Funny story

I restarted my SMP client since it's been cool in the midwest lately and let my computer run all night. When I woke up my room was pretty warm and I burnt myself by touching my computer case for a couple of seconds. The side of my leg was bright red for a couple of hours! Basically the air inside of my case was warm enough to increase the temperature of my steel case enough to burn me (it was uniformly warm everywhere on the case, including the HDD bay).

Just wanted to share that inadequate cooling is not only harmful to your components, but also your health.

i never thought that was even possible, you might want to look into more exhaust fans.

I have a 250mm fan in the side of the case, but my HSF doesn't leave room for a rear exhaust, so I've just let my PSU fan do the exhausting. I'm not sure what's changed since I last ran SMP a few months ago, but I'm definitely going to have to figure out what or throw more fans at it.

Right now I have the side of the case propped open and I'm blowing a box fan into it. I have to take advantage of these low temperatures while I can!

when i did roaming IT work, I was at a client site and they had the computer in a desk with zippy ventilation i couldn't touch the computer for about 15 minutes to get it out of the coffin they had it in! and they wondered why it was running so slow and flaky.

I think this is much more serious. The amount of heat necessary to heat up an entire case like that is quite large - which means *something* is seriously hot in there, and I'd bet $$$, running too hot.

I would expect a premature system failure. Electronics just fail faster if exposed to more heat than they are designed for. Something that would cause a case to burn your leg, falls right into that category, imo.

Did you find out what your system temps were, btw?

sounds to me like a serious short, like an element on ur stove kinda short

well, if its enclosed it makes sense, its a domino effect hot stuff getting cooled with hot air only gets hotter, but if its open turn it off.... take it apart and see what is glowing red on the inside...

That is just scary hot IMO. If I were in your shoes, I would make it a point to investigate what is causing that kind of heat to be coming off your case. As far as your HSF getting in the way of the exhaust fan, have you tried mounting the exhaust on the outside of the rear of the case? I would most likely be looking to find out of something needs to be reseated or if a fan has stopped working. Also, make sure you have adequate airflow in your case, as that does have a lot to do with the temps of everything inside the case.

Wow, thats pretty hot. I'd say if you like the computer to continue working... a whole lot cooler would be a good idea.