What are the rubber circles for on the back of my pc case? Should I just leave them like that if don’t have a need for them? Or are they likely to let I’m dust into the motherboard?
You must log in or register to comment.
It is probably an old case design. In the early water cooling days, there would be separate watercooling units that sat outside the case. The grommets were so you could pass your tubing through.
I wouldn’t really worry about the dust tbh, you will wind up having to clean it regardless.
Watercooling holes. That said, I’ve never seen anyone use them. Mounting external rads is a bitch. They take up space. Most people just buy a watercooling compatible case.
They are external ports for water cooling. They allow you to run the pipes to an exterior location, and I have never seen anyone use them ever. I would leave the rubber grommet as it generally looks nicer than the hole.
This is the correct answer - I know because I was there 10000 years ago and had to decide between this and buying a special case from koolance. Amusingly they still sell one for the outside.
They can also be handy if you have to do anything weird like route display cables from the GPU to the motherboard like for a thunderbolt display.
Is water cooling for PC gaming still a thing? It’s been 10+ years since I followed any trends.
Air cooling and closed loop coolers have gotten better, and honestly no one can afford to spend $3000 to get 3° lower temps any more.
Probably for external radiotors. Outside of the case you can make them bigger and thus more silent.
Radiators? Nah, open loop. One end to the faucet, other end to the drain. If you’re on well water it goes right back down to where it came from.
I’ve always wanted to have to clean hardened calc/lime out of my CPU cooler!
Built a computer for a guy years ago. Dual titan X, 3 radiators in a little fucking HAF tower. He bought two exterior radiator mounts
Ive used mine before because the rad was too big to fit internally.
I knew someone who had the MO-RA3 through those ports and had it on the other side of the room. He sold it to another person in the discord server we were in and he actually installed it in his basement directly below the computer on the floor above. Wild
Dust will get in pretty much no matter what you do. I wouldn’t worry about it. If you live in an already really dusty environment then get some sections of filter and attach them inside of these holes but honestly I wouldn’t worry.
It’s for water cooling loops if you want to mount the rad or pump or something outside of the case. I think it was more common in the early days of water cooling when things were less standardized.
Not less standardized so much as when the only cooling loops were custom ones and not AIO
Hole for Pepnis
Forbidden butthole
Just leave them be. I think their point was to route tubing for custom water cooling loops.
Those are rubber grommets. They’ll protect cables from wearing on metal that pass through the case.
Likely for things with hard wired controllers, like fan controllers or led lighting. You can hang the controller outside of the case in the back where nobody will see it.
They’re like buttholes for your computer
Besides the water cooling that’s already mentioned, those could be used for example for routing an internal device out and into the I/O of the motherboard. An example would be some fan/RGB controllers that are meant to be somewhere inside the case, but are terminated with a standard USB A plug (and very few motherboards have that as an internal connector). Another example is a mini display that you could put inside the case that would need to interface with the GPU (so you’d need to route a DP or HDMI cable out of the case and into the back of the GPU).
FYI this community is meant for open-ended questions.
Those holes look open to me.
But are they questions?
They look questionable.
There is only way to get an answer.
Those look like optional expansion ports cut into the case that were filled with plug because the configuration didn’t need them. The shape I’d really odd though since the only thing that comes to mind is that they were intended for additional power cables - the shape is weird.
Downvotes for not getting it right, I presume.
Which makes me concerned that the “Hole for Pepnis” answer has so many upvotes.
Although it is a gasket for an optional expansion that wasn’t included - it just appears I was wrong about the type of cable.
Being slightly wrong means more of an endorphin rush when people realize they can pounce on the flaw they’ve spotted, I guess.
Don’t sweat downvotes, they’re especially meaningless on the Fediverse. I happen to like a number of applications for AI technology and cryptocurrency, so I’ve certainly collected quite a few of those and I’m still doing okay. :)
I imagine downvoting incorrect answers being pretty useful in this type of community, it’s nothing personal and as you said, it doesn’t mean anything. Though just not upvoting would be sufficient.
They are for watercooling, but you are right that people don’t need them. OEMs just add some holes or a random reservoir mount and then bill a case as Watercooling Ready™️, even if it has like, space for one 120x15mm rad, lol.
