Things are getting a bit warm...advice on fans and mounting?

Hello,

Well, it is well in to summer where things are getting ..warm. And I'm sure like others out there people start keeping an eye on how warm things are getting. :) Having recently gotten a (mostly) new system, I've been keeping an eye on the temperatures as well and my initial conclusion is that things seem to be getting a bit too warm (esp. considering they are new parts).

cold start:
- videocard - 35c
- system - 36c
- smiovt5,6 - 37c (I use speedfan and from another post somewhere it was mentioned they might be ram temps?, someone correct me if I'm wrong).

idle (during the heat of day)
- videocard - 44c +/- 3c,
- system - 50c
- smiovt5,6 - 50c

idle (night)
- videocard - 40c +/- 3c

under (light) load: browsing internet, watching video, and minor work
- videocard - 45-55c
- system - 46-50c
- smiovt5,6 - 46-50c

under (mid) load: More work / Team Fortress 2
- videocard - 60-70c, mostly high 60s, sometimes up to 75c

under (heavy) load: Starcraft 2 (high settings, not ultra) - (my currently heaviest load at once?)
- videocard - mostly 78-82c, dips and spikes to 75-85c though (never seen it above 85c...yet)
- system - 50c
- smiovt5,6 - 50c

All the hard drive temps are 40c +/- 2c, and for the system temp it doesn't change too much, maybe +/- 2c. CPU core temps are always 35-39c. I am mostly paying attention to the videocard at the moment. As mentioned, I think hitting 85c is pretty warm.

Looking at my case and how things are mounted, I'm not sure if there is a whole lot I can do (without reworking a lot of my case). My case however does have this side panel with a window that I can remove/replace with some fans. The plastic is easier to cut them metal anyhow. =b

The green areas in the picture show where I have decent width space to mount fans (~3 cm thick). Since the green areas aren't exactly square, I'm thinking maybe I can put two fans side by side in each of the green areas (two intake at the bottom, two exhaust at the top).

I think it is worth nothing that the bottom green area is where all the warm air from the videocard gets trapped as physically it seems to form this perfectly boxed in area (that you can see with the side panel off). Putting my hand in there is always warmer then anywhere else. In the meantime, I run my system with the side panel off, this causes all the temps to drop maybe 2 degrees (the air doesn't actively move though).


So at this point, I have some questions:

Can anyone see a better solution? :)

Is it possible to somehow run two fans on 1 motherboard connector? I think I have two free spots where I can plug in fans on the motherboard (4 pin connectors).

Having to do this kind of thing is pretty new to me, any suggestions on what fans to get?

After a bit of digging, I added my case and psu. My case is pretty old, been using it for at least 5 years now.

I would have liked to add a fan right in the middle where the cpu heatsink is, but I think the space between there and the panel is pretty tight...possible that some of the protruding bits from the heat sink would collide with the fan. It never occurred to me to have a fan on the bottom actually. Hm...will have to think about it.

Bah, had a minor net outage. They do look to be good fans. Thanks for the suggestion.

What part of BC are you? I've never seen a 30*C day when I've been up there.

Your GPU temps are getting close to max. Adding case fans well certainly help dropping temps. Right now my case air temp is 27*C and chips are 29-31C @ idle. My cpu is h2o cooled so never gets hot, even with torture tests, the GPU on the other hand can push 80C plus with torture tests.

I'm a fan (pun) of more air in than out, positive case pressure keeps down dust buildup. Altogether I have thirteen fans, all low rpm and very low noise.

A large case fan added to the side, top or bottom would be the most beneficial, but those rear slot fans and front bay fans well do some good. My XP machine is a old Lian-Li PC70 case that has three 80mm fans, two in and one out. I added a rear slot fan and front bay fan and saw a 5* drop in case temps. YMMV.

2x140mm Fan Radiator Shroud, Black what about something like this, if you lack clearance this can be mouted on the outside of the sidepanel and allow you 2x 140mm fans for an example, if you are able to cut out holes on the plexi

I'm in the lower mianland BC. The daily temperature right now is low 20c's actually, but a few times it has climbed to 27c. My room can also get a bit warm too, depending on the day (the sun shines in to it almost directly). But now that you point that out, it is weird to see my starting temps are 30c when the air temp would be much lower. Hm, I think I'll have to double check that.

13 fans is a lot. I only have two right now.

Based on the advice from the replies here, I think what I'll do is mount 2 fans at the bottom to blow air in (directly right under/at the GPU), starting with 80mm fans if they'll fit, then if it isn't enough I'll enlarge the hole in the plexiglass to fit in larger fans -which would have to stick out a bit (Andreas's suggestion).

At the moment I only have one 140mm fan blowing the air out. If I have three fans blowing air in one and only one fan blowing out (cumulatively faster then the one fan blowing air out), would that matter?