Here's my piece on Cooling;
In addition to buying quality components, cooling is also essential in keeping your machine running smoothly. The hotter a component gets, the more electricity it will use, the more inefficient it will do its job. Additionally, properly cooling components will expand their lifetime considerably. I?ve built quite a few systems for people, including gaming systems, and my personal view is that if it isn?t acting like an air-conditioning unit, it?s not properly cooled. Although that?s perhaps a tad extreme, especially for the budget systems, you can always decide not to (over)cool certain components.
Case fans
Case fans come in many shapes and sizes. The rule of thumb here is that bigger is better. Most quality cases already have and support additional 120mm fans. Buying silent fans should only be considered a priority when you don?t want your computer sounding like a car passing by. It?s nice to have, but not essential.
When looking to improve airflow in a case, consider buying a fan which speed can be set using a switch or other device, like the Antec Tricool fan series. A low, medium and high setting will allow you to adjust airflow in the case. Case fans mounted in the front of the case also cool your HDD. This will expand its lifetime considerably. When mounting a few extra fans in your system though, be sure to buy a case which has removable dust filters, like the Antec three hundred. They will help keep the inside clean.
CPU Fans
A CPU fan should always be considered. Although a boxed cooler will do its job, they are often noisy, and will sometimes allow CPU temperatures up to 70 or 80 degrees Celsius on high end CPU models. Needless to say, this will have an impact on their performance and effective lifespan. Temperatures like these may even cause MoBo?s to deform or downright crack over time.
When looking for a CPU fan, you will come across many, many different types. Some cheap, others expensive, the choice might seem obvious. However, many cheaper but quality coolers will give you excellent cooling performance. In general, look for coolers with fans, a big total surface area and a smooth copper base, with as little grooves in it as possible.
Below are my personal recommendations which I have had experience with, and which are excellent CPU coolers. You may follow them or not, these are just there because I didn?t see them included in the original OP;
For dual core CPU?s, the Arctic Freezer 7 or 64 Pro is an excellent choice. It?s cheap, reliable, silent and can even be used to cool overclocked 3Ghz dual cores . The 7 version is for the 775 socket motherboards (intel), whilst the 64 version cools the AM2/AM2+ CPU?s (amd).
For quad core CPU?s, the Scythe Mugen 2 is an excellent choice. Cheap, silent, a truly quality build and excellent cooling properties, this cooler fits on both intel and amd boards. It however has the drawback that it needs a backplate installed. If you don?t feel like going through the hassle of doing this, the Arctic Cooling Freezer Extreme is also a excellent and affordable choice. Be warned though that it is truly enormous and may physically interfere with large MoBo northbridge chipset heat sinks, as well as some passively cooled memory types.
Horticulture also recommends Xigmatek's SDT-1283 (enormous) and Sunbeam's CCF (also enormous) which I reckon are equally good coolers, but have no personal experience with.
Memory
Memory is essential in your system. Being a critical component having it cooled, even passively, will greatly improve performance and stability of your system. Look for memory with a simple heat sink on it, excellent examples of this being Kingston HyperX or Corsair XMS2 memory for most uses. Often these types are just a bit more expensive than its ?naked? counterpart, but it?s well worth the money.
Simple heatsinks like this will most likely not interfere with most CPU coolers, and if you would have the CPU cooler have its intake facing the memory, the memory would be cooled even more because of the airflow generated by the fan on the CPU cooler. As a bonus, the heat sinks won?t allow massive dust buildup on the chips.
You could also go for more extreme cooled memory like the Corsair Dominator or OCZ Reaper series, but shouldn?t really do this unless you are seriously considering overclocking.
Graphics Card
Graphics cards sometimes come with terrific coolers, sometimes with truly horrific ones. The Sapphire 4870 512mb is a good example of this. The 1st version of the cooler (the red version) was noisy and didn?t do its job properly. The second version (blue version, fan replaced & moved) was a great improvement. Always extensively search for reviews online for which cards and which versions do and do not cool properly. Also be sure to order the version you want!
You could also go and buy a custom cooler for your graphics card if it?s performance is lacking. Zalman is the leading brand in this, and for good reason. They provide excellent, albeit expensive, cooling solutions for graphics cards. You could also consider buying heat sinks and placing them on the memory chips of the card, which will increase performance.
Airflow
A computer with excellent (cooling)components should perform well. But what if the airflow keeps getting interrupted, or you get positive or negative pressure in the case? This can slow down fans and make your computer less efficient. Determining airflow can really only be determined based on someone?s case type, and configuration. In other words, on a case by case basis.
You could also just try it yourself. Just experiment with different speed configurations until you get a good and stable ambient temperature inside the computer case (50 degrees Celsius is considered normal) with as little fan noise as possible.
You could also buy a fan controller, which in most cases will do this for you. I cannot give you any recommendations as I have never used one, so try to find some reviews on one if you need to.
Antec Three Hundred advice
The threehundred already has two excellent fans, a 120mm in the back and a 140mm in the top. Although they will keep your case nice and cool by pulling out hot air, I found they also tend to draw air primarily from the hole in the left side of the case, denying the HDD proper cooling which will cut its lifespan. Purchase atleast a single, but preferably two (silent) 120mm fans for the front of the case.
