Cases

[bounty]

Hey sorta new,

I am building a computer over the summer and had a question about cases...the cases which are clear and the dark toned ones(black) do/if the absorb more heat would more cooling be needed as opposed to a case which is reflective or light tones (white)....would less cooling be needed.

[scott_d]

Welcome to Pc-Mech!! (you WILL enjoy your stay!)

As for the color of the case, i really dont think it would matter that much unless it is in direct sunlite or outside, which you shouldnt do anyways. Lighing inside a house is not bright enough or powerful enough to make that much of a difference.
HTH

[foghat46]

Nope, case color has nothing to do with it. What is important is the interior design of the case in respect to airflow, and the use and placement of case fans to achieve optimum airflow through the case. This includes routing your cables so that they don't block the flow of air both through the case and to the components themselves.

[Fastfly]

Alluminum also Have better heat control then steel cases.

[bounty]

foghat46 so...the more things which are in the case the more you have to keep air-flow running optimumly through the case...and a more spaciouse case should allow more air-flow or would it require more air-flow for more space....

[foghat46]

Hi bounty,

Essentially, yes, the more components you have the more you need good flow. You don't necessarily need a big case, I've built mini-towers stuffed full, you just need to make sure that you don't block the paths with flat cables that are jumbled up and hanging loose, etc. Sometimes I will gently roll a flat cable and put wire ties loosely around it to make a "round" cable, or you can buy round IDE and floppy cables, depends on how much you want to spend. If you have a case with four 5 1/4 bays and you're only putting in 2 drives, put them in the bottom bays. Remember, heat rises. Say you have a hard drive rack that holds four drives and you're only putting in two. Leave a space between the drives, so that there is a good sized space for air to flow between them. That's how I do it. As long as you keep the flow running from front to back and tie up cables so you don't have a mess, you should be fine. A lot of fans usually is not necessary, they take a good bit of juice and it starts to sound like a 747. Just use your head.

[bounty]

ok..understand cases and cooling now....


bounty

[Spyda]

i think aluminium has better vibration damping aswell, so fan vibration doesnt have as big of an effect.
even though i think its a tiny effect anyway

[Tuf]

I think fan vibration can cause a lot of the noise. Especially the ones mounted in side panels. I have found added a piece of dyna mat that is maybe half the size of the panel can make a big difference. Even adding a brace across the panel to make it more rigid helps alot.

Most the time I rewire those side fans to run on 7 volts and they are quite a bit quieter that way as well.

[Faba]

Bounty,
In order to achieve the best air flow, what you do is you get the biggest case you can get and take off all the side panels Works like a charm...at least in my case. How ever if you leave it this case on the floor it will get dusty.

Hope this helps,
Faba

[Fastfly]

To make sure you have the most efficent fan and air flow set up is if you take off your side panel and it only drops 1C or 2C in temps then you done well.

[Bushtree]

lol i have so many damn fans in my case that if i take my side panel off then my temps raise 1 C lol.

[bounty]

Faba sounds good put i have 3 sisters (2 little twins) and 2 brothers and a cases open on the side is a death wish...yeah i dont want to avoid as much vibrations and noise as possible will still providing good air-flow

bounty

[lil Jimmie]

My reply was to Quartzhunter and that post has been moved.

Sorry bout that.

[i3OSS]

Aluminum doesnt change temps dramatically, only by 1 or 2 degrees. and as far as vibration, no clue.

[macrymble]

this might be a little off of the topic, but i have a hypothetical situation about case color. wouldn't a case's being black or white actually have some part in it's cooling? don't black objects have a lower specific heat and don't hold heat as long as white things? this really wouldn't apply to cases painted black and white, but i was just wondering...

maybe i have no idea what i'm talking about here, but Tuf seems to know his physics, so i'm hoping he can answer.

[Tuf]

Thanks for the confidence. This is actually right up my alley.

Most of what am I going to say will have very little impact on how cool your computer is. But it will make some difference.

Color is of very little importance except where the heat source is visible light. If you your case is black and setting the sun it will be significantly hotter than a lighter color such as white. A shiny surface is nearly as bad as black. Black and shiny is the worst combination.

But the heat we are trying to rid ourselves from is not visible, it is infared so they rules change here. The qualities we want are absortion and emission. They are affected more by the surface texture than by the color. Rougher textures absorb and radiate heat better than smooth ones. The next factor would be the thickness of the substance used for the color(paint?). Thinner is always better than thicker. There are several more factors that will compete for the next levels of importance but really are beyond just about anyone's control. Then nearly last you have color. The best color would be one that appears black under an infared light. So it could be any color under visible(sunlight) light as long as it properties made it black when under an infared light.

The best choice would be a thin coat of a flat or eggshell surfaced paint that appears blcak under infared light. You would have to coat both the inside and the outside to have any real effect.

Case material could have a greater effect than color if there was no airflow. Plastics are with very few exceptions poor choices, Steel is a good choice, the harder the better. Aluminun is better yet. And of course the thinner the material the better.

None of these factors is as important as airflow however. But were you to incorporate them all your case would be more efficient.

Honestly it's too bad designers don't actually incorporate the case material as an active heatsink. It would be easier to cool a 70 watt CPU with 15 pounds of case than with the heatsinks we currently use.

[Spyda]

imagine how that would look, a case with fins all over it..

[i3OSS]

lol like those pentium coolers ROFL.

[suitcase]

For sure the case material that dissapates heat the best is aluminum. That's why motorcycle engines are made from it. But I don't think that one needs aluminun just because of that. It is lighter which makes moving your pc around easier. However, I think that most aluminum cases are sold simply because they look so good. That's why my first choice was aluminum. It was the cost of them that drove me to steele.

[bounty]

aluminum...lots of working space....rounded cables should help airflow eh? more bays to sperate drives...sounds good....
#1-case:complete
#2-motherboard:....


bounty

[Spyda]

Originally posted by i3OSS lol like those pentium coolers ROFL.

i dont get it....

[Tuf]

I think he's referring to some of those coolers from a few years a go that didn''t use a fan and had enormous fins all over them. They were pretty strange looking.

[largosama]

Thats what i have for my PIII. PC is silent and cool...It IS a PIII though

[Cricket]

Originally posted by Tuf I think he's referring to some of those coolers from a few years a go that didn''t use a fan and had enormous fins all over them.

Like this one or this one (the "comb" ).

Cricket