importance of io shield

Is the I/O shield important? I did not install it, is there any use for it other than telling me which port is for what?

i feel a lot of air gushing out the mobo io area..
(i have 3 fans pushing air in and 2 fans pulling air out of the case...)

Naa, it's not important to install it, I'm running without one too, and no problem so far. If you can feel the air pushing out it only means you have positive pressure inside your case which is a good thing. It will prevent dust from entering your case.
Remember to use filters on your intake fans...

someone had a mouse crawl up into his case once, it got fried of course, lol.
probably can't fit in a I/O though, but i've found like files, spilders and stuff.. and i have filter in front which and my i/o is unclovered, so they probably got in by there. nothing to worry about though, just don't be suprised when u find cobwebs in ur case, heh

ya i need to find some good dust filter
what do u guys suggest? I want to find something that is easy to get and manipulate.. and ofcourse economical...

I used the same type of filters that is found in kitchen ventilators. It have worked great so far, and it's easy to work with...

Talking about mice, many years back, I found I had a mouse living in tower PC at the office. Getting in and out through an open IO slot. It made a mess inside..

http://www.svc.com/80mmfanfilter.html
good cheap filters, look thought the site for larger, cooler looking ones (of course more expensive though)

Startech said:

Talking about mice, many years back, I found I had a mouse living in tower PC at the office. Getting in and out through an open IO slot. It made a mess inside..

Click to expand...

was it alive when u found it?? LOL
did it leave u a gift?
did it smell?
did u find any burnt flesh on the capacitors?

What happened with the mouse is that somebody saw it running one day, and then they set traps and eventually caught it. Days later I opened the case to add a drive and found the mess. It had made a nest in the case with bits of things, hears, bits of peanut shells.. no bad smell. Some marks left from dried fluids... Not very pleasant to have to clean it up. The case had some IO slots open, and obviously was a warm place for the winter. It happened that the unit was old and went out the door a while later. It was a PS/2 Model 80, 386/20MHz with 340MB SCSI drives !

Now you are probably wondering how old I must be!!!