If taking off the side of the case drops temps 5-6C is that bad?

does that mean I need more cooling or something? I have 2 120mm fans. One inlet and one exhaust, also 2 PSU fans.

My temps dropped that much under load when the side of the case off. Does that mean my fans aren't doing a well enough job? Maybe a duct mod?

Wow, that is a pretty large drop. You might rethink the setup of your fans, and more of them is never a bad thing . The more air you can get in there the lower your temps will be, up to a point. Side fans are especially nice.
Make sure your exhaust fan is higher up than the intake (which it probably is) to ensure the most efficent airflow through your computer since, of course, heat rises.

Also: What is the ambient temperature of the location of your computer? if it is warm where your computer is located and your temps are dropping 5-6c, then you really have an issue.

my computer does the same, but i run the 3 fans in my system at 5volts, so that is expected in a hot place like socal, if u dont mind noise, u can probably drop quite a few degrees with some well adjusted blowholes.. however, noise is bad!

its common to see temps drop even by as much as 10C
however its not recomended, because if you have cats or dogs or kids, then they will want to reach in there.
a new thing people have started doing is cutting a 80mm blow hole in the side panel right over the cpu HSF and then running a duct to it, generaly a hard plastic duct, that way the cpu pulls the cool air from the outside of the case, and you still keep the air flow inside the case going.
Removing the side cover you might as well remove the rest of the case fans, because they wont be doing their job.
however I would rethink your fan setup, also check to make sure the stock finger gaurds on your case arnt killing your fans CFM, I have cut out the finger guards and replaced then with the standard metal ones you see everywhere. now the fans can pull plenty of air in, my case temp always is the same as the room temp, and my CPU runs a little hotter then the room temp. removing the side panel doesnt drop my temps anymore.
so there you go.
-L_P

You may want to check to see if your intake fan has enough space to draw in air without restriction. I suspect that there's something blocking it's ability to draw in air.

CrystalMethod said:

You may want to check to see if your intake fan has enough space to draw in air without restriction. I suspect that there's something blocking it's ability to draw in air.

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It's got a filter on it that came with my Antec 3700 case. You think that filter is keeping slowing things down?

Last night I cut out the stock mesh grills and replaced them with normal case fans. I also hacked off the middle of that purple th ing that the fans clip into, the filter is the only thing that still remains as a POSSIBLE restriction.

I mean 2x120mm fans should be moving air through I would think

I have the exact same case and the exact same problem. With two 120mm fans, my airflow still doesn't seem that good. Did you find that cutting those finger guards helped at all? If so, I will probably give that a try.

I'm trying not to go out and buy a dremel (which will mean I'll probably end up destroying the case since I've never used one before), but I'm not sure what other options I have left. I guess I could just leave the side panel off, but that seems so ghetto.

Any more luck with anything, billstuck? I'm interested to hear what has worked for you.

Cutting the mesh grill things off did help a bit and the air flowing out the back definetly seems stronger.

I started to use a dremel but stopped because metal dust was getting everywhere. Instead I used a strong pair of metal snips and just cut it away.

It looks a little rough around the edges, but the front is covered and the back is against the wall so no one see it and I don't care.

I'm going to try and remove the filter on the front of the case to see what that does.

I have also since installed a Zalman AlCu 7000 HSF and when I remove the side now temps don't drop very much.

I think those metal grills are very restricting.

Oh and I also cut out the inside of those purple clip on things that the fan attaches to. The fan still stays in fine without them and they were just restricting airflow.

That's good to hear. Maybe I'll pick up some metal snippers on the way home today. You mentioned that your CPU temps used to drop around 5-6 degrees after taking off the side panel. After snipping out the grills, do you remember how much that helped your temps?

Drinyth said:

That's good to hear. Maybe I'll pick up some metal snippers on the way home today. You mentioned that your CPU temps used to drop around 5-6 degrees after taking off the side panel. After snipping out the grills, do you remember how much that helped your temps?

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Not off the top of my head, but when I get home tonight I'll give it a try and let you know

Not a huge deal. I'm probably more curious than anything else. So do you have just the blades exposed in the back? Or if you attached a grill guard, how did you do it while keeping the plastic holder in tact? Thanks for your help!

Drinyth said:

Not a huge deal. I'm probably more curious than anything else. So do you have just the blades exposed in the back? Or if you attached a grill guard, how did you do it while keeping the plastic holder in tact? Thanks for your help!

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heh well yea putting a grill guard on was a bit tricky.

I had to drill new holes for the grill guard which was pretty easy, but the screws protruded into the inside of the case and interfered with the purple clip thing and the corners of the fan.

So I had two options. Ditch the purple clip thing and just mount the fan with screws that went through the fan and the grill guard, but I didn't have any of the correct screws around and I was to lazy to go to the store so instead.

I drilled holes in the purple thing to make room for the purple screws so that fig snug...

Then I snipped the corners of my fan off to make room so it would fit snug.

The screws just barely interfered with the corners of the fan, so I was able to snip just a bit off and not ruin the fan holes that the screws mount to and it fit.

A bit of a hack job I guess, but I'm not trying to win any pretty computer prizes

Heh. I don't have any of the right tools or anything, so I'm sure anything that I do is going to be a hack job. Maybe I'll just leave the back of the fan exposed. I don't have pets or kids (yet), so I shouldn't have anything to worry about if I do.

It seemed like such a nice case on paper and in pictures. Who knew I'd have so many problems with it.

Drinyth said:

Heh. I don't have any of the right tools or anything, so I'm sure anything that I do is going to be a hack job. Maybe I'll just leave the back of the fan exposed. I don't have pets or kids (yet), so I shouldn't have anything to worry about if I do.

It seemed like such a nice case on paper and in pictures. Who knew I'd have so many problems with it.

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Yea it is a nice case still I think. Very sturdy and lots of space. Convienent drive bays etc...

The more expensive Sonata is pretty much the exact same case and if you look closely they don't have those silly mesh grills.

Also I think it got quieter with those mesh grills gone because the air was whooshing through those tiny holes.

Hrm. Maybe while I'm snipping away, I'll just do away with the purple plastic holders that hold the fans in place as well. That way, I can upgrade to some higher flow 120x120x38mm fans too?

It's a nice case. It has a great finish to it and it's sturdy. I bought the case because it was smaller than my older "Dragon" style case which was nice but barely allowed for my IDE cables to reach the drives. I figured the case would run cooler with its 2 120mm fan slots, but my temperatures are actually a good deal hotter than my older case.

I have all my fans without fingerguards. It's 'The Shredder'. I do need to get some for it though...

I have all my fans without fingerguards. It's 'The Shredder'. I do need to get some for it though...

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Ouch.....That could ruin your day.

Well, I still haven't gotten a Dremel or made any case modifications yet. I just scared that I'm going to ruin my case (not to mention I'm having a hard time shelling out $70 to make a couple holes). In any case, I was working on my case putting a firewire cable inside it and while I was in there, I decided to turn my CPU fan around. I originally had it blowing down onto the HS, but the exhaust fan and PSU fan are right next to the CPU fan and almost at the same level. I thought that both of those fans might be competing for cool air. I guessed that there would be less competition for air closer to the base of the HS than there would be above it, so I moved it to suck air off the HS.

And it seemingly worked!!! I should have checked my idle temps this morning before I made the change, but I'm sitting right now at around 50-51 degrees where as I'd normally sit anywhere from 54-56 (all temps under folding load). I was certainly surprised that it made such a big difference, but thinking about the airflow now in my head, it sort of makes sense. It may be hard to visualise... I'll try and maybe take a picture of what I'm talking about if people are interested.

I'm a happy camper though. No need to hack my box apart anymore and my temps are much better than they were before!