bearing in mind that there are 2x80mm fans pulling in air and passive exhaust,how badly is an exposed psu going to affect internal temps ?

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Doubt it'll raise your case temps to anacceptable level - but I'd fear for the length the PSU will survive unless you have the fan blowing over it.

I like your cpu cooler lol.

What're the specs on the PSU? Some of 'em put off quite a bit of heat. Besides, hot air rises, all you're gonna succeed in doing here is preheating the fresh cold air before it reaches your CPU and (as lateronmly suggested) deprive the PSU of it's needed cooling from direct airflow.

...not to mention what would happen if something condctive were to fall on it.

I'd be more worried about the lack of airflow over the HD's (I know it hasn't got any in there, but I don't see a fan for them) than the PSU ... I had a HD die through overheating, so I measured the temp the replacement got up to: it was a whopping 60C. That rig got a 7volted 80mm fan blowing over the HD PDQ, & I "recalled" the other PCs I'd built & put HD fans in them too.

That said, even though it looks like a low spec PSU, I'd still be worried about relying on convection to cool it ... I think a fan blowing over it (even if you run it at 7 or even 5 volts) would be a Good Thing.

I wouldn't be so worried about the "preheating" issue ... armed with a temp probe I did a bit of research for you:
I turned off all the fans in my rig (it's only a Duron 800, but still...) except for:
a 80mm inlet blowing over the HDs,
the 80mm CPU fan
& the fans in the PSU
& left it for a couple of hours

The temps were:
Ambient: 21.2C (70.2F)
PSU inlet: 24.9 C (76.8F)
PSU exhaust: 25.9 (78.6F)

The PSU is a "450"W Q-Tec (cheaparse), but those temps show it was adding just 1 degree C to the 35 cfm airflow ... I know one test can't be relied on as definitive, but it backs up what I thought about "preheating"

Im not too up on case air flow. I have my top fan blowing air out of the case, my 2 rear fans are sucking air in towards my cpu hsf, my side case fan is sucking air in, and my 2 front fans are blowing air out, they are located right infront of the harddrive. Wonder what kind of setup that is? lol.
All fans are 80mm.

Quote: Originally Posted by hawklen Im not too up on case air flow. I have my top fan blowing air out of the case, my 2 rear fans are sucking air in towards my cpu hsf, my side case fan is sucking air in, and my 2 front fans are blowing air out, they are located right infront of the harddrive. Wonder what kind of setup that is? lol. All fans are 80mm.

Convention says front & side fans should suck inwards, top & back fans should blow outwards ... temps are the real proof of good airflow though, so what are yours like?

Quote: Originally Posted by Jonny English Convention says front & side fans should suck inwards, top & back fans should blow outwards ... temps are the real proof of good airflow though, so what are yours like?

Well, my case probe broke, so Im guessing its around 26-30C, my cpu idle, is 38C. Its an improvement, when I had the fronts suck in, and rears blow out.

This 2000+ is running at 2.2ghz 400fsb vcore 1.72 on a volcano9. System temp is 30C, NB temp is 29C

just to clarify,that's 2x80 on the front panel.stacked top to bottom,that puts one in front of the psu,and the other right beneath the hdd.
final config will be running a 950 duron with a near non-existant o/c(50MHz).
I like your cpu cooler lol.--------mmm.........what cpu?? (or bios for that matter)after that much soldering to the psu,i needed a board that would power and not bother me if it burnt.one dead asus=the perfect test subject

Intake's on back and side have proven most effective for me since they target the two hottest parts of a computer system: CPU, GPU, & Motherboard. Exhaust's on top and front.

Quote: Originally Posted by TekXoID Intake's on back and side have proven most effective for me since they target the two hottest parts of a computer system: CPU, GPU, & Motherboard. Exhaust's on top and front.

Planet Earth has apparently developed a small eccentricity in its orbit - Coelacanth spinning in his grave

Anyone heard from fishface recently ?

well........here we are,a year and a half of 24/7 folding later.since i've just finish pulling it down for a good cleaning i decided a few pics were in order
msi mobo,ati 9550,sempron 2500,512mb ram,and the hdd size i can't remember.

Was that a Gateway G6-series tower at one time?

the backpane and mobo tray were.....the rest is baby at straight out of 1995.....hence the dents.i rescued it off the curb and started it as a project for testing different techniques.painting,dremel/hand-filing(5.5hrs worth on the dragon alone),filling and smoothing the front panel,remote locating the power connection/switch,and etching.

Still looks very nice.

nice job. How did you do the dragon? Did you have a pattern?