Open or Shut Case??

[snyderrich]

Which is better 4 cooling Open or Closed case.
CPU room literally dust free.
Lets hear it.

 

[Mattdoommaster]

I would go with closed, actually, unless you're going to put a big, huge fan over the side of your computer.

Why? Airflow. In a closed case, air comes in the areas it is designed to, flows through the case to pick up heat, and exits through the exhausts. In an open air case, a lot of that air flow is just going to shoot out of the big hole you have in the side without coming into contact with the areas you'd like.

As I said, though, that changes if you're going to do something more then just open the side, like place a big whopping fan on it. Open air cooling can work great - look at the Antec Skeleton for an example (minus the hard drive cooling...)

 

[mshan]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811129056

http://www.highspeedpc.com/Mer...gory_Code=Tech_Station

If using a regular case, I would say closed, because the case's airflow was probably designed to draw air through case based upon a closed side door.

 

[zagood]

Open - cooler CPU, GPU and anything with a fan pointing straight at it. Hotter northbridge/mosfets/anything cooled passively.
Close - the reverse.

With high/appropriate airflow in a closed case you can usually get pretty close to "open" temps on CPU/GPU.

 

[bloodugly]

You can't beat an open case, but it sucks if you have pets or children. You can't worry about airflow design when all the front fan is doing is pushing outside air into the case. When its open. all you have it the outside air for everything. I've tested this.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Originally posted by: bloodugly
You can't beat an open case, but it sucks if you have pets or children. You can't worry about airflow design when all the front fan is doing is pushing outside air into the case. When its open. all you have it the outside air for everything. I've tested this.

And as stated before you, things that are passively cooled will take a hit in temps in a well designed case with proper airflow vs running open. Unless the item has a fan pointed directly on it, with the case open, the airflow over that item will be much lower then when it was closed (since there is no backpressure to move the air over the component). Think of it this way, put your hand a foot away from a case fan (outside of a case) and feel how well it is blowing. Now take a piece of paper and curl it up into a funnel/tube and put the case fan at the one end and your hand at the other and feel how much air is moving over your hand now...

 

[bloodugly]

Originally posted by: Fallen Kell

Originally posted by: bloodugly
You can't beat an open case, but it sucks if you have pets or children. You can't worry about airflow design when all the front fan is doing is pushing outside air into the case. When its open. all you have it the outside air for everything. I've tested this.

And as stated before you, things that are passively cooled will take a hit in temps in a well designed case with proper airflow vs running open. Unless the item has a fan pointed directly on it, with the case open, the airflow over that item will be much lower then when it was closed (since there is no backpressure to move the air over the component). Think of it this way, put your hand a foot away from a case fan (outside of a case) and feel how well it is blowing. Now take a piece of paper and curl it up into a funnel/tube and put the case fan at the one end and your hand at the other and feel how much air is moving over your hand now...

I see what you're saying, still you're assuming a WELL DESIGNED case, which sadly isn't the norm still. I think my own results may have been skewed by living in a cold house with tons of constant airflow from fans. We try to keep it frosty, even here in TX. Electric bill be damned! I do think for many people the science of what you're saying may hold true. I don't claim to know everything, and input is still educational. Nobody should ever stop learning.

 

[Rhoxed]

with my HAF 932 open or closed doesn't make a difference (11 case fans total @ max of 90 - 133 CFM each) and with so much open space and mesh on the case it is very ventilated

with my TT armor open is about 3C lower than closed with a maximum of 7 fans the airflow is not quite as good as the CM HAF but it is still an outstanding case compared to some others i have seen in the airflow/cooling abilities.

 

[Zepper]

Most cases are designed to operate properly when closed. That assumes that any real engineering went into the design. Considering the new stuff coming out - one really has to wonder.

.bh.

One of the first posts of the new era of the ATFs... .bh.

 

[Gillbot]

 

[snyderrich]

Lots of opinions...thats great I think I will put it to a controlled test
will post findings later. As for cooling it didnt really make a dif
open or closed but that was not in a controlled environment.
will test at room temp of 70F for 1 week open and 1 week closed.
will post findings. Thanx 4 the feedback as always.

 

[nOOky]

I leave my case open, it runs cooler with a window fan blowing over it, and it trims the cats claws to boot

 

[zagood]

Lots of opinions...thats great I think I will put it to a controlled test
will post findings later. As for cooling it didnt really make a dif
open or closed but that was not in a controlled environment.
will test at room temp of 70F for 1 week open and 1 week closed.
will post findings. Thanx 4 the feedback as always.

If you want to do thorough testing, try to track down a cheap front panel monitor with temp probes and hook them up to NB heatsink, mosfets, RAM etc. Something like this:

http://www.provantage.com/lian-li-tr-3b~7LIAN01H.htm
http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/produc...ex=287&cl_index=2&sc_index=33&ss_index=80&g=q

 

[aigomorla]

My miyuki..

Open cases are drop dead sexy if u build them right.

 

[snyderrich]

My miyuki..

Open cases are drop dead sexy if u build them right.

WOW man looks like a bong I used to have!!....heeh
pretty killer setup man looks like all the bases are covered there!!
But I do have some everest ultimate pre results...
Room temp fluctuate between 70-75F...
Motherboard 38 °C (100 °F)
CPU 47 °C (117 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #1 34 °C (93 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #2 34 °C (93 °F)
CPU #1 / Core #3 34 °C (93 °F)
GPU Diode (DispIO) 42 °C (108 °F)
GPU Diode (MemIO) 42 °C (108 °F)
GPU Diode (Shader) 44 °C (111 °F)
WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 41 °C (106 °F)
WDC WD5001AALS-00L3B2 30 °C (86 °F)

This is OPEN case...so faar and pc runs 24/7. usually dling torrents.

 

[snyderrich]

OOPs the previous temps i forgot to mention only really fluctuated +/-1C will give final
results Sunday, then on to the closed case.
ZAGOOD, will look into getting one of your mentioned monitors for future use thanx
for looking them up 4 me!!

 

[Red Squirrel]

Closed is normally better but it really depends on the configuration.

On the IBM servers at work there is actually a warning to not run it for more then 10 minutes without the case off, and by looking at how the case is made it makes sense. It's all about the air flow.

 

[aigomorla]

Closed is normally better but it really depends on the configuration.

On the IBM servers at work there is actually a warning to not run it for more then 10 minutes without the case off, and by looking at how the case is made it makes sense. It's all about the air flow.

thats because theres 80mm san aces on 3000rpms pushing air thoughout the case.
And you need the wind tunnel to cool everything.

 

[Red Squirrel]

thats because theres 80mm san aces on 3000rpms pushing air thoughout the case.
And you need the wind tunnel to cool everything.

Pretty much, the whole case IS a wind tunnel lol. Also rackmounts always pull in from the front and exhaust to the back. No side or top fans, for obvious reasons.

The best is still the sound of turning on a dell server. You almost want to hold on tight to something.

 

[aigomorla]

The best is still the sound of turning on a dell server. You almost want to hold on tight to something.

i thought it was the obnoxiously long bootup time required for enterprise boards.
You wanted to throw it outside the window.

Not many people know the pain in restarting an enterprise board.
Gah especially one with a dedicated SAS card and multi drives.

 

[jvroig]

Isn't anybody (with open cases or wanting an open case) concerned about dust? How would that affect the PC? Won't an open case make the components more dusty? And, perhaps once in a blue moon, some insect will wander into it?

Those are the concerns that came into my head the moment I saw the Antec Skeleton case in an expo I went to long time ago. Of course, being Antec, I then just suppressed those concerns and assumed "Well, Antec isn't going to do anything remotely close to dumbassery... right?" and since I wasn't going to buy a case anyway, promptly forgot about it. This thread, obviously, made me remember it.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Isn't anybody (with open cases or wanting an open case) concerned about dust? How would that affect the PC? Won't an open case make the components more dusty? And, perhaps once in a blue moon, some insect will wander into it?

Those are the concerns that came into my head the moment I saw the Antec Skeleton case in an expo I went to long time ago. Of course, being Antec, I then just suppressed those concerns and assumed "Well, Antec isn't going to do anything remotely close to dumbassery... right?" and since I wasn't going to buy a case anyway, promptly forgot about it. This thread, obviously, made me remember it.

System off, unplugged, vacuum with one of those PC cleaner attachments and a can of cmpressed air. Once a month works for me. I do this even with a closed case.

Personally I like a closed system because I don't have any reason to show off the guts of my PC. It's not sitting on the coffee table for everyone to look at lol.

 

[jvroig]

System off, unplugged, vacuum with one of those PC cleaner attachments and a can of cmpressed air. Once a month works for me. I do this even with a closed case.

Once a month? I salute you! I can barely bother myself to clean my case like that once a year :biggrin:

Anyway, yeah, I guess you are right, perhaps it really is not that big a deal. If it gets dustier, then just clean it a little more often. For lazy me, that means closed case all the way.

By the way, to Aigomorla, since your case is wide open, any feedback as to dust, etc. on open cases?

Thanks.

 

[lothar]

If you're going to go open case, why not go even further and just set your mobo on a workbench with your optical and HD dirve sitting on a wooden table along with your mobo without a case?
Why do you need the case at all?

 

[jvroig]

I'm not a proponent of open cases by any means, but off the top of my head, I'd say mobility for one thing. If you just have the components literally on top of a workbench and/or a wooden table, how are you supposed to move your PC around when you have to, short of moving the bench too?

In the case of open cases, I'd say the case/skeleton is there just to provide a little more organization for the components, instead of just laying them down on wood or whatever 100% non-conductive, stable surface.

I get what you are coming from, though, since I'm no open-case proponent (but I'm not anti, either). Open cases offer no protection (or very reduced protection compared to traditional closed cases). I mean, what if you were browsing the AT forums while drinking your morning coffee and a fanboy comment made you laugh so hard and you spat out coffee all over your case? That would normally just mean you using a paper towel to wipe off the coffee from the case exterior... but if you were using the Antec Skeleton? (Here, I am assuming the case is quite near you, almost at the same level as the monitor, as is the case in my setup; I realize this is not the most common setup, and really, the scenario I mentioned is quite contrived, so let's not get up into arms about it )