The grill is not the best protection but it sure does help! I have not heck of a better chance not getting cought up int he fan with it on than if it was off! Also I took the 3rd stick out to make my pc more of a performanc pc, that is how I was able to break the 18,000 mark now with ease. Let me run much more agrressive ddr timings. I will be testing it out in games this week to see how much I really need the extra stick, if I do not need it really I will sell it or all 3 and go to two sticks of 512mb pc3500 instead.