Does running a desktop with the side panel off make a noticeable difference in CPU and/or GPU temperatures? Any other pros/cons of the idea?

[Shreyas1]

1 hour ago, Bleedingyamato said:

I wonder why he wouldn't have noticed the airflow might be bad before building using whatever case and fan setup he chose?

 

That case looks bad with the solid panels.  I mean who thought that choking the airflow on the front and top was a good idea?  lol

 

Even opening to have a little gap doesn't fix that and the front panel tilted forward looks silly.  

 

That's nice you can remove the front and top panels but then the case looks slightly iffy because you can tell it wasn't really intended to have the panels off.

 

I made a similar mistake buying a corsair 88R for my secondary desktop.  It only has small intake vents on the sides and bottom of the front panel that is solid on the front surface.  

 

I should've gotten a spec-m2 mATX case like I used for my friend's desktop that I built for her.  It's literally the exact same case but with a much better open design front panel with a nice sized filtered grill over the front fan mounts.  

 

What graphics card do you mine with?

 

Doesn't the noise from your computer disturb your sleep? 

 

Maybe your airflow is better than mine?

 

I do have the fan curves for my case fans set to "silent" in the bios so that may be contributing to the problem.

 

Either way I'll likely be replacing the front 120mm fans with 140mm fans so hopefully that'll solve the issue.  

 

It's not that I have to have the panel off to get acceptable temps for my GPU but with an approximately 8-10C different by removing the panel it would suggest my cooling setup needs tweaking.  ?

IMO my case probably has one of the best cooling solutions. It's a thermaltake core v21 and has a mesh all around that allows for cooling. Near the one HUGE fan in the front there's the same type of mesh that jayztwocents recommended. My only problem is that all my cables block my 1 fan.

[MorganO]

4 hours ago, Bleedingyamato said:

What graphics card do you mine with?

 

Doesn't the noise from your computer disturb your sleep?

GTX 980ti 

And now a 1080ti

 

Nah, I'm a heavy sleeper, I only wake up if my rooms too warm

[Ithanul]

Folding or mining is going create a ton of heat.

Sorry to say, but that FTW3 is going to stay hot.  Unlike gaming, folding or mining puts near a 99% load on the core the entire time.

 

I run without side panels, but major reason for me is fast access to components if Kevdog's Law takes one out (so far only lost two components to date).

 

Sorry for super late reply.  Deployed at the moment, so super long hours and crazy stuff with computers going on.

[Bleedingyamato]

51 minutes ago, Ithanul said:

Folding or mining is going create a ton of heat.

Sorry to say, but that FTW3 is going to stay hot.  Unlike gaming, folding or mining puts near a 99% load on the core the entire time.

 

I run without side panels, but major reason for me is fast access to components if Kevdog's Law takes one out (so far only lost two components to date).

 

Sorry for super late reply.  Deployed at the moment, so super long hours and crazy stuff with computers going on.

I know it's going to be generating a lot of heat at full load.

 

My thinking was leaving the panel off would lower the temperature inside my case to allow for the FTW3 (and 6700K when folding) to not need as high fan speeds to maintain acceptable an acceptable max temperature.  

 

 

I paid a heck of a lot for this FTW3 and I want to keep it at no higher than about 65-66C or preferably a little lower while either folding or mining to hopefully prevent either use from decreasing the lifespan of my FTW3.  

 

 

Running without the side panel in front of my motherboard (the side with the window) did lower the temperature of my FTW3 by around 7-10C I think.  

 

So it did help but another responder here mentioned it could/would increase VRM temperature on my motherboard since having the panel off would mess up airflow through my case that the motherboard VRM depends on to keep cooler so I've gone back to leaving the panel on.

 

 

You leave both side panels off?  Does having the panel on the backside of the motherboard off help or is that just for accessing stuff from that side?

 

 

What's "Kevdog's Law"?

 

 

It's ok if you took a bit to reply.  I know you have a job and stuff besides me to worry about.  ?

 

I just very much appreciate that you took the time to respond.

 

Hopefully they sent you somewhere nice.  lol

 

 

One last thing: I noticed that without the front (in front of the motherboard) side panel on my computer puts off a LOT of heat.  

 

Folding or mining with the panel off must have been enough to heat up this part of my basement because while I'm usually rather cool/comfy down here I was getting a bit toasty...  ? lol

[Ithanul]

Yeah, computers become space heaters when doing folding and mining.  Reason I never had to turn heat on during Winter when stationed in North part of California.  (That back with a GTX590 and a 7970 though)

 

I only have one panel off.  On rare occasions I may have the back off to access the power cables (usually when I get a fresh rebuild done).

 

If worried about VRMs, rig up a fan above them with zip ties or a bracket.  That will keep air going across.

 

Only way I know of keeping GPUs cooled off below 60C is smacking water blocks on them.  Major reason I keep mine all under water with ambient at 27C in Spring and Summer.  Highest I see on the big cards is 40C while folding.  If mining, set a different OC profile and lower TDP while keeping stable.  The trick is to find a good balance on power draw and MH/s when mining.