Computer Case: Open or Closed?

Postby **Mr. SmartyPants** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 5:22 pm

recently for the past few.... months... maybe 6 months or so. Ive left my case open. As in took the side cover off and let my computer run like that. Because whenever i leave the case on, something that goes "whirr" inside my computer (probably the fan) gets louder, especially when playing games and stuff. And when i take it off, itll becomes quieter and it also lets heat out from the side

now my questions are...

1. does a computer generally perform better with the case open?
2. Is there a heat risk to leave the box closed?
3. Does the louder "whirring" with the box closed mean anything compared to the soft "whirring" when the box is open?

Postby **shooraijin** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 5:26 pm

The computer will *cool* easier with the case open, but then dust and other things can get in it.

If your fans are working and you're not doing any kind of insane overclocking, there should be no problem with having the case on -- that's what it's there for.

The louder whirring doesn't necessarily mean the fan is revving higher -- it could mean there's something wrong with the airflow path, or some issue with the fan making the case vibrate. Either way, you should inspect the fanblades to make sure they've got adequate clearance, and that air is flowing the direction you think it should be.

Postby **Mr. SmartyPants** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 5:30 pm

well air is definately flowing outwards... (from the back)

perhaps there is dust on them? I ought to see if I can clean them

what Im also worried about is that... well when I got my computer. It had an AGP videocard (radeon 9800 pro, it has its own fan woohoo) a telephone modem thingy, and 1 harddrive, 2 cd drives, and a floppy drive that doesnt do anything...

I took out the telephone modem line, installed a PCI wireless card, and a PCI firewire card, and a second 80GB harddrive. Will those 3 (or rather... 2 I suppose for exchanging something) generate more heat? Especially with the cover closed? It certainly is not "dell default"

Postby **Mr. Rogers** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 5:36 pm

make sure everything is clean first

Postby **shooraijin** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 5:40 pm

Mr. SmartyPants wrote:well air is definately flowing outwards... (from the back)

perhaps there is dust on them? I ought to see if I can clean them

what Im also worried about is that... well when I got my computer. It had an AGP videocard (radeon 9800 pro, it has its own fan woohoo) a telephone modem thingy, and 1 harddrive, 2 cd drives, and a floppy drive that doesnt do anything...

I took out the telephone modem line, installed a PCI wireless card, and a PCI firewire card, and a second 80GB harddrive. Will those 3 (or rather... 2 I suppose for exchanging something) generate more heat? Especially with the cover closed? It certainly is not "dell default"

The additional hard disk will generate an certain amount of heat, but as long as there is space around it, ventilation should not be a problem (a half inch of clearance, assuming it's not something like a 10Krpm drive, should be more than adequate). The PCI cards add a negligible temperature increase.

However, if you have all this crammed together in one box with little or no space for airflow between components (especially if you are sticking stuff where there aren't brackets for it), then you probably should look at a larger case and/or motherboard.

Postby **Mr. SmartyPants** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 5:46 pm

i looked between the harddrives there is some space between them, maybe a little less than half an inch...

I have no idea what a "box with little space for airflow" is ^^;; sorry

would that be enough space?

Postby **shooraijin** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 5:47 pm

I'm having trouble identifying what's what in that picture. Is that two hard disks at upper right, or a CD/DVD, hard disk and then a hard disk at the bottom?

Also, I can't tell from the resolution where you have brackets.

Postby **Mr. SmartyPants** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 5:54 pm

the top right are the cd drives and the floppy

the bottom right are the 2 harddrives, one is not shown, as it is behind the black plastic portion

yeah sorry its VGA, the only camera I have now is my cellphone camera... the brackets are at the bottom right, holding the harddrive in place

Postby **shooraijin** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 6:03 pm

If you don't show both drives, how am I supposed to tell how far apart they are? :shady:

Postby **Mr. SmartyPants** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 6:12 pm

shooraijin wrote:If you don't show both drives, how am I supposed to tell how far apart they are?

x__x oh gosh, terribly sorry there... I was confused

I hope I got it right

when I look at it, it seems to be a little less than half an inch for me

Postby **shooraijin** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 7:29 pm

And they're both bracketed? That looks way too close. I think you'll need to separate them more.

Postby **Mr. SmartyPants** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 8:00 pm

ahh okay, but how would I do that? I mean before I had the 2nd one in, there was that space for another one, and the brackets were like that to begin with....

well... ill figure it out... I'll try superglue if nothing else works (kidding kidding)

Postby **shooraijin** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 12:59 am

Well, if those really are the brackets that Dell built into the case, then they may consider the fan adequate enough to cool the drives. Myself, it seems risky, but your photographs are difficult to make a good assessment from.

Postby **Mr. SmartyPants** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 6:19 am

yeah, there doesnt seem to be a way to pull them further apart... >_>

Postby **ThaKladd** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 10:32 am

I bought my computer a year ago - but with only 300W PSU. I did not have enough Watt for extra fans, because the computer was filled with so much other stuff. (cd drive, dvd drive, 3 HD's, Radeon 9800 pro, Athlon 64 cpu, tv card, extra LAN card, sound card)

This caused a heat problem, and when I had the cabinett open it was much more quiet than when it was on. This is because when it was on, it generated more heat and the fan on the CPU went top speed.

Now I've bought a new Cabinett, 500 W PSU and 2 extra fans. The Computer is cooler, and much more quiet.

Postby **Linksquest** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 8:52 pm

yea... the whole dust thing could be a prob, Ryan.

Postby **V8Tsunami** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 6:29 am

Is there anything pressed against the fan when you close the case? It looks like you've got an IDE cable pretty close to the processor fan.

Postby **Mr. SmartyPants** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 2:14 pm

V8Tsunami wrote:Is there anything pressed against the fan when you close the case? It looks like you've got an IDE cable pretty close to the processor fan.

eh? I only have 2 fans... one on the power supply (on the back) and one where the big green thing is (towards the left)... and its not close to any IDE cables...

Postby **Mithrandir** » Tue Sep 20, 2005 4:14 pm

Just FYI: Some case manufacturers suggest you let a certain volume of air go past the processor, and they design the case to make this work. Opening the case will keep the air from flowing correctly across the processor, and could cause all sorts of weird heat issues. If you suspect this is the problem, you can set a desk fan to blow directly on the insides (lots o' dust, though) to see if the problem goes away.

Computer Case: Open or Closed?

Computer Case: Open or Closed?

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