Please end a debate for me. I have a friend that swears i'm killing the performance of my setup by the location of my inlet filter, says i will see a big difference if i put an intake onto my inlet so its not sucking air from right behind the fan. I say it runs well as is and have had no problems with it. What do you guys say?

 

It's obviously not good for performance and if you are trying to get the last little bit out of your current parts/setup you should definitely change it. If you are content with the power and the filter isn't quickly degrading from it's current location then don't sweat it.