Improving Cooling on a Dell XPS Gen 5

[kevin_jarrett]

LOVE my Dell XPS Gen 5, two years old but going strong. Recently put in a new sound card (SB X-Fi Fata1ity Extreme Gamer) and video card (eVGA 8800 GTS Superclocked 320mb). Love the performance but MAN the eVGA card is LOUD, much louder than the ATI card I had in before.

Rivatuner tells me my graphics card is running around 68-70c idle depending on room ambient. The Gen 5 case fans themselves don't seem any more active than before.

Is there a way I can improve cooling on my Gen 5? From what I have read these temps are not a HUGE problem for my 8800 GTS but cooler is obviously better.

Thanks, kj

EDIT: ok I just checked and am wondering if I should move my sound card further away from the video card to help things, and possibly install a PCI slot cooler between them. Here is my setup:

---Top of Case---
> 8800 GTS
> 8800 GTS
> empty
> X-Fi
> empty
> empty
---Bottom of Case---

I have read that the X-Fi is a hot card and don't think it's helping the situation in its present location. Thanks!

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Dimension XPS Gen 5 | Pentium D 840 3.2ghz | 2gb 667mhz DDR RAM | 74gb WD Raptor SATA | eVGA 8800 GTS Superclocked 320mb | Dell Ultrasharp 2407FPW 24" LCD | SB X-Fi Fat1ity Extreme Gamer | 16X DVD | 48X CDRW | XP Pro SP-2

 

[valis]

cut a hole in the top and/or side, install 80mm or 120mm fans