Cooling tips?

I was hoping someone may be able to give me some tips on getting my CPU temperatures down, or give me some comparative information if they have a similar configuration. My temperatures seemed high a few weeks ago so I bought a new case, new fans, etc. but they don't seem to help much. Here are my system specs:

AMD Athlon Thunderbird-C 1.333GHz CPU (running at 10x133MHz; AXIA Y stepping)
ASUS A7V133 (BIOS 1005)
Lian-Li PC-60 Aluminum Case
PC Power and Cooling Silencer 400W ATX Power Supply
3 x Sunon KD1208PTB1-6 80mm Fans (replaced stock Lian-Li fans, 2 are front intakes, 1 is rear exhaust)
Taisol CGK760092 Heat Sink (lapped to a mirror finish)
YS Tech FD1260257B-2A 60mm Fan (replaced stock Taisol fan)
Artic Silver II Thermal Compound (followed the directions at www.arcticsilver.com for installation)
Hercules Prophet II Ultra (GeForce2 Ultra)
Toshiba SDM-1402 DVD-ROM
Plextor PlexWriter 12x10x32 CD-RW
IBM 75GXP 75GB Hard Drive

After running 3DMark 2000 continuously for 30+ minutes my CPU temperature is reported on average as 57C, and my motherboard temperature is reported on average as 31C. These measurements were taken using Hmonitor (www.hmonitor.com), and correspond to what is reported in the BIOS if I reboot and check the temperatures. I measured the temperature a few inches in front of the intake fans to be on average 26C.

As for any potential air flow blockages, I have removed the bottom drive cage from the Lian-Li case for the time being. I have flat cables right now that I am considering replacing with round cables, but they are tucked away and I doubt they affect air flow much since they really aren't in the path between the intake fans and exhaust fan.

If I can get my temperatures down some, I am hoping I can run my CPU ~1500MHz. I have done some experimentation and it seems quite stable at 1466MHz (11x133Mhz), but starts to become unstable around 1500MHz (11.5x133MHz, or 10x150MHz). On the other hand, I don't want my computer to be super loud just to squeeze out a few extra MHz.

Any help or information is appreciated. Thanks!

RWilco

I'm sure bigger case fans would help - though that would probably mean cutting holes in your nice Lian Li case, and I doubt I'd have the balls to do that :-D

Larger (120mm) fans would move a lot more air at similar noise levels though, which I'm sure would lower temps - it sounds as though your Taisol just isn't getting the cool air it needs. Although the air coming in may be at 26C, it's the air in front of the Taisol's fan that matters, and this could be a lot hotter if you're not replacing it with cool air quickly enough.

One thing to check would be that the hsf is sitting level on the core - I'd expect you've already made sure that it's flat on the die as you've clearly taken a lot of care over everything, but it's still worth looking at.

As for my heatsink making good contact with the CPU, when I am getting temperatures in the upper 50s, my heatsink feels pretty warm so I am thinking it is pulling the heat off of the CPU, but it can't cool down maybe due to insufficent air flow in my case. <shrug>

RWilco