NZXT Phantom Air Cooling Question

[oenigmaa]

So I am air cooling SLI 680's in a phantom full tower, and have a question regarding the side panel. The side panel has 2x 120mm fans, and I think if I take the panel off, temps wouldn't be much of an issue. Although, I am wondering if taking the side panel off would make my gpu's extremely dusty. I see a lot of people doing it on air cooling, and I feel cosmetically it would make me feel better. Any responses/opinions would be great!

Thanks
-Dan

 

[ASUS ROG]

You have the Phantom 410 right?
You shouldn't take the side panel off because it will get pretty dusty and dust is your pc number 1 worst enemy, there're a reason for the 2 fan on the side of your case, those fan is an side intake fan, they suck air in your case to cool your mobo and other part so don't take them off.
If you want better air flow, try to buy some better 120mm fan like the Silverstone air penetrator air channeling case fan, this fan is pretty good.

 

[Robert17]

I have the Phantom black and added an additional 200mm fan to the left side panel. It pushes air across my GPU while the 2x 120's push air into the HDD area. The dust problem will be less with the panel in place but still exist. You need to think of using some compressed air to dust it from time to time. There's really no dust free solution that doesn't involve letting heat build-up occur except maybe building on Pluto.