About leaving the case open...

[Darcy]

I only have two fans - one on top of the processor and one up with the power source - standard I guess. With two hard drives, one of which works overtime at 7,200rpm since I use it for video editing, and a video capture card that can get pretty hot among all the other standard hardware items, should I have more fans?

I always leave the side panel off the case. Is this a bad habit? Am I risking letting to much dust in - I've just recently learned I need to blow out the harware every so often with a compressed air can and I'm off to pick one up tommorow - or is this a decent way to let some heat escape? A poor man's computer fan if you will?

Where do new fans go, anyway?

Thanks for any help.

Darcy 'total newbie, fast learner' Fitxpatrick

[CrowdAds]

[kaz]

You should have at least an 80mm bottom front blowing in and an 80mm top rear below the PS blowing out, at a minimum IMHO, most cases these days have spots for them....

[Perry_abx]

Hey Darcy and KAZ,

KAZ has provided you with good advice Darcy. You should monitor your temps with ASUS Probe or Motherboard Monitor 5.

MBM 5 is better IMHO.

http://mbm.livewiredev.com/

[JeffMD]

it really depends... first.. your hard drives.. if you can get a fan blowing over them, perfect. what is your cpu though? if your cpu is like a celeron 500 or lower, its not something to worry about.. a stock hsf will work just fine on them without the need for case air flow.

when I upgraded in the past month to a new mobo, case, and p3 800, I really had to worry about temps.. and I finally had a case that had spaces for case fans, so I quickly filled em and closed the case. my biggest problem atm is ive got 4 ribbon cables, 3 of which pretty much split the case.. this is a BIG problem because only a fraction of the intake fan's air is getting to the cpu. I will be investing in round cables soon.

[simbatran]

Dust is one reason, but EMI shielding (Electro Magnetic Interference) is another. That's why some cases are more expensive than others, not just because of the power source but because of EMI shielding factor as well.

[Ronald Brandt]

Running with cover off is not a good idea period. The cover helps to direct airflow though the case so that all the componants get some air movement around them. This is extremely critical for hard drives especially if they turn more than 5400 RPM. I write from experience on this subject as I lost the information on both my main & backup hard drives as a result of heat as my Koolance case did not come with any case fans or other means of cooling the HD. This company makes a good product but strives for the silent computer too vigarously. hence no case fans are supplied or reccomended by them,which was a grave mistake in my case,no pun intended. I have since installed not one but four fans in my case & have had no further problems with my computer. Also on a previous computer I ran some tests with the cover on & off,it ran coolest with the cover on & not by a small margen either

[Vermonter]

I gain 1 degree sometimes when I run my computer with the case open. It's the large Addtronics case with a grand total of 15 fans, had to stop ran out of room (LOL). I think the minnimal difference is caused by forcing air thru filters or not. A trick I picked up in these forums was to fold my cables and run them under the motherboard. Cables are not in the way, but of course those round ones do look great.