Open air vs. closed PC Cases - which is better for airflow?

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Now is the particular case of water cooling in open air cases, you are already cooling the hottest components such as CPU, GPU, sometimes ram, ssd’s etc. So there is not a problem there, however the issue arises in the lack of direct airflow over other heat generating components. We call this direct airflow forced convection, and basically there are other heat generating components a PC that do need this airflow to function optimally that open air cases don’t usually provide. We’ve all heard of the overheating VRAM on the back of some 3090s overheating and motherboard VRM’s that can overheat negatively impact and throttle down your CPU. In open air chassis direct airflow is sacrificed for omnidirectional air channels, that means whatever fans you have your in PC is pulling air from the path of least resistance, it’s less predictable and harder to get direct airflow to components such as VRAM on the back of your GPU or VRM on the motherboard. And if your water cooling, it might be difficult to put water blocks and run tubing to all heat generating components. We have seen water cooling manufacturers develop VRM coolers, monoblocks, GPU sandwich blocks to combat these issues.

However, do understand that modern components do have robust heatsinks, so as long as your just gaming, or doing light productivity work, the lackluster direct air flow in open air cases won’t effect your performance too much. If your doing anything more such as editing, designing, or workstations work, then it is necessary to achieve more direct airflow or to put a block on most heat generating components.

[Redman]

I really like the design of your water blocks. Very interesting design. It seems very good to have a design like this especially for the chiplet design in AMD CPUs.

[Kaiesis]

I have an open air case and a vornado fan pointed at it. Probably the best performance, but the industry will never admit it.

[fractera]

I want my 2 mins back. You didn't even prove what you're saying. No data whatsoever.

[criticalcentrist]

I have an open air case for my system with i9 12900k and RTX 4060 and my temperatures have never been lower. Additionally, I use a 20" box fan placed directly next to it and it's crazy effective.

[naifalsaeedan]

I dont agree .. the heat will never be trapped inside the case so positive/negative pressure is not needed at all..

[TruthIsKey]

ONLY reason for a closed case is to dampen sound and restrict the air flow to go through filters. Otherwise open case is better when it comes accessing ambient open air which gives better cooling without a lot of fans. Way easier to clean with an air gun too.

[inorbit]

In a permanent open pc case, you just stick a fan blowing air on the vrms and the problem solved... :)