Cooling question

[TallGeorge]

Disclaimer: I’m not very computer building savvy so correct me if I’m wrong. Dust is always an issue when it comes to cooling PCs. And to get the dust off you need to open you computer up from time to time to get at it. While cleaning my computer I had a thought. With all in one coolers and custom liquid cooling, why do fans still blow air around inside a case? Why not seal the case up and have mounting points outside the computer case for the radiator and its fans? I know dust will still get on the fans and radiator but it will stay off all the other internal components. Is this possible?

[WoodenMarker]

You need airflow to cool system components. 

[Mehmy]

If you find some way of liquid cooling ALL your components. So, a monoblock and chipset for the motherboard, a full cover block for the GPU, and water blocks for your drives, and a block for your RAM, you could run the tubes outside of the case and seal them up, it could be done. 

 

However, if you have anything in your case that requires air/passive cooling, it'll overheat eventually if it doesn't get any airflow. And at that point anyway, dust on things that aren't your radiators don't impact performance anyway, so you'd only really save yourself some some opening the case, and maybe the looks.

[A Lini]

you would also have to be okay with the noise of having your fans blowing without any noise insulation

[TallGeorge]

Thank you @Mehmy for your detailed response. I didn’t realize that so many computer components created heat. I had thought it was just the CPU and GPU that created all the heat.

Thank you  @WoodenMarker for your response. I’ll be sure to reread the thread you linked next time I do a piecemeal upgrade on my computer. I think Black Friday will be the time to finally upgrade the motherboard, CPU, and RAM. It’ll be five years old!

Thank you @A Lini for your response. I hadn’t considered the sound external fans would create. That’s a very valid point. 

[Mehmy]

2 hours ago, TallGeorge said:

Thank you @Mehmy for your detailed response. I didn’t realize that so many computer components created heat. I had thought it was just the CPU and GPU that created all the heat.

Unless you find some way of transfering power from point a to point b without resistance, everything in a PC generates heat. It's just that they don't really generate MUCH heat, to the point where it's only really CPU, GPU, and VRM's that actually require any form of cooling/heatsink in even just a kinda ventilated case.