Thermaltake Shark - Modding Question

[SimonTW]

Hi there, just a quick case modding question regarding ventilation.

I have a Thermaltake Shark case (as seen here ), and at times it can be quite noisy.

There is an intake fan at the front, and in exhaust fan at the back. These aren't particularly noisy themselves, but I will probably replace them in the future.

On one side of the case, there is a type of grill rather than a side window (as you can see in the picture). This grill lets air right in and out of the case, rather than being a window with a grill pattern. The problem with this, is that a lot of noise escapes via it.

My plan is to buy a sheet of perspex (or other form of transparent plastic) and attach it to the inside of the side panel (most likely with glue). However, before I do this, I wanted to make sure that this grill wasn't a vital part of the computers ventilation. Comparing it to other cases, they will only have a front/back fan and survive well. Also, if it was meant for ventilation there would most likely be a fan in panel.

But I am no case/ventilation expert, so I wanted to know what you guys thought about it. Is it needed for ventilation? Or will it be ok to cover up?

Thanks,

Simon

 

[WJA96]

I think the only way to determine this for your configuration is to try it. Get a bit of card and fix it with bluetack over the vent. If your system temps rise to an unacceptable degree then it's required for ventilation. If they stay pretty much the same, then it's decoration and you can feel free to glue away.

If you are running a Pentium D 8xx and SLi then I would say you want it for ventilation, if it's a single graphics card and an AMD processor, then I would say you'll be OK blocking it off.

 

[SimonTW]

Yer, I've got an AMD with a single graphics card. I'll test it out and see then.