Best fan for Alpha 8045?

[Smaulz]

Seriously considering upgrading the current TT Volcano 6cu+ to the Alpha 8045. Am I going to see a significant drop in temps? I've got an ABIT KG7RAID with an TBird 1.4 OC'd to 1.6. (Yes, I'm using ASII) But my temps hover around 46C idle and 51-53C full load. Got two TT 6cm fans and two 4cm fans blowing out the back, as well as a 8cm fan blowing air in the front. Not to mention the fans on the PS. I can't even put the cover on the case without the temps rising considerably. (I think the problem is the location, it's stuffed under a desk. There's pretty good ventilation, but maybe not good enough) Would the 8045 help at all? What would be the absolute best fan to go with? (Preferably not a delta, this thing screams enough.) Any ideas would be appreciated. TIA

P.S. Not really concerned with the price of the HSF, I'm just focusing on performance at this point.

[edit]
What about the Swiftech MCX462? Any thoughts on this one?
Here

 

[mechBgon]

The temperatures reported by the motherboard sensor are influenced by many factors, so it's hard to judge in absolute terms whether your CPU is running hotter than is good for it, but those temperatures sound reasonable.

You mentioned that your temperature readings go up with the cover on the case. You might see if there are any further optomizations you can make to your case cooling, such as tucking cables out of the way to increase airflow, nipping out restrictive grillework that might be choking off your fans, drilling out bezel vent holes to bigger sizes, or adding a 5.25" bay cooler to force cool air in at the top of the case, where it may be stagnant on a typical midtower.

Reducing the temperature of the air going into the heatsink is going to have a very direct impact on the temperature of the heatsink, so look at the case ventilation. The Swiftech has a top-notch reputation and like all heatsinks its actual cooling will depend on how crazy of a fan you can stand to use with it

Do you happen to know what brand/model of case you have, by the way?

 

[Smaulz]

The case is an old no-namer. It was originally purchased as a PII350, so you know it's pretty old. (Solid Steel) I've tried drilling out the bezel holes, but it didn't do any good. There's some grill work on the front, so maybe I'll try that. Was considering a bay cooler, but didn't know if they were worth the effort. Thanks for the advice! Any suggestions on the fans?

 

[mechBgon]

For a fan, how about the Enermax manually-adjustable 80mm one? Newegg has them for $8, comes with a grille too. At full bore it's fairly powerful, at minimum speed it's quiet, but you can pick whatever speed you like inbetween.

 

[TheSwarm]

Best bang for the buck if noise is a factor has to be the Panaflo L1A from bgmicro.com. I'm using an Alpha PAL 8045 with an L1A, it is dead quiet and MBM reports a temp of 49 C under load. The fan costs about 3 bucks. If you are ordering, I recommend getting ten of them. The cost is 27.50 for ten fans, shipping doesn't go up much. Then you can put them everywhere you need a fan and have a quiet reliable system. If you don't need ten fans or you don't have friends who need extras, it is still a good deal to get one or two. But at this price, get as many as you think you'll ever need.