Are Case Fans Actually Needed?

[Cleric7x9]

yes they are needed

 

[Bartmasta]

they aren't needed but they are very useful if you plan on overclocking and have space for decent fans

I get lower temps without fans and never had a overheating problem with HDD and other stuff

 

[teamhex]

Yes and No. Im sure it would run, but the air wont be moving and could shorten the life of your parts. Fresh air being brought in is always good. The dust is the only down side.

 

[ducis]

I don't know how anyone could say that they are absolutely needed when open work benches run fine

 

[WhiteFireDragon]

I don't know how anyone could say that they are absolutely needed when open work benches run fine

it's pretty obvious. bench stations aren't enclosed so it won't trap the heat. and besides, who would bench without any fans? people will use high rpm fans, WC, LN2, or dice for the lowest temps for the highest clocks. do you ever see short bench sessions that only use passive cooling?

 

[diduknowthat]

Passive cooling is horrible on open setups, as there's no airflow in an open setup.

 

[Mitch?]

my current rig (in a big case, 22" or so off tall) has only one fan going, an 8cm right by my 4850 (single slot cooler) as exhaust (i don't want alot of noise, so it's like 35% fan, but , 80c average gaming)... other than that my silent cpu, and my 12cm psu fan. cpu is 20/40, graphics is like 66c (F@H = 40% load constant) and about 80c for games (not quite 100%)... Mid towers need it , but the way my system is the psu takes the cpu exhaust out, and the 8cm takes the gfx exhaust,creating a slight vacuum, pulling air in through my front fan slot (not running) and over the 2hdds

 

[diduknowthat]

my current rig (in a big case, 22" or so off tall) has only one fan going, an 8cm right by my 4850 (single slot cooler) as exhaust (i don't want alot of noise, so it's like 35% fan, but , 80c average gaming)... other than that my silent cpu, and my 12cm psu fan. cpu is 20/40, graphics is like 66c (F@H = 40% load constant) and about 80c for games (not quite 100%)... Mid towers need it , but the way my system is the psu takes the cpu exhaust out, and the 8cm takes the gfx exhaust,creating a slight vacuum, pulling air in through my front fan slot (not running) and over the 2hdds

dude 80C for your CPU?? Are you sure the X2's can handle that?