What's cooler?

[dwango]

Will a case be cooler with a whole side open to the room or with fans circulating air?

 

[TuffGuy]

with fans circulating air. you need suction to get the hot air out and push cold air in. i've heard of people leaving the cases open, but i'm not sure how well that works. there's also people that have household fans blowing into the case...

 

[Ulysses]

I have two 80-mm fans blowing air into my mid-tower case and a 120-mm one exhausting air. There are two others fans blowing air onto the video card and the HDD's (plus the P3 CPU fan and the PS fan). With all that, when I take the side off the case the temperature drops significantly !!

So in the summer I leave the case open. Keep in mind that if you do this, you will have to clean the inside of the case well from time to time. I put a piece of "chicken wire" screening over the open side for protection.