Quote:
Originally Posted by tweakboy 
Open the side case door, that will help dramitically reduce case and ambient temps.. gl
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Doing this can actually defeat the purpose of having good airflow. You want the side panel closed so that your case's fans can do their job of maintaining airflow.
Think of it as running a fan with no duct(outside case around blades) and running a normal fan with the duct. The fan blades without airflow direction are going to pull in air from almost all sides and exhaust the air out from most sides, reducing the actual amount/volume of air being moved due to the lack of pressure of the air being moved.
Same as with the airflow of a PC case...The volume of cool, fresh air being pulled into the case by the intake fans(along with all air within the case) will radiate out of the open side panel, reducing the overall volume of hot air for the exhaust fans to expel, therefor cutting down the speed and amount/volume of air being pulled into and pushed out of the case.
A closed case, in theory, raises the pressure of the air inside, which allows the exhaust fans to exhaust more air as the air is 'squeezed' into a smaller area(higher air pressure). An open case will also cause the exhaust fans to not only move air from inside the case, but they will also move the air from outside the open panel which defeats the airflow design and lowers the efficiency.