Cooling my rig with desk fan

If your temperatures drop, it means that you have inadequate airflow through your case.

BTW, your sig indicates that your memory overclock is drastically limiting your CPU overclock. You should be able to reach at least 3.3 GHz with even a medium quality CPU cooler.

Check this out.
HOWTO: Overclock C2Q (Quads) and C2D (Duals) - Guide v1.6.1
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/240001-29-howto-overc...

Next stop should be a guide for your particular motherboard. Google is your friend.

oh damn sory, i forgot to say that i changed my cooler to a CM Hyper 212 Plus. thus I can't close the side-case of my computer. Also yes, my RAM is limiting my CPU overclock. I'm getting a pair of 2gb OCZ Titanium Edition this sunday.  

I don't use my side panel and leave it out completely because I live in cool weather and the cool room air keeps my temps down on my OC'd E8400.

I just have to dust and clean the PC more often. That's the only disadvantage with having it open, no side panel to keep the dust out.

It will work but it will be dusty in no time..