HTPC problems.. Heat, Choke, More Heat..
 

Below you'll see a photo that will pretty much sum up why I'm having trouble.. Here's the situation....

I have an antec overture , the thing is pretty rad, however space is very limited.. I need some maybe technical solutions on how to improve things.. The worst area is the harddrives , the cage is scolding hot constantly..

There is one intake on the case and it's a filtered intake.. The psu fan draws air in through the psu , now I thought this was an aweful idea for a very long time until I put in a slot cooler and realized that the extremely warm air was only coming out of the exhaust behind the harddrives , the air coming from the slot cooler isn't that warm at all..

I want to put a more powerful fan on the rear exhaust but with only one intake I don't want to choke it. The heatsync actually touches the harddrive cage which is probably my biggest hurdle at keeping the cpu below 55c The harddrives spin up and heat up and got warm and transfer heat to the HSF which in turn loses ability to cool the cpu very well.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated , =) Just to let you know all the cables have been sorted and it's alot neater now. for better air flow etc..

http://www.modasylum.com/reviews/Bik...re/it_fits.jpg

wow , didn't realize these forums were so dead.. =( anyone? anyone??

Your situation is hopeless with the current case because like you said, your cpu heatsink actually touches the hard drive cage.

I recommend getting either a full tower case, or a YY-Cube case. The YY will probably be a better choice since it is designed with hot-running hard drives in mind. It's kinda pricey, but well worth it. The YY also serves as a pretty nifty water-cooling case when you decide to take that plunge.

There's a number of us here using a YY-cube. It's about 13-inches square at the front.

I already watercool 2 of my machines , This is my HTPC which must remain in a seksi looking enclosure or the wifey wont' allow it on the entertainment rack haha.. It's not hopeless I just need a creative way to evacuate harddrive heat better than i'm doing now.. Thanks for the input just the same though..

cut some holes in the side and mount fans there...
you may be able to duct the cool air directly to the HD's as well.
it also looks like yo have room for some 40mm fans beside your curent exhast fan, above the I/O to your MB.

my 2¢ worth

Ah!! Excellent idea . I never even thought about that spot.. Lemme do some measurements..

I'd just use some sticky foam, and put a gap between that hard drive cage and the HSF.

any more pressure on the HSF and it rocks the HS off of the cpu at an angle , I tried sticky tape , fan wire etc..

Can you flip the drivecage sideways? If so, can you then hack it, for the gap?