With the summer heat, the temperatures are triggered, and this negatively affects the performance of the PC. Many users think that remove side cover and leave the PC case open, the temperature will improve because the PC “breathes” but, to what extent is this a reality? Isn’t it one of the many urban legends What about PC hardware? Let’s see it.
All tower-shaped PC cases (which are almost all, really) offer the possibility of easily removing both sides, although it is true that currently most cases already have a tempered glass side on the left part to allow us to see the hardware from the outside. Now, that it can be easily removed and put on does not mean that you should do it, and we are going to tell you why.
Leaving the PC case open does not improve the temperature
Although it may not seem like it, PC cases have a relatively standardized design, and this is for a reason: the cases not only have the function of accommodating the hardware of your PC, but also the function of creating an air flow that allows components are operating at a suitable temperature. This implies, at least almost always (if you have a custom liquid cooling system like in the image below, you may decide to design the flow differently), that the air enters through the front of the case and leaves through the back. and/or higher, since hot air tends to go upwards.
If you remove the side cover, what you will be causing is that the air that the front fans put inside the box escapes through this side of the box, not exerting enough pressure on the hardware components and causing the air flow break down, losing effectiveness.
Sure, if you didn’t have a well-designed airflow in your case (thus creating hot air pockets) or if you decide to have a large external fan pointing at it, you will see an improvement in temperatures, but Otherwise, it is most likely that you will precisely notice a counterproductive effect and that temperatures rise.
For this reason, in general, you should not remove the side cover of the box, since you will actually be causing the temperatures to increase instead of reducing them.
Beware of dust and noise
Another counterproductive effect of removing the side cover on the PC case is that you will be encouraging the dust deposited more easily on your precious hardware. Normally, PC cases have dust filters on the air intake grilles, and although this does not completely prevent dust from entering the PC, it does reduce it significantly and cleaning the filters from time to time will usually suffice. If you leave the side open, the dust will have a free and direct way to get inside the PC.
Finally, another adverse effect that you will run into if you decide to remove the PC’s side cover is noise, since as a general rule the side covers muffle the noise made by the PC’s fans and, when you remove it, you will notice that the noise it emits your team increases.
