CPU temperature rises with open case

[marcio]

I keep hearing that a lot of people keep their cases open to help cool their CPUs. I just recently installed Motherboard Monitor 5, and today I found out something I thought was strange. I left one side of my case open for a a while and I saw the temperature of the CPU rise. With the case closed, the CPU temperature is 40-41C. With the case open, CPU temperature climbs to 43-44C. I just closed the case and watched the CPU temperature slowly dropping to 41C again.

I wonder if my set up is somewhat unusual, or leaving the case open might be such a good idea sometimes.

 

[NCman]

Hi, well, my cpu and case temp lowers when i have the case off because my circulation isnt the greattest when i have the fase on, case on, or both. However, for you, it sounds like you have enough circulation that when you have the case on, it creates more pressure to pull cooler air in and pass it over your cpu fan/heatsink. Good luck.

 

[ALstonLoong]

well my case temp will rise too if i open my case ,not just you.i know why ...but hard to explain ..let those who know how to explain , explain it to you.ok

with case door close max is 39c
with case open max is 40c

not much different.

 

[Motero]

Turn the heat down in your house!

 

[conlan]

when your case has a proper case fan configuration , it works as its own little "wind tunnel" . when you remove the cover , you no longer have the "wind tunnel effect" , cuz your recycling air from outside the case as well. if you dont have a proper case fan configuration , than removing the cover and pointing a desk fan inside can help , cuz it wasnt recycling the air properly anyway.

 

[Juniorwv]

I sometimes keep my one door open on my case also but it makes it much cooler, then again my room is like an ice box i keep the window cracked to get some cool air inside. I am dying to see what this baby is gonna run at when summer comes.

 

[dadx2mj]

The first computer school teacher I had was addimat about keeping case covers on and all card slots blocked when not in use. I claimed that to leave the cover off or slots opened disrupted air flow. I have seen it work both ways.

 

[pbox]

Really well designed cases do help to lower the temps. But I do not mean PC cases, because those are not really designed well, not even with 10+ fans inside!!!

I mean like SGI's machines, that specifically warn you not to run that without covers for that you will burn/damage the processor(s). Now those cases have several inner compartments, with fans connecting them and the airflow is 100% designed and engineered by professionals. I does not compare to any PC case I have ever seen.

Peter

 

[jsmonet]

ok, certain cases allow for better-than-average airflow. coupled with a good heat sink, you find that you need more direct airflow through the heat sink to keep it cool. with the case on you can help keep the pressure inside the case up a bit.

talk smack all you want, but any increase in pressure inside the case is better for cooling. think of it like blowing through a little straw, and a big straw. it is easier to maintain a higher pressure and velocity through the smaller straw. just to slam the point home, get a straw and a funnel, and light a candle. first try to blow out the candle by blowing in the small end of the funnel-wide end pointed at the candle. the air gets dispursed so much that it barely reaches the candle. now blow through the straw. POOF! blown out. see?

and yes, it can work both ways. my old case was a prime example. I'd take off the cover and the cpu temp would drop 10 degrees... to about 2 or 3 degrees above what I run now in my closed-up sx1030

 

[satori]

I think another reason might be that you're redirecting the flow. So, certain parts of your cases are being cooled better, while others aren't. When I put my case on with my current setup, the system1 temp from the Winbond HWDoctor reports a drop of maybe 1-2 celsius, while my CPU temp rises by 1-2 celsius. So, depending on how you're measuring the temp, this might make a difference.

You know, thinking about all this optimization for these cases. Wouldn't it be better to maybe build our own cases? Like out of wood, or something? If you look at car audio, look at how they mount amps and stuff against the body. Maybe we should all be mounting our hard-drives, motherboards, etc under or on the side of our desks. Then we wouldn't have to worry about whether our case has enough airflow, etc.