Heat concerns on new gaming rig

[greywulf]

Hope I chose the right forum - I have a Cyberpower PC and it does have Asetek 510LC 120MM watercooler, but I am concerned with how hot my graphics cards get (at least it seems to be them) when I play Witcher 2. Heating fell under overclocking, which I am not, so again, please redirect this thread to a more appropriate forum if necessary...

Here are the pertinent features of my build:
silverstone fortress case
3 fans: 2 120MM on the bottom, 1 120MM on top
the aforementioned water cooling (seeming connected to the mobo and the top fan)
graphics cards: 2 evga nvidia 580 GTX 1.5GB pci-e
2 hard drives: 80 GB intel sata mlc and 1 TB sata III
power supply: thermal take tough power 1KW
mobo (if this is relevant): asus p6x58d-e x58
OS: windows 7

When my graphics cards are running Witcher 2 the case vents above them get soooo hot - like, I can lay my hand on it indefinitely (it's not going to burn me), but not without me getting seriously worried about how hot they are, y'know? I'm sure my old PC got warm/hot, but with this one the case top is basically just one big screen and the section of screen over the graphics cards gets way hotter than the rest of the case top. The sides of the case next to the cards do not get hot. The top of the case where the top fan is actually blows out cool air. So I have the front of the case (near the gpu's) giving off hot air and the rear of my case giving off cool air. My hard drives are also in the front, but I intuitively assign the heat production the the gpu's since it is more noticeable during gaming.

So, my questions:
1. Is there a way for me to take my graphics cards' temperature?
2. Does it help if a have a small, clean table fan blowing (on low) into/toward the case or is this a no-no?
3. Does my 3 fan and watercooler set-up seem sufficient (on paper, at least) to manage my power supply and graphics cards?
4. If there is a problem, what are my solution options?

I'll take any feedback/advice I can get.

Thanks.

 

[elrui]

1) Download MSI Afterburner utility, will show your graphics cards temperatures in it's window.
2) Might get some improvement but I doubt it will be a lot.
3) 2 580's in SLI are going to be hot. No getting around that without liquid cooling blocks being installed on them. Your fan set-up should be fine for typical use as long as you are not overclocking. I doubt you are going over 85c but the utility will tell you. The water cooler is only effectively managing your CPU's heat so can't really count on it for the rest of the components. Your PSU should have it's own fan
4) I don't think there is a problem those are hot components. The only options really would be replace the 120mm fans with higher quality/higher rpm fans. Do you know the brands of fans used? Guessing they are probably pretty crappy fans due to being a prebuilt pc. If I were you I would look into getting some nice case fans. Scythe AP-15 are the best, but you can't find them anywhere. Xigmatek makes pretty decent fans that are pretty quiet. Noctua makes the argurably best but they get expensive....

 

[minter]

you should also place at least 2 120mm high rpm fans on the side of the case. In case your case doesn't support it. I suggest you get a new one with better air flow.

 

[greywulf]

Best answer selected by greywulf.