what are these rubber holes on the back of the pc case?
what are these rubber holes on the back of the pc case?
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?
Edit: thanks for all the replies, so just for water cooling I have no need for.
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.
They're also useful if you are doing weird stuff with your PC and you need to run a connector into or out of your pc
Ive used mine before because the rad was too big to fit internally.
Years ago, I saw someone run a copper loop through this newly poured basement foundation just to use to cool his pc silently.
The rubber didn't agree well on my old case. I poked it a couple years ago trying to figure it what it might be and the little triangles has gotten stiff and snapped off on one side, so I stopped poking it.
I was today years old when I learned what they were for though. I knew it was some kind of tube or pipe or hose, but I've spent about 0.3 seconds actually thinking about it so I never figured it out.
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
I used them on my old Build! Pretty neat if it got some light up the back, but I went back to air cooling, so I’ve got then holes of glory again.
PCussy
Compussy
A fellow man of intelligence
Do we already have c/dontputyourdickinthat?
USBussy
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.
This is it! Old water coolers
Specifically, these are for being able to pass in the tubing when your computer overheats playing Counter-Strike 1.5 so you pull apart your 50cc moped so you can bolt the moped radiator to the side of the case since it doesn’t fit inside. At least that’s the only use I’ve actually seen in practice.
Hole for Pepnis
Forbidden butthole
I showed pepnis pls show bobs
It's OK, you can write Pepsis on the internet
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Name ckecks out, I guess?
Just leave them be. I think their point was to route tubing for custom water cooling loops.
Well, you got the answers you were looking for, here is a different answer. To your other implied question, how to not worry about dust getting in other holes.
Main thing is to develop positive air pressure. You want more powered intake than powered exhaust.
Use fans for all your filtered air intakes, ignore powered air exhaust, run it at lower fan speeds if you can. Air will get out fine. If you force the air in where you want it to go in, dust will only go into the easily removable filters, it won't be on your components. Any extra hole in the case will just be exhausting the already filtered air. Then just remember to actually check and clean your filters. That's the hard part. But if you clean them when they need to be cleaned, you will never have to actually clean the inside or the fans or components or anything else, just the filters.
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
Those are for your watering system
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're like buttholes for your computer
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.
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).
Is that an NZXT? It looks almost exactly like my old case I just repurposed. (And yes, it's for water cooling but those cases have exceptional air cooling so it was never that important.)
Yes it is! Good to know about the air cooling.
The Nocturne did me well, recently got the boxier one though since video cards are getting out of hand. Love NZXT though!
Those look like optional expansion ports cut into the case that were filled with plugs 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.
Edit: Downvotes for attempting to answer the question... awesome.
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.
Glorywindow
🤭😏😉