I/0 shield important for anal-retentive pedants?

[Anne Onime]

the user guide of every mainboard I bought this century
says THOU SHALT FIT THE I/O SHIELD!
Among the reasons is that it permits the correct airflow
within the case. Now how can they say that? I have seen
so many cases: some have holes at the bottom of the side
panels. Some have holes in the side panel roughly where
the CPU is. Others have slots in the front panel. So all
of these would have different airflow.
Anyway, often I have gotten a shield what does not fit
the case, so I just flung it in the junk box.
And I don't think any of these systems were roasted, toasted
or scorched.

 

[Paul]

the user guide of every mainboard I bought this century
says THOU SHALT FIT THE I/O SHIELD!
Among the reasons is that it permits the correct airflow
within the case. Now how can they say that? I have seen
so many cases: some have holes at the bottom of the side
panels. Some have holes in the side panel roughly where
the CPU is. Others have slots in the front panel. So all
of these would have different airflow.
Anyway, often I have gotten a shield what does not fit
the case, so I just flung it in the junk box.
And I don't think any of these systems were roasted, toasted
or scorched.

The I/O shield, might help ground RF emissions from the computer,
or it might help with static discharge into the ground in that
area. But really, it's largely cosmetic. I'm sure there are
lots of home builds out there, without the shield in place.
And the recent ones (foam and tinfoil style), show they're
not serious about it any more. The springy metal ones looked
like they were serious about it.

And your cooling story would have to be pretty weak, if that
hole made a difference. It might even bring the CPU temperature
down, by providing a cool air inlet near the CPU. But at
the expense of higher temperatures up near the disk drives.
And if you're a responsible builder, you've already checked
hard drive temperatures (with SMART) and CPU temperatures,
to determine if there is enough cooling or not.

My current computer, only has one large fan on it. It's mounted
in front, and blows cold air on the hard drives. If there was
a hole at the back, where the I/O shield fits, that would
work perfectly with my cooling solution. Right now, I leave
off a few slot faceplates, to achieve the same result. The power
supply exhausts air as well, so that helps a little bit. It also
means, my front fan works in the same direction as the PSU fan,
so they're not working against one another.

Only problem is, my front fan is not "finger safe", and I've
stuck my own fingers into it a couple times Definitely
not a solution if there are little kids about.

Paul