Computer heating

Buuhan1

Does having the side panel off your computer tower thus having it wide open help with cooling it down or actually make it harder? Cause I've had it opened for a long time now.

My computer blows hot air out of the fans a lot of times cause my room is quite small and there's no place I can really put it where the heat vent wont be blowing on it. When it's blowing out hot air there's hardly anything coming out in terms of air as if it is running out of breath. The heat makes it hot, and during the summer here it's so hot it makes it just as hot if not hotter.

Sanctum

you put the lime in the coconut, and you drink it all up

buy a coolant system
or open your lunchbag
icepack
success

Bounty1Berry

Depends on how the cooling is set up. Some cases are very intricately designed in order to have air flow in certain patterns over the hot-running parts, and removing panels can wreck the effect, some are just "dumb" and will benefit from opening.

Try a program like http://cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php and see how hot the parts are really running.

Typical:

Processor (idle/load) 25-50c / 45-70c depending on type.
Graphics card (idle/load) 55-70c / 70-100c
Hard disc 30-40c
Most other temperature sensors shouldn't be much over 50c, and if they're over 70c, something's usually amiss. Assuming a typical PC setup, not something like a dual-Opteron with two 8800-series video cards.

Mister_Anbu

I opened mine up the other day and stuck a fan in front of the video card.

Works like a charm.

Buuhan1

@Bounty1Berry:

Depends on how the cooling is set up. Some cases are very intricately designed in order to have air flow in certain patterns over the hot-running parts, and removing panels can wreck the effect, some are just "dumb" and will benefit from opening.

Try a program like http://cpuid.com/hwmonitor.php and see how hot the parts are really running.

Typical:

Processor (idle/load) 25-50c / 45-70c depending on type.
Graphics card (idle/load) 55-70c / 70-100c
Hard disc 30-40c
Most other temperature sensors shouldn't be much over 50c, and if they're over 70c, something's usually amiss. Assuming a typical PC setup, not something like a dual-Opteron with two 8800-series video cards.

It's only listening HDD which I guess stands for Hard Drive Disc which is my hard drive I presume. It's averaging 45c. But this isn't one of the "hot" points of the day, tho my fans aren't blowing out much air.

So in short, keep the tower opened or put the side back on? My computer is a Dell Dimension 2300.

Kakaliaha

If its not a self designed computer, typically open cases mean 2 things, it stays cooler at the beginning, but once dust starts to collect it gets hotter.

Having an open case allows more dust into your parts making them more difficult to cool, but if you make sure to dust the inside of your computer every other week with a can of air it will be fine.

Bounty1Berry

The common layout for home-made computers is small fans on hot-running parts.

Name-brand computers (e.g. Dell) generally rely on fewer large fans and duct-work to cover the hot parts.

Open it up to dust it out, then close it back up.

Bear in mind, all you can do is improve the running temperature of the machine. If you make the cooling more efficient, some of the heat which is in the case will likely be spread around the room, making the room tomorrow.

Buuhan1

Well I put the cover back on it earlier after blowing some air into it, speaking of which I need to get a new can as this one is officially empty.

Bounty1Berry

You can also blow through a straw… it's nice because with a bendy-straw you can target things like heat-sink fins that would otherwise be hard to blow out.