So here is a story that should be repeated just to remind new and old modders alike as to the importance of good case airflow. And that what you think is working well can be improved upon with very minor changes. So here is my setup.

Case: Zalman Fatality FC-ZE1
Mobo: Evga 780I
CPU: Intel Q6600 overclocked to 3ghz with a Thermalright 120extreme.
Vid Cards: Dual 8800gt's, sli and overclocked.
Mem: 2x1gig OCZ Reaper @ 1066mhz
Power: Ultra X3 1000w
extras include razer ac-1 audio and an ati hd-tv tuner. 3 hard drives, two cd drives and a multi-reader with floppy.
So as you can see there is plenty of stuff in my case to make heat.

First photo, One zalman 120mm exhaust, the 120mm exhaust on the psu, Two 80mm zalman intakes. Noctura 120mm on CPU. High temps throughout.



Second photo (please excuse the mess), What I had for fans was a pair of Noctura 120mm fans and the psu all exhausting air. The factory zalman 120mm fan moved onto my cpu and the two smaller 80mm zalman fans removed from the front grill (man where they loud). It was a pure suction setup, not ideal but nice and quiet.



What I was still running into was high temps for my cpu, mcp (northbidge), and my vid cards (yep, everything). All temps are with both gpu and smp folding running, and taken from Everest.

CPU: 60-65c per core.
MCP: 63-65c
Vid card 1: 83c (gpu folding on only one card so the second one had normal temps)

I was getting annoyed with this so I figured I would buy a new fan for the cpu as the zalman was starting to get louder anyway. Got the 1900rpm Sythe S-flex and figured for heck with quiet if I can't keep my cpu from burning up. I also got a new 40mm fan for the chipset as the one I had been using was old and probably not running well anymore either.

Well this changed nothing, still getting high temps throughout. So I decided to try something new.

Third photo (dang a clear one ). Pulled the case window out and flipped it to put the side fan at the bottom. I also turned the fan around so it is now an intake.



Holy smokes I have made progress, there is a substantial and repeatable drop in temps everywhere in the case. Everything up to this point didn't change any temp on my system by more than a degree or two. The simple act of moving the side fan from the top to the bottom and reversing the flow fixed everything.

My new temps are same setup; folding on gpu and smp with all the same overclocks.
CPU: 51-56c (down from 60-65c)
MCP: 54-55c (down from 63-65c)
Vid card: 66c (down from 83c)
Screenshot below.

So the moral of the story, if what you are trying isn't working. Try something different, maybe your doing it wrong. I had perceived I had enough intake airflow to support the 3 exhaust fans and was sadly mistaken. It has caused me unnecessarily high system temps for months now that could have been avoided.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to see if I can get a stable clock on this Q6600 past 3ghz on air.

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Good going. I would not have thought to rotate the window. Can you rig up a 120mm fan for your front intake?

why was the side-panel set to exhaust anyway ?? makes no sense ?

Thats the fun part of it all. When I still had the two 80mm fans in the front of the case, it didn't seem to matter what speed they where at as I always had poor flow out the back of the case (and resultant high temps). When I cut the window for the side fan I figured I would put it high and help draw heat out of the top of the case. I assumed incorrectly that the problem was low exhaust airflow from the slower moving Noctura fan I had on the back. Putting it low in the case and setting it as an intake is what I should have done in the first place.

You gotta figure I have been on the forum for 5 years now and as much as I haven't done a full blown case mod I have been doing little stuff like this all along. I amazed myself that I took something so simple for granted and fouled it up. I did alot of work in my system trying to bring my temps down that I didn't mention in my initial post. Mainly because none of them helped. I lapped my cpu and heatsink. I pulled the coolers off both vid cards and reapplied the TIM with AS5. I pulled the heatsink system off the mobo and applied AS5 (giant pain in the rear that I won't recommend doing). All of this in vain because of one fan that was blowing air the wrong direction.

Hindsight is 20/20 and all I see is me slapping myself like a v-8 commercial. Doink