Open Case Advantages?

[Spacepiston]

I thought I would share this:

Closed case w/fan (well ventalated) max temps 40C

Open case still w/fan (one panel off)max temps 37C

So, just opening the case lowered cpu temps by 3C, not bad...

[Allan Nielsen]

I have my case open as well... a bit noisier, but also chopped off a couple of degrees on the mobo as well as CPU.

Maybe this goes in the case "modding" section? I dunno.

[Valafar]

Mine is just the opposite. I decided to put the covers back on after I got tired of cleaning dust every other day and my temps dropped 3C on the CPU and mobo. Now I only have to clean it every other week.

[WizardCalledJosh]

I think it all would depend on how you have the air flow setup in your case. If you have fans to blow air in and then blow out somewhere out, it would be less effective if the case was off. With the panel missing it would casue the air to come from the big hole (missing panel) than flowing through the system as designed. If you just had fans mounted to blow on your MB or somewhere directly just grabbing the air from the the missing panel would help. For example I have a large fan on the top blowing hot air out of the case. IF the panel was off it would just be grabbing air from the side open panel and not from the intake hole at the bottom of the case. Just though this might be relavant and help explain

[[OC]_SR20DE]

This is what I did to keep my whole system cooler and be able to run at 1071mhz smoothly. Down below the pic of my air setup. You noticed that I got heatsinks on the AGP, PCI, and HD controller( i dont think cooling the HD controller is necessary though, doh!)
Both case sides are opened. I have a house hold fan facing on the Mommy board's side of the case. Those 3 case fans looks funny but it sure is doing the job keeping my CPU temp @ 29C idle. Oh crap.. and look at that..... big ass HSF on my Video card.. wow.. Dangg..

[mrpcman]

my system drops about 15C whith no sides on the case. without the side the case temp is around 25C. and with sides around 40C.

[outhouse]

p3-1g@1248 stable ive ducted my cpu hsf to cool air from outside the case as well as a mobo fan on inside of case blowing cool air in, hsf also on northbridbe, vidoe card will have hsf added [larger then the one now]. Now the important part case covers off raise temps and on looks much more attractive, if you like you can get creative and make covers and filters for air intakes out of old fine mess screans ive used old car speaker cover screens on mine and it has a proffesional look as well as preforms rather nice. now i'm running at 20C at idle while online wich is close to ambient temp also taking into account that with a fan on back of MB gives me a false reading because my temp sensor is being cooled off more then cpu but it does lower my temps a little i'm sure[no more hot spot on back of MB tray]