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So.
after installing my brand new R9 290X from Saphhire, i noticed that the temps at stock clocks, were a tad too high, after a single ungine valley benchmark run (74° C).
So i popped my side window off to do some general, quick cleaning of my system.

Temps dropped by 10-12 degrees with the side window off.
Is it safe to leave my pc like in the picture r should i put my side window back on?

Have you set up the fans correctly so cool air flows into the system and hot air gets extracted?

Anyway it's fine to leave the side casing off but you can let in more dust that way as well as bugs and animals which like the warmth and ambience of inside a PC. You can also leave the casing off and have a proper fan blowing into it.

HSharp wrote:QUOTE (HSharp @ Jan 27 2015, 11:25 PM) Have you set up the fans correctly so cool air flows into the system and hot air gets extracted?

Anyway it's fine to leave the side casing off but you can let in more dust that way as well as bugs and animals which like the warmth and ambience of inside a PC. You can also leave the casing off and have a proper fan blowing into it.

I have not modified my case fans,
The two side fans are modular and can be rotated up to 90°. perhaps i should rotate them, as well my hard drive cages, so that my front air intake is not obstructed.
I can also remove a unused hard drive cage and mount a 120 mm fan for more airflow.

I was digging around in my crawlspace the other day and I found mesh grills from the side of my case. Going to switch out the plexi for added cooling, although atm I rarely see above 70c even running things on ultra (although it does get fairly noisy).

It was a nice find as I didn't even know I had them

I was also considering adding side fans, which can mount on the grill. I have the option of either 4 120mm fans or one big one, any opinions on this? I'd imagine 4 small fans would be more noise than the one big, but as far as cooling goes which is better?

My case

Jesus blacksun, your like the 3rd person today I have seen with that case, and that case is so damned heavy...

My side window has been removed for over a year with no problems here. The computer is standing on a desk with free space around it. I do use a soft painters brush in combination with a vacuum to clean the hardware from time to time. It tends to get dusty.

Yes I have a "no fan" video cards, and yes it can get very hot.

The 290X is known to get hot but your temps seem to be in line with this review (no mention of a case and the pictures lead me to think they are using a test bench).

I'd play your favorite (graphically demanding) game and monitor the temperatures since benchmarks tend to stress your hardware much more than you see during actual gameplay. If you poke around MSI afterburner had some sort of in-game overlay that would let you see temperatures while playing. Ideally you want to find out your readings when you've been playing for a bit and all your components are nice and toasty.

yeah 70-75c is perfectly acceptable for that gpu, i wouldn't worry about it much

if you wanted better airflow you could try and organize all the cables sitting at the bottom of your case a bit better to clear some space

Thanks for all the replies! guess I was worrying too much

Another way to improve the cooling is to cut a hole in the side of your case and use drainpipe (or similar) to create a duct to allow the GPU fan to suck in air from outside the case. Cover the end of the duct on mesh to filter out fluff, fingers, small pets etc.