Would you blow air to the side of the case.

[larciel]

End of August is so much hotter than June this year and it'll get hotter in CA, at least in my room where it's packed with air heating electronics.

I just touched my HDD which was turned on for about 12 hours, and I burned my hands.

I'm thinking of buying a big round-shaped fan at Walmart for $20 and turn it on while comp is on during day time.

Would you consider doing it yourself? to this date, I haven't had many HDD failure and I've had this particular HDD for about a yr now, and it endured very long tortures. But I believe cooling electronics will help its longevity, I just don't know how much effect it'll have.

*oh yeah, case panel will be open.

 

[JustaGeek]

Do not leave the side panel open!

You have to create a "wind tunnel" effect in your computer case to cool all the components properly. If you leave the side panel open, you kill the front to back airflow.

Add a side panel intake fan and the front-bottom intake fan, use a high quality/low noise 1800RPM 120mm Rear Exhaust fan, add a "blowhole" at the top with the exhaust fan, keep the air moving...

Don't leave it open...

 

[larciel]

I understand the concept but by leaving it open, parts will have direct airflow at them. Wouldn't it cool the parts better? I used to put a 120mm fan on a side of a case right by the HDD and it cooled HDDs very well.

The fact that I can't put any side panel fan or 120m rear fan prohibits me from doing any traditional cooling.

Thanks for the suggestion

 

[corkyg]

Opening the side panel is OK as long as you have a direct airflow from a room/floor fan aimed directly at it. It will help remove heat from your components in the case.

We are used to high heat here in Arizona, and every now and then we do resort to such measures. Yeah . . . it's a dry heat. But, . . . it is still hot.

 

[RebateMonger]

Yeah, I also live in Arizona, and will open up the side panel and hit it with a fan if I REALLY need cooling. I just had a Northbridge heatsink fall off my office PC. I removed the side cover and have a 12-inch fan on it right now. With the cover in place, despite both front and rear case fans, the Northbridge overheated without its heatsink.

 

[Slugbait]

About 12 years ago, the company I worked for had a single 486 machine running their database server. Cover on = downtime. Cover off with 12" fan on it = 24/7 uptime for about a year...

It wasn't in an enclosed area or anything like that, either...it was just always overheating cuz we overtaxed it.

 

[Cutthroat]

There is currently a fan blowing at full speed at the side of my case with the panel off. It's been like that for months now, it's the only way I can keep my OC in the summer. It helps the temps a lot, but the fan needs to be positioned just right. I have the fan at about a 30 degree angle so the air blows mostly on the motherboard and towards the back of the case to blow away the hot exhausted air as well.

The downfall is increased dust in the case, and don't let your pets anywhere near it. Don't take the side off your case if your house has mice or anything.

 

[Blain]

Side panel off with big fan blowing in is quick fix.
It will buy you some time to think out your case/cooling situation.

 

[joejccva]

With my setup, I have a Soprano case with a 120mm front-bottom intake fan, a 90mm side window intake fan that pretty much blows directly on my AC Freezer Pro 7, and then a 120mm rear exhaust fan. Creates a very nice wind tunnel and it gets pretty hot/humid here in Virginia, and I've had no problems. My system temps idle at 40cel, and CPU idles at 25cel or so.

Constant air flow throughout my case, and no worries about alot of dust.

 

[sandiegoislandboy]

i have always been told to not keep the side panel off my case. i have friends with heating issues in their cases and then modded their case with additional fans to help with airflow. they had basic cases and just cut out a hole for a top exhaust fand and cut two holes in the side panel for intake.

or you can get a new case... the new thermaltake armor with the 25cm side fan and the hard drive rack with a 120mm fan blowing directly over the hard drives or even the coolermaster stacker with the crossblower fans and hard drive rack with a 120mm fan... those cases always intrigued me.

 

[Modelworks]

If you have a crt monitor and the fan is too big you might get some display distortion, colors, geometry . All depends on placement of the fan , relative to the monitor, how big the fan is, et c.

Years ago I used a 10 inch square fan to cool my pc.
It worked well.

I currently have a low cfm 80mm fan on my hard drives.
Hard drives build heat slowly and I found out that as long as they are slightly cooled from the time they come on, they never get the chance to heat up.