I've done a lot of experimenting with a variety of cases, and what I've found to work for one might not work for another. HOWEVER, the one consistency that I can vouch for is the internal aerodynamics of the case. In other words, it is not just how much air your fans move, but HOW your fans move that air. Inside most cases, you get what I call "hotspots", or localized areas of increased heat. These hotspots form around places where air does not or cannot flow, for instance, between your harddrive(s) and CD/DVD drive(s) or below your video card. Since hotspots are localized, measuring your ambient case temp becomes very inaccurate for determining how effectively you are cooling your system.
Since changing the inside of a case to be more aerodynamic would be quite a challenge, an easier way to tackle this problem is to use specialty cooling devices in the right places. Specialty cooling devices are devices that are designed for a specific cooling purpose, below are two popular ones:
System Exhaust Blower: Mounts into an empty slot in your case and exhausts air horizontally. This unit does very well at killing the hotspot that forms around most video cards...one above or below, depending on the available space. Generally, placing a system blower above your AGP card will not only reduce your card's temp, but also your CPU's temp as well as overall case temperature.
Drive Bay Cooler: Mounts in a 5.25" drive bay to remove heat generated by your drives. It is extremely effective when installed in the right position -- between the offending drives.
There are also bracket fans that you can mount any way you want inside your case. Ideally, you would want to have the air inside the case moving in a circular pattern with the specialty coolers removing heat from places that air will not circulate. You'd be suprised at how much cooler you can get your case and components with more EFFICIENT cooling methods.
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