Hey all. I went from Stone Age PC to top of the line recently and I am certainly not an expert on hardware.
So it has doors on both sides of the case that can open outward like a door. I was told it can get super hot, so should I keep the doors open and use an external fan to blow on the graphics card to cool it down or is it better to keep both doors closed to keep it cooler?
It was custom built with a whole bunch of fans all over it. Just didn’t know if it works better with the doors open and an external fan blowing on it or keeping both doors closed because the fans it is built with do better with the doors closed.
(New name updated)
It was a friend that told me not the ones who made it. So best to keep the doors closed or open? Why would they make it so the doors open on both sides then?
If it was built properly, the fans and the airflow they direct through the case will be hampered by open doors, i’d leave it closed up and grab Speccy, it’ll allow you to monitor the temperatures easily. Systems these days are pretty good, if it gets anywhere near dangerous levels, it’ll throttle down or even turn itself off in a worst case scenario.
Thank you. That makes sense. Since I don’t really understand how computers work it seemed that with the doors open it would cool it down better. Guess that would defeat the purpose though now that I think about not.
He’s a fruit loop as you say because he told me a computer can get hot? Damn dude.
@Dunkangaroo - Ok, I will get it, I just don’t know what I look for. The only thing I am worried about is my GPU/Video card. I have a
GIGABYTE - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING OC 10GB GDDR6X PCI Express 4.0
and it seems to produce a ton of heat. I decided to try running two instances of WoW both on 10 setting for graphics and after about 30 mins I started to see little lines appear on my screen like when I open my map, or certain MOB’s nameplates. Like some sort of interference. My first thought it was over heating (total guess) and that was with both of the doors on the PC closed.
So I am thinking I might try opening both doors and using a fan I just bought at Walmart to blow directly onto the VIdeo Card.
I don’t know bro, I am totally guessing here but in my head that seems to be a better solution. Am I just being dumb? Cost me $850 and I don’t want it to “burn up” or something. I do box using alt tab playing 2 toons at once, so I want it to work…
The only time I’ve ever opened up a case for cooling was after stuffing a more powerful graphics card and power supply into a PC that wasn’t meant for them. If yours was built properly the case should stay closed to maintain proper airflow.
Ive had my side panel off since January because a fan was bugging me so I jammed a pen in it to shut it up and the pen sticks out too far to have the panel on
Closed loop airflow is generally better. The air should flow out the back. Your friend is kind of silly for suggesting that or doesn’t know as much about PCs as he claims. Also, a 3080 will run hot. It’s a high power high performance card. Your temps should vary based on where you live under load but in an AC’d room my gpu never exceeds 70-72C at 100% load under a benchmark and I have a 3080ti.
You’re fine, OP. Modern hardware will throttle down if it gets too hot and will just shut itself off entirely if that isn’t enough. You generally don’t have that happening unless your overclocking with insufficient cooling, which it sounds like you’re not. If you are still concerned I’d recommend googling CPUID HWMonitor - Free program and can give you plenty of system information.
Depending on the case design itself, it can be either good or bad. A good sign is if the front panel of the PC case is open ventilated (Nothing blocking it like tempered glade or has trays for Disc drives and readers along with Hard Drive bays).
The idea is you want airflow best as possible, running front to the back unrestricted. If this isn’t achieved, then the advice to have side panel doors open is the key (Which sadly shouldn’t be that way, meaning terrible airflow design). Or perhaps one too many fans as it would infact impede proper cooling.
