mesh front panel
- Thread starter humax
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Not really - assuming you choose quiet HDD's (Samsung are good) and Fans (Papst, Panaflo, Akasa Amber, Yate Loon) then you shouldn't have any problems with noise.
One thing you possibly should be aware of is that loads of mesh doesn't always give better cooling.
Pretty much everything in your case is cooled by conduction. The heat sink conducts heat away from the processor and into the fins where it is transferred by conduction (and a little convection) into the air or water (if it's water cooled).
The best conduction happens between the coldest air and the hottest metal surface - heat travelling down a concentration gradient. If the air temperature is very close to the heat sink temperature then the conduction is slow and inefficient.
In practise you need to change the air around the hot things on a regular basis to keep them cool. The faster you change the air, the better. The more air, the better.
Cases that are very open need loads of fans to keep changing the air. Closed cases need really only one exhaust fan as the air will usually bleed into the case from outside, but they usually have an intake fan as well.
The more fans, the more noise. So, by having a big mesh front, you need more fans to keep the air moving so you generate more noise.
Sorry if you found that un-necessary, but these sorts of cases seem to be more and more common and they generally don't work that well (Gigabyte with mesh side panel, Stacker 830) so people are quite disappointed by them.
One thing you possibly should be aware of is that loads of mesh doesn't always give better cooling.
Pretty much everything in your case is cooled by conduction. The heat sink conducts heat away from the processor and into the fins where it is transferred by conduction (and a little convection) into the air or water (if it's water cooled).
The best conduction happens between the coldest air and the hottest metal surface - heat travelling down a concentration gradient. If the air temperature is very close to the heat sink temperature then the conduction is slow and inefficient.
In practise you need to change the air around the hot things on a regular basis to keep them cool. The faster you change the air, the better. The more air, the better.
Cases that are very open need loads of fans to keep changing the air. Closed cases need really only one exhaust fan as the air will usually bleed into the case from outside, but they usually have an intake fan as well.
The more fans, the more noise. So, by having a big mesh front, you need more fans to keep the air moving so you generate more noise.
Sorry if you found that un-necessary, but these sorts of cases seem to be more and more common and they generally don't work that well (Gigabyte with mesh side panel, Stacker 830) so people are quite disappointed by them.
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Soldato
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Whilst true for many cases...
The Lian Li V1000 case deals with it rather well.
In the main compartment I have a 7900GT, X2@2666 MHz a sound card and various other bits.
All cooled by 1 x 120mm fan.
(+ a blower for the GFX card)
Temps never get that warm. Quiet due to minimal fans.
You can feel the warm air exiting the case at the front.
Cold air gets drawn in by the GFX cooler from the mesh at the top.
Works very well.
So some cases it may prevent Airflow routing past the components you need but in the LL V1000 and the Arctic Cooling Silentum cases - It does mean less fans and better cooling.
The Lian Li V1000 case deals with it rather well.
In the main compartment I have a 7900GT, X2@2666 MHz a sound card and various other bits.
All cooled by 1 x 120mm fan.
(+ a blower for the GFX card)
Temps never get that warm. Quiet due to minimal fans.
You can feel the warm air exiting the case at the front.
Cold air gets drawn in by the GFX cooler from the mesh at the top.
Works very well.
So some cases it may prevent Airflow routing past the components you need but in the LL V1000 and the Arctic Cooling Silentum cases - It does mean less fans and better cooling.
Soldato
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- Scottish Highlands
I addition to what WJA96 and Captain Fizz have said; The LianLi v1000/v2000 also look great! 
transfer of heat from heatsink (solid) to air (gas) is by (forced) convection ?WJA96 said:
(edit: ...and IR radiation)
disagree, the exit fan is the same, therefore there is equivlent air flow to a non mesh case.WJA96 said:
.
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bitslice said:
I don't think so, but I'm prepared to be wrong. 23 years since I did my A-level physics
bitslice said:
Sort of, but no. If you draw the air through a small hole, the air speed will be great. If you pull through a big hole (mesh front) the air speed will be very low. You want to create a high speed air jet over the components so you change part of the air in the case very frequently. One fan with the front open just moves the air about a bit, one fan drawing through a small hole generates a jet of air and lots of turbulence. You move the same amount of air, but the speed it moves at is radically different. With the high speed jet, in a well designed case you change the air over the processor and HDD very often, so enhancing cooling. This is how the Akasa Eclipse. Lian Li PC7+ and Antec Lanboy work. 2 120mm fans, plenty of cooling. No gaping holes in the case (the Lanboy does have a bigger grill, but the principle is the same).
I can't find a decent explanation of this but I believe heatsinks LOSE energy by convection and radiationWJA96 said:
(items 1 and 2)
Heatsinks only transfer energy from CPU to Heatsink using conduction (item 3)
1. Radiation is heat transfer by the emission of electromagnetic waves which carry energy away from the emitting object
2. Convection is heat transfer by mass motion of a fluid such as air or water when the heated fluid is caused to move away from the source of heat, carrying energy with it.
3. Conduction is heat transfer by means of molecular agitation within a material without any motion of the material as a whole.
WJA96 said:
agree, BUT the point cooling of the processor/GPU is done using a heatsink and fan, not by the intake fan. Therefore the overall cooling is still comparable to a closed box design.
As the exit fan is the same, there is no increase in speed of the exhaust air
Point cooling of the HD is kinda dependant on it's location, some cases just leave it at the top.
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bitslice said:
Try it. Turn off all the fans in an open case except one exhaust fan and watch your temperatures climb. Now put the sides back on and the temperatures will fall. Turn the front fan back on and the temperatures will fall again. It's completely logical if you think about it.
And the internal case air temperature is absolutely critical as whether the heat is being transferred by radiation, convection, conduction or the mice from Bagpuss, it will still transfer faster across a larger differential (Le Chateliers' Principal) so the cooler the internal case temperature, the more efficiently everything else will be cooled.