So i bought all the parts for my PC (internals) and setup everything in my old case. Everything seemed OK at first, but then i noticed it was getting hot without even doing much. I found running realtemp and doing an encode got up to 99c, way to hot. So i went to the pc shop and got 2 x 80mm thermal take fans for the back of the case, and better after market heatsink (Zalman 7000cps), that got the temps down to about 80, with the front off the case, using prime95. Part of the problem was the case, just not enough airflow with the good video card and hot cpu, and as i wanted to overclock the cpu, the Zalman cooler just wasnt cutting it either.
I tossed up between the Aztec 902 case, and the Coolmaster Sniper, i decided to go with the Sniper in the end, got good reviews, and has good airflow, plus it looks nice too.
The CPU Heatsink was a daunting prospect, there are so many on the market, but one that always came up was the Prolima Megahalems, then the next consideration was the fans for the CPU, as noise tends to be an issue on the high end heatsinks, and there were a number of posts on the web about higher static pressure on the fans is better. I decided to go with the Scythe Gentle Typhoon 1850 rpm x 2, in a push/pull config, noise isnt too bad.
I’ve gone from 81c at full load stock speeds on the old case and Zalman heatsink, to 77c on the new case and heatsink, overclocked from 2.8 to 3.6Ghz, not bad, and since the encoding doesnt stress the cpu as much as prime95, my normal running temps will be heaps lower.
