User blog comment:NOhara24/Guess who's back...back again.../@comment-3420061-20110521062045

The case is fine, arguably the best component in my system-- part of why I reused it from the last rig. I made a poor choice of motherboard for high-end SLI, is all... it doesn't accommodate two double-width cards well. As a result, one card has no room for it to dissipate its heat, even with an intake fan blowing almost directly on it. That card's own cooling fans are wedged right next to the PCB of the next card with only millimeters to spare, certainly not enough room for that card's fans to have any effective intake draft. Its temp went ripping up to 95C when I jumped Piss Wash Gully while, ah, "testing," while its sister card peaked at 66C.

I may be able to get a little more effective cooling when I restore the internal baffles and close the case, since that'll increase the positive pressure generated by the intake fan. Or I could get a stronger intake fan, though the current one is a fairly powerful Delta. Nevertheless, I think I have to rethink the whole twin 580 silliness. I can always RMA the 580s in exchange for, say, a single 590.

(95C is hot, but within the tolerances of the card. I suspect that a loose connector may have been the actual cause of the previous instability.  Either that, or Nine Toes broke the fourth wall doing spray-and-pray with The Clipper.)

Anyway, as midlife crises go, this one is fairly inexpensive, so hey.

Sorry to derail your blog with my build. It's part of my own present Pandoralessness, is all.