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Is this safe to do? (Computer Question)
RCagent
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
You may have remembered me from similar computer issues before, since I mostly got good advice, let me test my luck with this question.
Previously, I had owned a HP Slimline computer, its merely a family computer so luckily I won't be taking this wonderful computer with crappy ventilation with me when I head off to college on my own. Our previous Slimline fried its harddrive after a night of gaming and a playing of Portal. Hard drive died (making a horrible horrible harddrive death scream that I will never forget.) So we asked for a replacement.
I looked up on the internet on how to prevent such cases of this from happening again, if you're wondering why this happened and have no idea what a HP Slimline is. It's a gimmick of sorts from HP computers, it's a HP desktop computer with a compact small case. It sounds a little too good as as one would think, it has massive overheating problems.
Well the replacement slimline they sent me seems to have a bigger fan and a new ATi card, rather than a Nvidia one, which I believe the ATi has a bit of a bigger fan. Anyway. For the recent month and few weeks I have been using speedfan to monitor my CPU's temperture and have been satisifed with the results. Til now.
When I first had the computer i would get about 42-44C on idle or just basic work. When doing gaming or something CPu intensive, it would quickly raise to 56C then lower back to 44C.
From what I have gathered from some minor tests, the slimline runs less hot when more space is given to it (obviously.) But I have come across a rather intriguing solution. Removing the case.
Now I realize how important the case is to prevent dust clog up, but the damn thing needs air to breathe.
In my trials, having the case open, I get a idle temp of 35C and when I play a hour long game of Team Fortress 2 I get something like 41-44C. Much better improvement. This is much more satisfying, as I'm working on a graduation critical project using the source engine and its rather important to keep this thing alive.
So my question is, is it safe to run a computer with the case open? I screw the case back on after I turn the computer off when I sleep. Basically:
1.) Will this harm the computer more than save it?
2.) Will I have to commonly clean out the dust from the machine?
Thanks in advance.
Previously, I had owned a HP Slimline computer, its merely a family computer so luckily I won't be taking this wonderful computer with crappy ventilation with me when I head off to college on my own. Our previous Slimline fried its harddrive after a night of gaming and a playing of Portal. Hard drive died (making a horrible horrible harddrive death scream that I will never forget.) So we asked for a replacement.
I looked up on the internet on how to prevent such cases of this from happening again, if you're wondering why this happened and have no idea what a HP Slimline is. It's a gimmick of sorts from HP computers, it's a HP desktop computer with a compact small case. It sounds a little too good as as one would think, it has massive overheating problems.
Well the replacement slimline they sent me seems to have a bigger fan and a new ATi card, rather than a Nvidia one, which I believe the ATi has a bit of a bigger fan. Anyway. For the recent month and few weeks I have been using speedfan to monitor my CPU's temperture and have been satisifed with the results. Til now.
When I first had the computer i would get about 42-44C on idle or just basic work. When doing gaming or something CPu intensive, it would quickly raise to 56C then lower back to 44C.
From what I have gathered from some minor tests, the slimline runs less hot when more space is given to it (obviously.) But I have come across a rather intriguing solution. Removing the case.
Now I realize how important the case is to prevent dust clog up, but the damn thing needs air to breathe.
In my trials, having the case open, I get a idle temp of 35C and when I play a hour long game of Team Fortress 2 I get something like 41-44C. Much better improvement. This is much more satisfying, as I'm working on a graduation critical project using the source engine and its rather important to keep this thing alive.
So my question is, is it safe to run a computer with the case open? I screw the case back on after I turn the computer off when I sleep. Basically:
1.) Will this harm the computer more than save it?
2.) Will I have to commonly clean out the dust from the machine?
Thanks in advance.
RCagent on
0
Posts
It's not gonna look pretty, and you have to watch out for stuff falling in, but there's no direct harm to it.
You do more harm to your computer every time you turn it off and on.
Nothing wrong with leaving the case open, case fans suck in a lot of dust anyway. When you notice the cpu fan running at a couple hundred RPM's slower than usual, just unplug the computer and vacuum it out. At least, that's what I do.
Anyway, this knowledge isn't scientific or anything, it's just what's worked for me for a few years (although, I have the case back on, now, bought an amazing CPU fan).
Good luck.
But to answer your question, yeah, I leave cases open all the time, just watch out for flying stuff.
That's not completely true at all. An enclosed case means the fans force the air through a very specific and narrow area, meaning the air flows a lot faster and is directed properly across the components requiring good cooling. Assuming your fans work and are configured properly, pulling the side off a case and leaving it open can often lead to the computer components getting hotter than they would with the case closed, because the air flow is a lot slower (in fact, over certain components it will be essentially stationary, only moving due to the heat generated by that component) and it isn't properly directed at the components needing cooling.
If a computer runs cooler with the case open, it's either because the fans are shit, the fans are configured wrong (like, they all blow in, front and back, or they are orientated the wrong way around, inhaling at the top back and exhausting at the front bottom), the fans are broken or you've put over-powered components inside a vanity case that wasn't designed to enclose performance kit in the first place.
To be honest, the HP Slimline cases look like a complete bastard to cool efficiently. Looking at pictures of it, there doesn't seem to be much, if anything, in the way of a front air intake, but on the other hand the entire back of the case is one big grill. You could maybe try jury-rigging a couple of fans to the outside of the back, one at the bottom blowing in and one at the top blowing out (might not be necessary as the PSU will be blowing out anyway and the CPU fan seems to be positioned so it blows air over the CPU heat sink and out the back) but I don't know. The case is tiny and I don't think I'd be comfortable putting anything in there that was going to do anything more strenuous than a spot of web browsing, office work or some lightweight multimedia TiVO/DVD playering. It's certainly not an ideal candidate for a high-performance gaming PC.
If all else fails, move to Siberia and keep a window open when you're gaming.
I think we're making the same point. I probably shouldn't have used the word unnecessary. I meant that by opening the case you may affect the airflow so that some fans no longer increase cooling (because they are no longer pointed at whatever they were before or the air channel is no longer there). If the fan isn't doing anything useful there is no use in running it. A properly planned air path should always run cooler than an open air setup (I learned this working on air-cooled VW engines). However, if the design is shit (as is often the case with slimlines) you may find that open air works better.
Hopefully that made more sense.
When opening the case after being on on idle the case and the heatsinks are incredibly hot.
I'm just using my logic here and stick with leaving it with the case opened. It seems to be much safer this way.
Yeah, the heat shouldn't build up exactly with the case opened, just that most of the components will passively cool (unless you do the desktop fan thing). That passive cooling may or may not be enough to stop individual components overheating under heavy load. Comparatively, an properly laid out, actively cooled case should in theory allow the components to 'run hotter' because it can cool them a lot more aggressively and thus balance out any additional heat that they generate through being worked more vigorously. That theory requires that the case design and fan layout be good though. If it isn't, or if the case has no active cooling - neither intake nor exhaust - and is thus relying entirely on its components being passively cooled, then you'd probably be better off with the lid off (unless the case is some sort of ingenious ergonomic design that uses the heat from the components to draw fresh air in the bottom and vent it out the top, which all cases do in theory, just not particularly fast).
Some computer builds will happily run with no fans and all passive cooling, of course. You can theoretically take a small form factor multimedia case, not install any fans, put in a motherboard, graphics card and CPU that are all passively cooled with heatsinks but no fans and it'll run fine. The compromise is that you won't be able to put particularly high performance components in, you'll want to find things that run cool - chips designed for laptops, eg - and you won't be able to get it to perform any particularly staggering feats of graphics processing or number crunching. The benefit is that it's an extremely quiet box, which is great if it's sitting in your living room or office.
Well, when I run the case open, I always have the ceiling fan running on full blast on top. Would that change anything?