I think my cpu is indeed markedly cooler with the side panel off. We're talking like 10 degree difference when gaming at least. I don't know what to do with the fan config. Idk I feel like I might just be taking too much cool air away from the cpu cooler, just sucking it right out of the case with a bigger fan before the cpu can get ahold of it.

Obviously everything in my system works right and isn't throttling so maybe I'm worrying too much, but it would also be nice to have less noise and I don't want to stretch my components if I don't have to. I've never even ocerclocked anything because of that.