vnhill bummer about your MOBO losing sound

Is it out of warranty? Why would the sound card have to be mounted in the upper slot's? I'm not sure what MOBO you have, could you update your system spec's? You could always flip those fan's around on the GFX and have them pull air through the HSF and out through the PSU

Apologize for being "nit picky" but i just like to maximize airflow/cooling efficiency

You might even get better performance from running the GFX card in the upper slot
Nice build just the same