Does the Material of Case affect Temps?

[Enablingwolf]

No.

There is many folks who choose not to use Al as a case material.

 

[clocker2]

YES, the case material affects temperature.
The temperature of what?
The "scientific" reasoning by some in this crowd makes me think that you're all Medieval French Literature majors.
Unrepentant English major actually.

The case is a heat sink, with or without fins, all FINS do is increase the surface area. Any metal case is going to conduct heat away from the "high" (inside the case) to the "low" (outside the case) faster than plastic or some other insulating material.
Assuming that the two cases are identical save for the material, I doubt you'd see a measurable difference of the (so far unspecified) interior components, but would like to see hard data either way.

And aluminum dissipates heat faster than steel. We see this in the every day scenario of two pizza pans, one steel, one aluminum. If both are placed in an oven then taken out after heating up, you can touch the aluminum one with your bare hands MUCH faster than the steel pan. If you don't believe it, try it.
Apples and oranges.
Your scenario depends on a far more extreme deltaT than you'd ever see with a PC

Now is the case material anywhere near as important as air FLOW, of course not...
We agree on this, at least.
...but it helps,
Oops, lost me again.
... and since plastic is an insulator then of course plastic cases will be the worst about retaining heat and need more air flow.
I have never seen a metal case where the panel thickness was equal to that of a plastic panel...have you?

You accuse us of being unscientific without presenting any data whatsoever to support your assertions.
My anecdotal experience says that case design, placement and ambient temp are the only factors that directly effect interior temps, but would love to see evidence proving me wrong.
All it would take is two cases, identical but for material, with two identical sets of innards, running side by side and carefully instrumented.
Up for it?