Thanks for the case pics, that gives me a better idea of what you're dealing with. I've got one more question for you: How much do you care about noise?
Either way, I'll throw in my $0.02, the only thing that'd change based on your answer is what fans I'd recommend.
Given that you don't want to replace the case right now, there's a lot that can be done with this thing without spending a lot of money. I mean, you could just pop the side of the case off and direct a box fan into it. Seriously. Cheap, fast, easy, works great. Just a bit ugly.
Barring that, here's what I'd do:
- The fan grill on the back of the case is an awful design. Cut it off. Just follow the edge of the raised, stamped area and cut the whole blasted thing out. It's going to cost you a ton of airflow when you install a fan there.
- Install a 120mm fan in the back of the case as an exhaust. If it won't clear the CPU fan, move the CPU fan to the other side of the heatsink, and have it blow through the heatsink toward the back of the case (I hope it's blowing toward the back of the case now...)
- Install two 120mm fans in the side panel; one about parallel with, but at least 40mm to the right of, the right side of the CPU heatsink (or at least 25mm, if 40mm is too much to leave clearance on the other side for the 5.25" bays), and the other directly below the first, so the top of the fan is roughly parallel with the top of the video card. I think the window is big enough to support that. If not, go to 90/92mm fans. Install them as intake fans.
- Direct some airflow across the video card by either removing the 2 slot covers directly below it, drilling holes in them and reinstalling them, or replacing them with some of the vented covers that are available.
- Clean up that wiring. Ziptie the excess and stuff it in an empty 5.25" bay.
As far as the fans themselves go, I'm assuming that you don't want to drop $15-20/fan for really nice fans, and I'm also assuming that you don't want to deal with something like
this, which is a very high quality fan that's worth a lot more than they want for it, but you'd need to wire it yourself because it comes without a connector.
If both of those assumptions are correct, I'd pick up something by Yate Loon;
these,
these, or
these, depending on how much noise you're willing to put up with and how much airflow you want. They're cheap sleeve bearing fans; they're not even close to the quality of the Japan Servo fan I linked earlier. But for what you pay for them, they're better than most (perhaps all) of the alternatives and they're good enough.
Either way, you'll need 3 fans; 2 for the side of the case, 1 for the back.
