Simply open up the case in a well ventilated area and use some compressed air or a gentle brush to dislodge the accumulated dust. Having the ability to remove superfluous cables makes for a much cleaner system, and allows you to easily add cables for hardware acquired in the future.Ĭlean your PC on a regular basis! Dust accumulation is a major hazard to electronics, as it is an insulator and can clog up exhaust ports. For example, side-mounted hard disk caddies are fantastic, but if they also require you to install the disks vertically, they are obviously going to seriously impede air flow.Ĭonsider spending extra on a modular PSU. Rear and top fans should always be exhausts, expelling the rising warm air from the case.ĭo not buy a case that causes any obvious obstructions to air flow. That many intake fans will most likely contribute to positive air pressure within the case, though (See the advanced section at the end of this guide for details on case air pressure). Cases that use three fans aligned vertically on the front are a great place to start, as they draw in air evenly across the entire face of the enclosure. The first step in any PC build is to buy a good quality case that already comes with the fans that you need, and none that you don’t. It can be tempting to buy a case that comes with as many fans as possible in the hope that it will more adequately cool your system, but as you will see, efficient and smooth air flow is demonstrably more important than a higher total air flow in cubic feet per minute ( CFM).

In the past this simple air exchange was enough, but in modern systems with powerhouse (and often multiple) video cards, large banks of RAM, and overclocked CPUs, more thought needs to be put into how air travels through an enclosure. The top and rear fans are exhausts, expelling the warm air out of the case and away from the internal components. The fans on the front of the case are usually primary intakes, drawing ambient temperature air in to pass across hot components. Fan positioningįans are generally mounted in the following locations: front, rear, top, and side. These variables shouldn’t have any significant negative effects on air flow, but could change your cable management plans. Others mount the PSU at the bottom of the case, rather than at the top to avoid hot air from the working components passing through it before being expelled. There are a few variables to this design, some cases have removable side-mount hard disk caddies mounted in the bottom-front of the case allowing easier disk installation/removal and independent cooling from the optical bays. Most PC cases today conform to the common ATX layout: optical drives at the front-top, hard disks in the front-middle, motherboard mounted on the right-side panel, PSU at the top-rear, and add-on cards mounted to exhaust out the rear of the case.

Leave computer case open