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Comment by davidy123 | Hacker News Reader

This is why I like the "open case design." Your "PC" is just a frame to hang components on, with nothing to enclose it. And the nice thing is these days people care a lot about quiet computers, so you can have an open frame case with three GPUs that is just making a not-unpleasant whooshing sound at full bore.

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This exposes the components to more dust and potentially static shocks as a result. Cases are also designed to encourage airflow over specific components, so being case-free might not result in improved thermals.

But it is certainly more convenient for tweaking your build.

I highly doubt open air is going to drastically reduce component life. I don’t see how open air is anywhere near as bad as some of the negative pressure and unfiltered builds typical of OEMs for dust build up. I don’t even think dust causes “static shocks” in computers, it only clogs ventilation leading to overheating primarily.

Open air certainly is a choice and cases do function to better guide airflow when designed and built in correctly

I doubt it as well - for the most part - but if you're buying high end parts, I think it's hard to argue that it doesn't expose (literally) the components to more risk.

My understanding of the association between dust and static shocks are that the friction between dust particles necessarily creates static charges.

I have a wall mounted Open design case (Thermaltake Core P5) - dust has not been an issue at all. In fact, getting rid of dust is lot easier. Since I don't have to open up the case to clean it out. I just use a handheld blower to blow out the dust every so often from the sides. Regardless, it for some reason has far less dust pile up than a close case. I assume because in close cases, dust has no room to move out as easily.

That's vastly overblown. I'd be more worried about pets or just accidents knocking some things off.

Most cases are not designed to any of that stuff particularly well. Cases simply cannot predict what people are going to put in them To make any sort of detailed modeling useful.

Most cases rely on moving a bunch of air. As long as you love enough air, you cool well enough.

It reminds me of those scifi villains with exposed brain sticking out the top of their head. You'd think it would be terribly vulnerable, and it is, but the cooling and dust-managenent advantages makes it worth it.

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