A noob question probably

The air should be cool going into the case and warmer coming out. The difference may not be huge depending on your components. Or it may be very hot if you have an extreme gaming rig. Depends on your components and the stress that you place on them.

At idle probably not, at load probably yes. At least that's how effective cooling is supposed to be.

Thanks for the answers.

@Chester

I checked more thoroughly cos of what you said, and while the rear and PSU fans are definitely blowing out slightly warm air, the side one (my tower has a perspex wall with a side fan) is cool as a summer breeze.

Could the store have installed the fan the other way around?

The reason I'm asking is that a few days ago my 2 years old card (9800GTX) died on me after a year of bearable, minor artifacting. It used to idle on 60c in the summers and while Ive never seen it go beyond 72-73c, who knows, it might have.

Today I bought a new one (HD 6850) and this entire afternoon it idled on 36-38c - which made me very happy, almost the temps of a healthy human...- but towards the evening it went ten degrees up and around there it stays.

Side fans usually blow into the case. The ones low and in front blow in, the ones high and on top blow out. If you checked the side fan and didn't feel warm air coming out, I wouldn't worry about it.

As 4745 has said, not to worry. If you're still concerned list your setup. Case, mobo, gpu, cpu & heatsink/fan, psu. You'll get more direct answers this way  

Cheers, guys, I do appreciate the feedback. I know why come here when things are array.


My specs-


MB: XFX nForce 780i 3-Way SLI
CPU: E8400 @ 3.00GHz
Memory: 4GB RAM
GPU: RADEON HD 6850
PSU: SEASONIC 500W
Case: NZXT APOLLO

Stock cooling
No OC

CPU idles at 42c average
GPU... just going slowly but steadily up. It's now at 52c. WTF? It was at 36-38c for HOURS just half a day ago.

I have 3 Antec 900's - early gaming case, great cooling, practically nonexistent cable management. Two of them have highly overclocked quad core CPU's. At full system load, exhaust air runs about 5 C max over ambient as measured by an electronic cooking thermometer.

Exhaust air from the GPU's is a little higher.

The Antec 900 does look great. I'll definitely consider it, but due to the premature GPU upgrade, I'd prefer postponing this buy.
Based on my temps, how urgent would you say it is, guys?




Wow, thanks. Best answer, no doubt about that.

And no, I don't have a special bond to NZXT.

Best answer selected by Jet boot Jack.