Do you leave your case open?

[pclstyle]

Are there any noticeable differences in temps, etc. when you leave the side door on your tower open? Disregarding aesthetic values.

 

[gwai lo]

that disrupts airflow for some cases..
anyway mine kind of falls open because i'm too lazy to screw on the door, as i tend to open and work with it a bit too often, so...it will kind of stay..but it's not quite closed.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I actually get a degree cooler with the case on

 

[Lonyo]

Open means more dust and less focused airflow.
It can help though if your airflow sucks (like having no case fans)

 

[agnitrate]

If anything, closed for dust purposes. Now that my case is raised up about 6 inches off the ground, I've also noticed a HUGE difference in accumulated dust.

 

[CraigRT]

side always on.
looks nice and keeps the noise in.
don't care about temps.
for some reason people are on this temperature kick... what difference does it make if everything runs fine!?

 

[JBT]

Mine runs a touch cooler (1-2C) with the case closed and its quieter.

 

[Icepick]

I've found that mine runs cooler with the side panel off. I keep it on most of the time to reduce noise and dust accumulation as others have also noted.

 

[bigboxes]

Open when working on it and testing settings that might cause system to lockup (and thus require me to reset the CMOS). During normal operation, side is on to help keep dust out and noise in.

 

[WildHorse]

A teacher of mine did this experiment with a new Macintosh Power Mac G5.
Inside the case side door, there's a second clear plastic cover over the bays where there are 2 fans.
As soon as the second inner cover was removed, the fans sped up to a lot higher rpm & got real loud, frantically trying to maintain a cool temp inside.

The point this proved: the side cover is best closed, so the whole case can act like a big air duct.

 

[airfoil]

Closed, to maximize cooling efficiency.

 

[FiberoN]

Closed or the dust bunnies will eat your computer.

 

[Arcanedeath]

Closed unless I'm messing w/ new hardware or cleaning out the dust

 

[gar3555]

I keep my main computer closed, as its a full size, but my mini-itx is open all the time as it is passive cooled.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Open, otherwise it's quite a bit warmer.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

If you can't build a system that can stay cool closed, start over.

- M4H

 

[3NF]

Closed - my case stays nice and cool

Now I once had a computer where it was so hot that I left the side open and had a fan blowing on it! Then I came to the conclusion that maybe I really do need fans inside the computer

 

[stevty2889]

Keep mine closed, runs cooler, lest dust, and less noisey that way. If you are getting lower temps with the case open, you need to improve your airflow..

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Originally posted by: CraigRT
side always on.
looks nice and keeps the noise in.
don't care about temps.
for some reason people are on this temperature kick... what difference does it make if everything runs fine!?

Heat is the second most damaging thing to PC components, static electricity being #1.

 

[helo7050]

leave it closed. .

 

[ponyo]

Back when I used cheap cardboard like cases and zero case fans, I used to leave the side open since I was too cheap to buy case fans and nice case with good airflow design. That helped my temps quite a bit. Ghetto cooling but it works.

Now I've better cases and actually use case fans, I keep my side closed since it cools better and is lot quieter.

 

[Cook1]

Leaving it open messes up your airflow...nuff said.

 

[sniperruff]

if i leave it open i can hear my antec case fans scream.

 

[sandorski]

There are so many cases available these days with leftside fans that no one should have to remove the side of their cases.

 

[Baked]

Dynamat all around, opening it would defeat the purpose of sound dampening it in the first place.