I recently posted that my new system was running a bit too hot for my tastes, especially when the weather is warm.
I've resolved this somewhat by adding another 92mm case fan as an intake fan at the front of the case. I also removed the covers for the two card slots below the graphics card.
This keeps the system at a reasonably cool temp when the ambient temperature isn't super hot. I'm still not satisfied with how things are when the weather gets really warm.
I talked a little before about the Silenx case fans that I've been using. I have a 120mm and a 92mm Silenx fan (the 14db models) in my new case and a 120mm and 2 x 80mm models in my old (now my girlfriend's) PC. They are indeed quiet, but don't push much air (not sure that they push the cubic feet per minute that is listed on the website - sure doesn't seem like it to me, particularly for the 120mm fan) and lack the RPM monitor wire. For as much as they cost, I would rather that they offer them as high speed models with a controller as that would be much more useful.
I'm pretty sure that they use Adda fans to OEM as Adda owns the patent for hypro bearing fans. As such, they are certainly high quality fans, but I would personally get a lot more use out of them if they were sold at their top rated speed and included the RPM tach wire.
Anyhow, I'm still on the lookout for a 120x120x25mm fan that is high speed (around 80 to 115 cfm), has the RPM monitor wire and has good noise characteristics at all speed levels. If anyone knows of a supplier of such and a good fan controller rig to use, let me know.
At any rate, I won't be buying Silenx fans again for a normal PC as there's just not enough value add to justify the cost. You are better off buying high quality high speed fans and a multi-fan controller as you can still run your PC in silent mode if you have air conditioning in your PC room or when the weather is cool, but crank up the RPMs if needed. Flexibility is pretty important in my view. I would, however, purchase Silenx fans if I were putting together a home theater PC.
By the way, yes the system is fast. Runs all the games I have at 1680x1050 (native resolution of the Dell 2005FPW wide screen LCD) without any problems with 4x antialiasing and 8x anisotropic filtering turned on, which to me is pretty damn good.
HL 2 Stress Test showed that I averaged 95FPS with those settings and everything turned to High.
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