I think what Operandi said is a more accurate reflection of what I meant to say - that while "You may have been able to lower your CPU temp a bit but overall it's going to do more harm then good."
Why? Because with the only exhaust fan in the pulling air in instead of exhausting warm air as it was designed to do, now you have no effective way to exhaust warm from the inside of the case. Think about all the heat generated by the videocard, the CPU, and the hard drive and you'll realize thats quite a bit.
Assuming you have a 130nm FX-55 you are still within the AMD's Maximun Temp for the processor, although you are gettting close to the max of 63C. You need to get cooler air into the case but you also really should work on:
1.(a) Improving airflow inside the case. Cleanup that rat's nest of power cables blocking the airflow in the lower chamber. The 120mm intake not only cools the hard drive(s), but it is also supposed to supply cool air for the rest of the case. (Yeah, as I said before, not the most efficient design but you are further reducing the design efficiency even further).
1.(b) Change the (120mm) rear EXHAUST FAN back to being an exhaust unit.. Again, all that heat is just building up in your PC. Baking your components. You are asking for heat-related failures.
2. Reduce the heat buildup inside the case. That Zalman you have on your videocard is probably doing a great job cooling the GPU, but guess where is all that heat is going? Nowhere. Its staying in the upper portion of the case. There is probably a minimal amount of heat that actually escapes through the mesh at the back of the case. Place your hand above the mesh at the back after you've been gaming for an hour or so and you can feel slight heat, but not much.
So, what to do about the reducing the heat buildup? As I suggested before you can:
(a) Install an Arctic Cooling NV5 to blow the GPU heat out the back of the case. I realize that you already have a very efficient GPU cooler (looks like a Zalman VF-700 Cu?) on your videocard and that it is probably more efficient at cooling the GPU, but if you want to get the heat out of the case you should try the NV5. The AC Silencers are excellent at this.
(b) Fold and/or tie the SATA and power cables in the main compartment of your case to allow better air flow inside the main compartment. Yes, I do realize that there is no intake fan in that compartment - this makes clearing the main compartment even more important.
BTW, as Operandi noted you never stated what the ambient case and room temp are. If is really hot in your room (85F+) 61C on the CPU really isn't bad at all. Your Zalmans' ability to dissipate CPU and GPU heat to the air is seriously hampered if the ambient room (and case) temp is high to begin with.
However, if you room and case ambients aren't too high I think if you try what I suggested you'll notice lower ambient temps inside your case and a reduction of your FX-55 temps.
Good luck.
EDIT: Sorry, I didn't see that you already tried an NV5 on your videocard and that it wouldn't fit with modding. That sucks. At least the Zalman cools the GPU nicely...
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