Question about cabinet ventilation.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Frank Martin
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Frank Martin

I have just had a new computer installed with:

DVD/Reader & Burner,
TV card
External HDD
240Gb HDD (which gets hot!)
Dual-core Pentium4
WindowsXPMedia centre
Etc

And I will use the machine a lot for downloading
movies and DVD copying.

The cabinet is a bit small (TK-6650B ATX
MiniTower) but includes air-duct venting for the
CPU.

My question is:

Since I don't care what it looks like, would it be
better to simply leave off the side panel to allow
maximum ventilation?

This would remove the little plastic CPU "Duct",
though there would then be no barrier to air
ingress.

Can someone advise me if this is a good idea?

Regards, Frank

PS: So far it's working rather well, because I
can download/burn movies and still use all my
other applications at the same time; so unlike my
previous machine which struggled with sinultaneous
application use.
 
That is all you have and you are worried about ventillation? Stick your hand
on the back of the computer and let us know if you can feel air coming out
from it, especially around the psu.

There is no need to worry, though, even considering the ram and whether you
are using onboard video or not, which you did not state. I assume your cpu
has a fan and there is a case fan at the front?

The panels were made to be on the computer, not off. Leave it on. If you are
really paranoid--and some here are not only going to tell you leave off the
side panel, but also to put it in a slot fan--just take off one of your pci
slot covers.

Just so you know, I have everything you have except the dual core cpu.
However, I have two burners. . . . and they are all in a mini tower. I have
no ventillation on the sides, but a heck of alot of it on the back. I have a
great psu that spits alot of air out of the back of it too. If you are so
worried, get you a thermometer and tie it somewhere inside the case where it
is not touching any metal and is far away from your mobo as possible. Then
run the computer for two hours and burn a couple of cd's and check the temp
inside the computer.

Let us know what temps you get. Check out this article for more info, but it
is not detailed:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/142

Also go a google search for "internal computer temperature" or "temperature
inside computer." There are so many different opinions on this that you are
probably going to pull your hair out when you start reading more about this
topic.
 
By the way and in case you don't have time to read the link I sent you, if
your computer is not locking up/screen freezing or generating some errors,
leave the panel on.
 
The best PC enclosures use the push me/pull me concept for air flow. Fans
in front pushing the air in, fans in rear pulling the air out.

If ducted air is required to get external air to the cpu fan, then that
enclosure sounds cluttered internally for normal external air to get to that
cpu fan.

If an internal hard drive is getting hot, there's a problem with external
air flow routing to that hard drive inside of the enclosure.

The PC's enclosure serves as part of air flow routing. Removing a panel
disrupts that air flow routing.
.............
Jonny
 
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