What are the disavantages of running a case with the side off?

Akagi

Akagi

Akagi

Caporegime
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In acme's chair.
I can think of:
less effective airflow
the potential for more dust to be drawn in
the potential for moths and such to be attracted to the lighting at night.

But this rig just looks so damn awesome with the side off! Especially with those LED's around the edge of the chassis... it makes me want a custom window which is the size of the entire panel minus the edges :p
 
Dust and risk of damage, also possibly increased noise.
can you not get a perspex window in your case?
 
SkodaMart said:
Dust and risk of damage, also possibly increased noise.
can you not get a perspex window in your case?
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my case does have a perspex window, but it looks better with the side off as i can see all of the LED's around the edge. The side is on again now.
 
My last 2 PC's had the sides off and other than slightly more noise and a few spiders in themtaking advantage of the heat not much, i dident notice much of a dust increase but i hover regularly anyway an use the nossle in the case from time to time anyway.
 
acme15 said:
very helpful, thankyou for your contribution :)
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Ok. Fine.

The magic with computer cases is that they feature dust filters. These stop dust from going into the case from the 120/140mm fan inputs.

Leaving a side panel off basically eradicates the point of having the dust filters in the first place, I had the side off my case for quite some time earlier this year and I noticed that my air-based CPU cooler was starting to clog up with dust.

This meant that temperatures increased considerably, and it's an absolute pain to clean sometimes.

After putting the side back on my case I've noticed that there is less and less dust coming into my system and temperatures are a lot cooler in comparison to before.

I would have thought that it's common sense, but hey ho.
 
I always run my PC with the side off, I don't have my intake fans plugged in as they'd be of no use with the side off. My pc is silent. and I hardly have any dust inside my case at all.
 
i did mention all of those things already... I just meant could the exposure reduce the lifespan of the computer, if theres moisture in the air it could cause capaitors etc to corrode, more technical stuff that i might not have thought of... i get that more dust might settle, but at the same time, dust being sucked through the entire pc and out the top could cause just as much dust buildup as having the side off and not having such a 'wind tunnel'.

I'm not a complete retard... -_-
 
acme15 said:
i did mention all of those things already... I just meant could the exposure reduce the lifespan of the computer, if theres moisture in the air it could cause capaitors etc to corrode, more technical stuff that i might not have thought of... i get that more dust might settle, but at the same time, dust being sucked through the entire pc and out the top could cause just as much dust buildup as having the side off and not having such a 'wind tunnel'.

I'm not a complete retard... -_-
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Well the hotter the processor/graphics card/power supply runs at, it can lead to a shorter lifespan in the future.
 
I'm currently running half my computer outside the case, the HDD and PSU are in the case, but the motherboard and everything is sitting on top of a large GPU box.

It's really no louder then if it was inside, it get's a little more dusty then normal, but it's nothing to cry or whine about and it's really easy to fix or clean things.

PC runs cooler as well.

This picture is a little old now, only difference is that I have a SSD laying on the table and a large desktop fan next to it now. Reason it's like this because am in the middle of rebuilding it but am stalled due to the motherboard shorting out inside the case and am too lazy to try to fix it at the moment, I also burnt away my power on switch so need to make a new one... again am lazy. :) But.. I had a "open" computer for about 5 months now and before that, I had the side panel off for maybe half a year, never had any problems.

Hoping to get some of them nice thin black sata cables soon, need 10 of them. :)

20120528_181349.jpg
 
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PC would run a lot cooler with the side off, but for me I don't want dust getting into everything. My case has lots of dust filters - I just need to remember to clean them a little more often!

Also the potential for damage, but I guess this depends on the positioning of your case.

Have to admit I was always tempted by the Antec Open Air Skeleton, but knowing me I would drop something into it!
 
Most of the PC would run cooler. The motherboard is the main exception. If you run high overclocks then you really need active cooling. This would normally exist as airflow inside a closed case. With the side panel off, you may need to point a fan at the motherboards VRMs/chipset.
 
CaptainRAVE said:
Have to admit I was always tempted by the Antec Open Air Skeleton, but knowing me I would drop something into it!
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I wouldn't mind one of them open cases too, but for the prices they go for I prefer to go with a proper case.

They do look cool through.

I'm into lights so would love a skeleton design that could fit some tubes.
 
Sgt_Pepper said:
I always run my PC with the side off, I don't have my intake fans plugged in as they'd be of no use with the side off. My pc is silent. and I hardly have any dust inside my case at all.
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Number_25 said:
After putting the side back on my case I've noticed that there is less and less dust coming into my system
Click to expand...

KaiserDJG said:
My last 2 PC's had the sides off and other than slightly more noise and a few spiders in themtaking advantage of the heat not much, i dident notice much of a dust increase.
Click to expand...
 
makes you want to put your fingers in and poke stuff , dust , noise , slightly less efeicient airflow across components as and fans u have are just open to your room more so in a big case . best build a window into your case me thinks
 
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