PC Overheating

[Snowreap]

it's possible that your hardware is now permanently damaged as a result of previous overheating. but the damage may only result in a reduced tolerance for high temperatures, which you can work around by making sure that your PC stays extra-cool from now on.

from the picture of your case, it looks like your front fan should blow air into the case. make sure that it's doing so. normally all rear fans should blow air out of the case (this includes the fan in your power supply).

your CPU fan should either blow air directly towards the CPU from the left (door) side of the case toward the right (motherboard) side when viewed from the front (in which case it will suck air in through the plastic port on the side panel), or it should blow air across the CPU heatsink fins from the front of the case toward the back (in which case the plastic port doesn't do all that much).

the lower vent on the side panel is positioned to allow extra cool air to flow onto your graphics card, if the front fan isn't able to supply enough airflow. if the front fan isn't doing enough, you can install another input fan in some of your drive bays. I'm using a SilverStone CFP51 in my Antec P160 case purely for additional airflow over what the chassis-mounted front fan can provide. I have no drives mounted in the CFP51 at all (btw, the one I have is the brushed aluminum -S model rather than the easier-to-find black -B model to match the rest of the case.

-ken