Need advice on cooling system for Athlon 1.4 GHz System

[geojoy]

Recently, I upgraded to an Athlon 1.4 GHz. It's installed in an Enlight 7230 Mid Tower with a plain vanilla fan down low (blowing out) in the front and the 300 Watt PS fan blowing out in the back up high. The intake is through small slot holes on the side of the case cover. The CPU has a Dragon Orb 3 on it. My desk has a little wooden enclosure where I'd like to keep the system, in order to keep the noise down, but I need better cooling. When outside the wooden cubby the system runs at 36 C at idle (with software cooling on) and about 49 C at load while running Prime 95. When put inside the cubby hole, the system idle temeprature went to 55 C. I did not even attempt a load test while inside. Right now the case is outside the cubby and sounds like and F-14 about to take off.

I need to fit a better cooling solution in my case so I can move the system back inside. I know that I can replace the fan up front with a better fan. How do I chose a fan and which way should it blow? If the power supply fan flowing out enough of an exhaust, should I add another exhauust fan? Where should the second exhaust fan be located? All help is appreciated.

Here are the picture of my case interior:
View1
View2

 

[sohcrates]

well, the rule of thumb is to have front fans suck air in and the rear fans blow air out to create a nice airflow through the case. it's gonna be tough with your case, though, without major modifications. i would suggest two things

1) replace the front fan with a really fast fan, it will be noisy, but will get a lot of air into the case. you might also want to look at ways to cut a few more holes in the front bezel to let it suck in more air

2) it *looks* like you could mount at least a 60mm fan on the back of your case where all those holes are for ventilation. the psu fan is not enough to effectively exhaust everything.

a newer 92mm and a 60mm fan would only cost you about 20 bucks, so i'd say it's worth it. but def. measure those holes on the back and see if a 60mm fan would fit.

 

[ubersam]

Check out his 7237 Mod, it helped me get ideas for my mods. Virtual-Hideout has a huge gallery of modded cases, from mild to insane. The front fans should blow air in, as for what to use, that's all up you; More air generally means noisier. Check out SidewinderComputers, PCMods and CaseEtc (to name a few) for fans/grills. If you put a 39.5 cfm intake, you might get away without an additional exhaust fan as the ps fan should be sucking out approx. 38-39 cfm.

 

[chopstxxx]

definately turn the front fan around and have it intake air. ALso add an 80mm below the ps on the back of ur case and have it exhaust air. A fan on the side panel of ur case directly over the cpu will help alot too. I have my case set up like this, with a slot fan and hard drive cooler and i get pretty good temps. board temp - 23 cpu - 37 with a 1.33 tbird.