Is this thing necessary?

[triskit]

Ive got an Antec Sonata II case and I am curious about this black vent thing that covers the CPU heatsink/fan.

http://img248.imageshack.us/my.php?image=compthingbw0.jpg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129155

The vent makes it a huge pain to clean the dust out of the case because i have to remove it to get behind it.

I am just curious if it actually makes a difference in terms of keeping the CPU cool. Altough there is a place for a fan inside of the vent, I dont currently have one installed (only the CPU fan). So it seems like this thing is just preventing the cpu heat from being carried out more quickly by the other two fans in my case...

So do you think there would be anything wrong with just keeping it out?

 

[bmxfreakrider]

no, i dont see any problems at all, ive notied in all my builds that those ducts that are sposed to take air from the back just make the system hotter...weird, so i just take all mine out, plus it makes the inside look better

 

[triskit]

yeah thats what i was kind of thinking... It seems like w/o another fan it just makes for a smaller volume of air that can heat up faster...

Thanks a lot

 

[xtpacygax]

I had a side air duct in my Cooler Master case and I took that thing out, it didn't make a difference at all. So, I am pretty sure your good to take that out.