Marshall,

I am one of the proponents for leaving the cover on.
(Just like I keep the cover on my television set.... <grin>)
I figure that a mechanical engineer somewhere designed
the system to work with a cover so it is probably a good
idea to leave it on.

Your system sounds like the perfect example for why.
There *IS* a fan -- it is mounted in the power supply
and most likely blows air out the back side of the case.
There are holes in the bottom of the case that were
strategically placed  there to let fresh cool air in as
the fan pulls the hot air out.  When you leave the cover
off,  it "feels like" the system is running cooler -- and
the ambient (surrounding) air probably is, but now there
is no __constant__ air FLOW so the components (ALL
the components -- not just the CPU) are receiving much
less cooling than they would with the cover on --- as the
engineer designed it.

'N dat's my story, an ah'm astickin' to it.

Jim Meagher

PS: You can add additional fans, but if you have a stock PC,
then there shouldn't be any need for more.  If you are a "tinkerer"
and have added more components, then you should consider
adding more cooling fans.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Marshall Fortescue"
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I know this subject has been talked about quite a
> bit...
> I have a Gateway 366, CD-RW and CD-rom, nothing too
> special more than that.
> Since reading about this cooling fan/heat rising/no
> case needed...I decided
> to take my cover off my tower.
> I've noticed that the top of my computer is hot to
> the touch (don't know the
> temp.).  Taking the cover off, I'm noticing that the
> heat is generated from
> the 2 CD drives or just one of them.  I can't really
> tell which.  I also
> don't "see" a cooling fan in this computer.  I know
> what they look like, and
> would think I would have one, but I don't think so.
>
> Any suggestions?  With cover off, there is still
> heat coming from CD drives.
> Would a cooling fan help?  Am I not seeing something
> much more wrong here?

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