Side air vents

[lenardmgtr]

Hey all! I'm curious as to how cases with side air vents perform with thermals. I don't expect them to perform as well as full-mesh fronted cases, but I feel as if cases such as the Phanteks P300, NZXT H510, or the Tecware Nexus M are toasters. Would like to be proven wrong though!

[gloop]

Can confirm the H510 is a toaster. I have it and taking off the side panel massively reduces temps. 

[lenardmgtr]

Just now, gloop said:

Can confirm the H510 is a toaster. I have it and taking off the side panel massively reduces temps. 

Can't say I'm surprised since it only has an array of pinholes for air intake. Still curious if an array of lines are better than an array of pinholes.

[Stahlmann]

The P300 actually has a front mesh variant in the P300A Airflow. The cases you mentioned are pretty bad for thermals. Side intakes on older cases work pretty well actually. Meshify C (needs exta fans) or P400A are good options aswell.

[lenardmgtr]

2 minutes ago, Stahlmann98 said:

The P300 actually has a front mesh variant in the P300A Airflow. The cases you mentioned are pretty bad for thermals. Side intakes on older cases work pretty well actually. Meshify C (needs exta fans) or P400A are good options aswell.

Well, dang. Might have to sacrifice a front dust filter for better thermals then :^(((( more regular dusting and cleaning for better performance seems to be a good deal though

[TVwazhere]

39 minutes ago, lenardmgtr said:

Hey all! I'm curious as to how cases with side air vents perform with thermals. I don't expect them to perform as well as full-mesh fronted cases, but I feel as if cases such as the Phanteks P300, NZXT H510, or the Tecware Nexus M are toasters. Would like to be proven wrong though!

It depends on what type of heat your system is outputting. If you're running a 9900k/10900k and an RTX 2080ti, it's going to be an over. But if you're rocking an R5 3600 (no OC) with a 1660ti/5600 or 5700, then you'll likely find the temps manageable and within reason (70's to low 80-s). 

 

Cases with two side vents like the Define C, Corsair 465x and the Lian Li 205 will obviously do better than cases with only 1 side vent like the H510, Nexus M, etc. 

 

Also pay attention to fan placement. Sharktoon has two very similar cases (TG4 and TG5) but the TG4 fans are positioned too far forward to properly utilize the side ventilation, so the fans would need to be moved onto the other side of the rails to get better airflow. A lot of companies do this to show off their RGB better at the cost of airflow, but dont tell the average consumer because the average consumer (not a member of the LTT forusm usually) doesnt consider airflow as a high priority when building their first PC

 

TG4

Spoiler

 

TG5

Spoiler

 

[lenardmgtr]

4 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

It depends on what type of heat your system is outputting. If you're running a 9900k/10900k and an RTX 2080ti, it's going to be an over. But if you're rocking an R5 3600 (no OC) with a 1660ti/5600 or 5700, then you'll likely find the temps manageable and within reason (70's to low 80-s). 

I'm only really going with a R3 3300X and a 1660 Super, but I live in a tropical country where ambient temps are regularly between 28 and 35 degrees C and can even reach up to 38 degrees C on the hottest of days. Will probably also explore overclocking (might be a bad idea given ambient temps), so I want to give my PC it's best chance to be cool.

[TVwazhere]

Just now, lenardmgtr said:

I'm only really going with a R3 3300X and a 1660 Super, but I live in a tropical country where ambient temps are regularly between 28 and 35 degrees C and can even reach up to 38 degrees C on the hottest of days. Will probably also explore overclocking (might be a bad idea given ambient temps), so I want to give my PC it's best chance to be cool.

If your goal is best possible temps, a perforated, ventilated or mesh front panel is your best solution.