PREFACE:
If you have ever popped a floppy disk out of a computer and was surprised to play "hot-potato" with it or had the misfortune of a PC that would do "strange things" within a short time of being turned on, or have had a hard drive fail and burned your fingers by touching the failed drive, you already know the importance of cooling for a PC case. If you have not had these things happen to you personally, I can only appeal to your ability to learn from my misfortunes.
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ADDITIONAL FANS:
The larger cases provide an installation point for an additional fan. For this reason alone, the larger cases are better choices and is the easiest, least expensive feature that can be done to improve cooling. Heat is the number one enemy to the electronic and electro-mechanical devices in the computer. Hard Disk Drives are typically the largest heat producers in the computer and will fail prematurely if not adequately cooled. Simply installing an additional fan in your PC does not mean you have provided adequate cooling. The design of the case and the placement of components inside the case determine the flow of air. Ideally, cooler air from the exterior would be brought in from one end of the case or from multiple locations and flow over all of the components before being ejected back to the outside. Unfortunately, the current case market does not provide the best solution for air flow needs without modification. Don't forget to put a filter over all intake fans as dust loves to cling to electronic components withering their ability to cool. You can buy these devices or make your own.
HOME MADE FILTERS:
A tower case provides 2 or more 5.25" or 3.5" external drive bays. The extra drive bays are covered with plastic covers. These covers can be removed and replaced with a "home-built filter" that will allow air flow into the case. This home built filter can be made from a plastic dish/sink hand scrubbing pad. These plastic scrubbing pads come in a wide variety of colors, are cheap, and can be washed. Simply use a pair of scissors to cut the pad to the necessary size and place it in the hole(s) made by the removal of the covers. Then mount the hard drive(s) behind these home built filters. This one simple and cheap modification will allow the maximum of air to flow over the hard drives and the resultant heated air will be sucked out the top of the case by the power supply fan or additional fan.
PERFORMANCE AND SCSI DRIVES:
As I said earlier, the hard drive(s) produce the most heat. Not all hard drive(s) produce the same amount of heat, but I have noticed that SCSI and the higher performance IDE hard drives produce a lot more heat than the slower IDE drives. If you take the time to add additional cooling and air flow, the result will be a PC that runs cooler inside and will extend the life of all components including the hard drives.
