Hey gang,

I have a very big SuperMicro case. It has tons of fans in it. My question is, in the back along one side are slots for airflow. Would it help increase or decrease case cooling if I covered the slots to let more forced air get moved out by my YS Tech fan and power supply blowing air out ??

I have 3 fans sucking air in and 2 blowing out, one stock 80 mm and one hipo 60 mm ys tech ??

What the experts say to do is strive for "balanced" airflow. Not pressurizing or vacuuming. Another option is to use filter material over the holes. I think we touched on this subject in Cooling and Modding Forum.

Thank Uncleel, I do have a filter on the front holes but not the back. I also have slots down the side, I wanted to cover up the back to increase airflow, I think I have too much free flow and not enought movement.

here is my case

Supermicro

Found this article which may interest you:

There are other informative articles in the site as well.

Hope that helps.

Just curious but is compressed air safe to use when cleaning out a case? Could I use it to spray off my heatsink, video card, etc. and it not mess anything up?

I use that (whenever I remember to do it), though I've been told that you should use a plastic hose on the end to make sure it won't create any static electricity.... The metal pipe might create just the tiny bit needed to fry something...

A small hose/pipe on the end should fix that problem

.02$

actually, spraying air through plastic hose creates More static then air through metal, but as it does not conduct very well, you are less likely to get a spark. also a metal tube could gouge, if you were clumsy

Using canned air is fine...just make sure you dont tip the can upside down when you spray it or this really cold, condensed liquid will come out and freeze what ever it comes in contact with. Its probably not going to kill anything, but I wouldnt want to spray my ram with it by accident.

I actually saved a CPU that way one time. The fan died and I cooled it until I could shut down !!

To maximize cooling, you must maximize air movement. This means you want a wind tunnel effect inside the case with airflow directed toward key areas(anything that gets hot) You should keep the direction of airflow in from the bottom and out from the top. While there are several ways to acheive this, there are several right and wrong ways to do this.

The easy way to check this is to remove the side of your case and replace it with a piece of glass or plexiglass and use smoke to tint the airflow. If you see a turbulent area, you need to address it but if the air flows smoothly up and out of the case and flowing over the key areas, then you are in good shape.

Whether the slots in the side of your case are good or bad is something you can figure out by covering the holes and see if the flow is better, worse, or unchanged.

back from my sabatical(spent a month without my DSL) i would have to say that it is fine to use compressed are as long as it is mosture free. most compressors have water vapor in them due to it being in the air and all so if you are going to use a regular compressor look into a water filter, they are sold at auto body shops for paint guns. and then you can make great mods with a spray gun since you have the filter

Don't laugh, but I used my vacuum cleaner gently on some of the more dusty and less "shock vulnerable" parts like PSU fan, CPU fan, base of case, etc. Just be careful not to make contact. I certainly didn't vacuum anything like RAM, CPU, etc... But some of the other dusty areas like under the case exhaust fan above the PSU was very dusty and I vacuumed it away.

Another really good idea is to completely take your computer apart and then vacuum inside. Clean it with anti-static foam. Leave overnight, reassemble. Fine.

Dust has similar properties to static electricity under certain conditions I remember reading once....

I have an attachment for my Shop-Vac that makes it like one of those micro vacs. It cost about $12 at Wal*Mart and attaches to the end or the hose, it comes with several small attachments including one with a brush that is perfect for cleaning delicate and sensitive surfaces.