Regarding Towers With Top Vents

[kaddle]

I'm making a build with a Ryzen 5600X and RTX 3060.

 

With this build, is it recommended to get a tower that has a top vent? How detrimental would it be for the cooling if there is no top vent?

 

If the tower has a top vent, is it mandatory to install a fan for it or can I just leave it without a fan?

If it can be left without a fan, is it safe to cover the vent with tape or something?

 

PS:

My room is very dusty. What should I do?

I'm thinking the top vent should be covered due to the dust alone.

[aisle9]

What case are you looking at? Short version, you're almost certainly fine, but if you're buying a little Chinese hotbox, that could change.

 

For reference, I have an Ryzen 5 5600 and an RX 6700 in a Silverstone SG13, which doesn't even have an exhaust fan, and I have never had any issues with overheating.

[kaddle]

1 minute ago, aisle9 said:

What case are you looking at? Short version, you're almost certainly fine, but if you're buying a little Chinese hotbox, that could change.

 

For reference, I have an Ryzen 5 5600 and an RX 6700 in a Silverstone SG13, which doesn't even have an exhaust fan, and I have never had any issues with overheating.

I have not settled on a case yet.

Most of the options between $100-$150 at my local store seem to have top vents.

The problem is I don't think I'll have any extra cash for exhaust fans.

[aisle9]

9 minutes ago, kaddle said:

I have not settled on a case yet.

Most of the options between $100-$150 at my local store seem to have top vents.

The problem is I don't think I'll have any extra cash for exhaust fans.

If you're running a 5600X and a 3060, you won't need them. Exhaust vents still allow hot air to rise without fans.

[Alex Atkin UK]

5 hours ago, kaddle said:

I have not settled on a case yet.

Most of the options between $100-$150 at my local store seem to have top vents.

The problem is I don't think I'll have any extra cash for exhaust fans.

Top vents are mostly for options when using water cooling, you don't generally need fans on there for air cooling and certainly don't want an exhaust in front of the CPU cooler, stealing its airflow.  It doesn't make much sense to use as intake either as the air above the case is going to be warmer.

 

I get a marginal improvement (a few degrees at best) having a 120mm on the top-back behind the CPU heatsink.  Its the intakes that are more important to get fresh air into the right places.

 

Bearing in mind I have the Be Quiet 500DX with a 140mm on the bottom front, 140mm at the top front - a gap between them exactly the width of the GPU.  That funnels air directly at an RTX 4090 and R9 5950X.  For gaming, that keeps temps even on such high-end hardware completely within reason with just a single 140mm exhaust.   I only added the top-back 120mm for good measure, as my case exhausts directly under a shelf so I wanted to move the air around more to avoid a hot pocket right behind the PC.

Ideally with my hardware I'd have a bottom intake, but that's less common.  With a 3060 and 5600X I'd expect you to have a lot more leeway, as long as you get a case with decent airflow.

My other PC runs a 3080 and 12700F in a Fractal Design Focus G, no heat issues there either and I've ran that one completely maxed out running Folding@Home.  I also have some external HDDs on the top of that which block the top vents.