A. Air Flow
1. t would seem that you have more air going in than out via those fans; this creates negative pressure inside the case.
2. When negative pressure occurs, it must be balanced so air will be drawn in from case opening, the largest of which providing the most likely path, in your case those vented slot covers.
3. You have your GFX card and heat sink exiting the back of the case which is usually backed up within a few inches of a wall.
4. So in a negative pressure situation, you have the hot exhaust from that 650 watt PSU, GFX Card and CPU all be sent behind your case and likely recycled back inside your case.
5. The way around this is to have more fan air blowing in than out. With filters, a good rule of thumb is 3 intakes (of same size) for every 2 exhaust. It gets harder to estimate with different size fans as if you get 50% of the flow and SP it says on the specs and the box you are lucky. Good reading here:
This is just a quick graphing demonstration of why fan box specs using static pressure and max air flow are generally poor tools in comparing fan performance. Very much like pumps, fans have a pre…
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6. You can test for this condition with a can of liquid smoke available at your local hardware store. Direct the spray at you slot covers... if it goes in, it's taking all of that heat with it.
B. Cooler
1. There aren't many reviews on you cooler so hard to make a judgement there.
2. TIM application is a significant variable, Two point hold down methods do work different than 4 points, toy need to make sure you are applying the correct hold down force of about 70 pounds. With a 4 point installation that's about 17 pounds of pressure being applied per hold down screw; with two hold down points, that needs to be 35.
3. There is no "best" application method ... there are bests for different types of heat sinks. Good instructions "Do's and Don'ts" here
C. Test Method
1. When you test with benchmarks or "stress tests", recognize that you are presenting a load that your PC is never likely to see again. While it may be soothing to know that you are "bulletproof", do you walk around every day with a bullettproof vest. If you use such to set a stable OC, it will mean the the OC you set will be lower than it otherwise would be using normal applications.
2. If you use an application based benchmark such as RoG Real Bench, your temps will be 7- 10C lower.
3. I should also note that we have had instances of 24 hour stable P95 OCs fail in a multitasking benchmark like RoG Real Bench
4. In short, if you pass the 2 hour test under RB, you can be pretty sure that you have stable settings and you will have much lower operating temps.