I too
have done this, but computer boffins more clued up than me advised against it, and I cant even remember why now....
(Psymon_Spark Jesus Saves! The rest of you take 4d6 damage, Sun 23 Aug 2009, 21:43, 3 replies)

Dust?
The fact it screws up the case's natural airflow?
It looks like the cheap-ass solution it is?
(Pope Jamiroquai III, Sun 23 Aug 2009, 23:33, closed)

I know it's an imperfect technique:
Yes, it's opening a great big hole in the interference-shielding properties of the case; yes, and you've got to watch out for dead air; yes, it looks like pants; but I haven't had problems with the first two yet, and the third is tolerable.

It's either spend more cash than I can afford on a better (possibly water-based) cooling system; permanently cap my system performance so it never reaches full performance; or just keep doing what I'm doing.
( The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Sun 23 Aug 2009, 23:54, closed)

Me also.
Is there a better, more permanent solution to this? Short of replacing the whole chassis?
(Harleif Skankhammer II was killing time at, Mon 24 Aug 2009, 0:58, closed)

I
would replace the GPU fans and the PSU fan/heatsink, maybe spend £40. Then replace your case fans with some faster (or intelligent) ones. Clean out all the dust that will have accumulated (including heatsink and PSU fan) with compressed air or strong lungs. Shouldn’t have any issues really, my Quad with stock PSU and 4 case fans rarely goes above 40 degrees, though no SLi.
( Rookie You'll have to speak up, I'm wearing a towel, Mon 24 Aug 2009, 10:33, closed)

There is!!
I used a hair-dryer on the slowest setting with the 'cool' button taped down. Twas a bit noisy at first, but then I 'found' 40ft of flexihose at work.
A bit more tape and the hair-dryer was at the other side of the house.
(Mensa Reject has gone out, I'll be back on, Wed 26 Aug 2009, 1:28, closed)