Should I replace my CM Centurion 5?

[jedigeorge]

Hi. I'm a 10+ year lurker, and I need some suggestions. I have a Centurion 5 that's stuffed full, and I'm getting heat problems. I have 2 CM 120mm front intake fans, one 120mm Silverstone variable speed intake fan screwed into the side vent, and one CM 120mm fan pulling air out the rear. There are 4 hard drives in there, a q6600 with a Tuniq 120mm cooler, 8gb of ram, and an Asus p5n-sli mobo. The 8800GTS I used to have required the Silverstone fan to keep from overheating. Now I have a 5870 running a 3-screen Eyefinity group, and the machine overheats unless I crank both the Silverstone fan and the GPU fan up all the way, but that sounds like a hair dryer.

I just used the Open Hardware Monitor (mentioned elsewhere on these forums) to track temps while playing LOTRO, and here's what I found (max temps):
CPU cores: 52/49/53/49 C
Motherboard: 34 C and 51 C
GPU core: 85.5 C

Ambient temperature in the room gets to about 76, and there isn't really much I can do about that. The CPU cores are staying cool enough, I think. I don't know what the two motherboard temps are, I'm guessing one is the CPU and one is ambient case temp or chipset? The 5870 got up into the 80s under load without the fans cranked, and probably hit 90+ when I had a lockup.

I have done as much as I can do with trying to wire it up cleanly, short of getting out the dremel. I would like to get better airflow without too much noise; I think that would solve my problem. What current cases might be better than my venerable Centurion for $100-150? Would separate cooling zones inside the case help, or is it overkill?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Vorg]

Exactly the reason I water coo,l albeit a little different from most people.

My room would get so hot I was thinking about getting a seperate a/c unit just to cool it. So I water cooled my computer, run the water lines under the house to my radiator.

You may not have a house that is elevated off the ground, but you could run lines through the outside wall to a radiator. Just have to make sure the radiator is protected from getting hit.

 

[xisor]

I have an X-clio Wintunnel personally, and i love it, be warned though its ENORMOUS

Plenty of room for drives (8 3.5 inchers and 5 5.25 inchers to be exact). RIDICULOUS airflow and cooling (TWO 250mm fans on the side, can mount 120mm on front and rear as well, though i fail to see the need). For $99 i cant complain, had no issues with this case.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811103011&cm_re=windtunnel-_-11-103-011-_-Product