You d still want an intake fan so you re getting a draft of fresh air through the pc but leaving the case side open allows the heatsinks to expel the heat outside the system by themselves.
Pc case side fan intake or exhaust.
I still have good positive pressure in my case and temps are 2 to 4 degrees better than when i ran the top as exhausts.
I ran with 2 exhaust fans on top but because my push pull radiator setup is on the front as an intake due to better temps my top fans are intake for the motherboard and have a fan profile to slow them s own slightly.
The side with the guard motor support lastly the fan airflow can be identified by the arrow markings on the fan.
You will also be able to identify the exhaust side as you will see power wires entering the fan motor.
Different flow affects dust build up just as much as the case and house itself.
The power supply is probably drawing air from an aperture in the base of the case and so is isolated and not really affecting the case s airflow the arrow for that one should probably be a right angle feeding in from the bottom and turning left to point out of the back of the psu.
Since i have a liquid cooler they only put in one 120mm top fan because that is all that would fit.
The top fan is an exhaust and bottom fan is an intake.
Generally it s best to have as few obstacles as possible between the intake fans on the front of the case and the exhaust fans on the rear and top of the case.
The rear or exhaust side the side that the air comes out of of our fans will always be the side that houses the fan motor.
A single intake fan with no exhaust fan is positive pressure.
The intake exhaust direction should go front to back and bottom to top.
Reverse the fan in the top of the case to make it an extractor and make the side panel an intake.
They also all included either a roof or rear exhaust fan which couples up well with our findings from out two fan.
Pets bugs and.
Side mounted fans can be intake or exhaust depending on the setup.
Manage your cables and other obstructions.
However at the same time keeping the side panel open exposes the pc to new problems such as an increase in dust settling on hardware.
The graph below shows that the side panel fan still continues to have a massive positive effect on cooling even with three fans installed the three setups that performed the best in this test all included a side panel fan.
And they put in a 140mm side fan.