Venting PCI Cards

[halfpower]

I have an Antec SLK3000B. This case has a side PCI vent and an air duct for the CPU. I've cut some acrylic and seeled off both of these openings. What I'm wondering is whether or not I will have to keep an eye on the temperature of the air surrounding the PCI cards.

These are the components I'm planning to put in this computer:

# System Fans: 3x Nexus Real Silent 120mm
# CPU heat sink: Thermalright XP-120
# Optical Drive: Samsung TS-H552
# Graphics Card: Dual Head 3DForce MX4000Twin
# Hard Drive: 160GB Samsung SpinPoint (possibly two)
# Motherboard: Asus A8V Deluxe
# CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3500+
# Memory: 2x 512MB Kingston PC3200 (may add a second gig later)
# PCI Cards: some wireless network card, E-mu 1010, E-mu 0202 (e-mu 1010 + e-mu 02020 == e-mu 1212M), possibly a TV/FM card

 

[fireontheway]

You should be fine with 1 intake and 1 exhaust fan.

 

[halfpower]

I've heard that an intake fan can recirculate warm air. Do I need to make sure that the exhaist fans (rear and PSU) are pushing harder than the intake?

 

[wisdomtooth]

As long as the exhaust fans and intake fan are sufficiently far enough away from each other and your computer is not sitting in a poorly-ventilated enclosed area (like a cabinet), you should be OK.

HTH.