electrical traces with power going through them and if they are fighting off interferance, bad things happen. For the most part it won't ruin a computer, but it can cause data corruption and crash's. EMI isn't a huge problem if you place your computer just a couple feet away from major sources. Subwoofers, CRT's, things like that.
Click to expand...

what he said.
 
Unfortunatly I didn't save the pic, but this question was posed a month ago. Someone's pet snake (HUGE) entagled it's way in the H20 cooled case that had it's side off. But if you don't have a pet snake, I guess that's not a problem
 
I leave my case open but if I had a halfway decent case I wouldnt. my case is some off brand that was 30 bucks new with a 300 watt ATX power supply. that power supply had very crappy regulation and was shortly removed and put on the spare parts shelf.
 
definately be warry of animals.


My stupid cat keeps wanting to stick his nose in the PC when I live it open, and the dogs almost as bad.


Dumb animals
 
Komataguri said:
definately be warry of animals.


My stupid cat keeps wanting to stick his nose in the PC when I live it open, and the dogs almost as bad.


Dumb animals
Click to expand...
Thats why I am glad I live with me myself and I.. no other people, no pets.... Just me and my Computer :)
 
running my motherboard on my table makes it collect dust 3 or 4 times as fast as it did in a case(no fan filters) after about a week(cleaned it after i took it out of case) my xp-120 looked like this:
http://1stclasspcs.com/uploaded/pwnd-cpu.JPG
running it with open case is no different, if not worse
when i have the case closed and with cooling working properly, it looks like that after about 3-6 months
 
I got a thermalright SP-94 atm and I don't get much dust at all.. after a month or so I can have some.. And I got my case closed.
 
LionKinG88 said:
I got a thermalright SP-94 atm and I don't get much dust at all.. after a month or so I can have some.. And I got my case closed.
Click to expand...
try opening the case for a while, i was shocked at the difference it made with how fast dust collected
 
Acaid said:
To combat undesirable temperatures, I removed my side panel, top panel, and all the metal shits from my unused PCI ports. I then aimed a fan toward my PC to blow cool air all over the exposed components. My temperatures have dropped dramatically.

My question is, what risks other than the obvious (dust) am I taking? This has worked so well for me that I wonder why so few people seem to do it.
Click to expand...
You can certainly have a much quieter and cooler PC if you leave the side off (bar hard drive noise) I've found.

If you keep it sealed, you need some strong fans to keep consistent airflow and that means more noise.


However, if you've made no mods to your internal fans or cooling then it'll probably be louder since stock fans and many psu's are pretty loud IMHO.
 
I ran my Celeron 300a(at 450mhz booya) without a side panel with a 45cm fan blowing on it for about 6 months with an idle temp of 60c and i never had much trouble with dust, though my puter was on my table :p. Only reason i stopped using it was the out of order PCI frequencies kinda rooted my hdd hahaha, but man, it was worth it.
 
I hated that, I had to format sooo many times. Even fried many a HDD's. Still have my Celery, though. :)
 
If your temps are lower with the side panel off, it means your case airflow isn't its best ;). I only have two 120mm fans in my case, and that's all I need. When I run it with the side panel off, temps go up 2-4C. And yes, its dead silent. They're 55cfm Antec fans, probably about 20-25dB.
 
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