I don't leave the whole front panel off, just the blank in front of the disk that I want to cool. A front fan would push air in and would to work against what the fans in the rear are trying to do, create a partial vacuum in the case. The fans in the back of the case still move the same amount of air out, but the fan in the front doesn't really do any good and works against the partial vacuum so less air actually goes over the drives in the manner that I described. I suppose a fan in front would help direct air to the motherboard and cards, if that was where your cooling problem was. But I never have anything there that needs that much cooling. The video card GPU and northbridge have fans, if they need one. So there's no particular reason to direct air to them, just get the heat out of the case, which the rear fans do. That's my reasoning, anyway.
Steve Rose In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> you wrote: > By leaving off the front panel you essentially do what a > front fan does - push/pull air through from the front of > the case. With a front fan you put some pressure behind > it to help it move through the case. > > The idea is the front fan pushes air into the box while > the power supply fan and/or back fan pull it out. You > want to keep the air moving through the case, across the > boards, etc and keep it's velocity up. -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
