I'm so over upgrading.

After the flush of excitment from buying new gear comes the gring of fitting it all in, what a chore. Getting too old for this lol.

To make matter worse I've discovered my new cpu cooler is too large to allow me to retain the side panel fans on the case and the new TV tuner card is poorly supported inside due to design. Sheesh.

But at least my performance score has gone from 3.4 to 5.9

Now you know why it pays to do your homework thoroughly first, prior to buying new hardware. A lot of users buy a computer case based on the "bling" factor and not the practicality factor.

Regarding the CPU cooler, did you read the reviews for it? Was it stated that it was bigger than most?

Seems like you're having a lot of issues lately. I recommend some R&R.

Not a new case Nibs, I'm keeping my Thermaltake case.
I knew the CPU cooler was 'large' but I asked before purchasing if it would fit my case. They told me it would and it does, just not if I try to retain the side panel fans. They just touch on the CPU fins. It's very high.

Are the side panel fans necessary? I know my tower can hold them but I opted to go without and have no cooling issues as the case still has the two front, one back and large top of case fan (as well as the CPU fan & Vid Card Fan)

I can only assume that by the posts that I read about those who build their own PC, a large, well designed case, with properly placed fans, would be a great starting point. That would allow for plenty of future expansion, and for a cooler case.

I have many bookmarked pages on these type of things, and will consider them all, when that time comes.

Cat

It probably wont effect the cooling too much as I have one top fan, two front and two rear, plus the CPU fan of course.
The only problem is that my case has really good dust filters and the fans hold the filters in, so by not retaining the side panel fans the side vents are now unfiltered.

Cases more modern then mine Cat are even better, instead of the 7 80mm fans (1top, 2 front, 2 rear, 2 side) they use one much larger fan at the rear, top and front (with variations on the theme between brands).
The single larger fans shift way more air volume and are quieter as they don't need to spin so fast to shift the air.

Unless you go really exotic, where you can pay over $400 for the case alone you can get really good full tower cases for under the $200 mark.
Probably even less for you over there.
Look for things like easy side panel removal and quick release/easy access to the HDD's. Also dust filters that can be removed and cleaned.

Dust filters would be a very useful item to have. Caked on dust is a major cause of heat, and takes years of life out of good hardware. I suppose that it retains a lot of heat, not to mention that once it begins to buildup, it begins to pack in there. If there's a smoker in the home, the nicotine adds to it, making it sticky.

Computers are no different than other electronics, they are a magnet for dust. Those filters can add years to the life of the computer.

Cat

My Thermaltake case, which has gone through several evolutions of PC inside it, remains remarkably clean. In fact the only time I really bother to get into it is when everything comes out like last week with the new hardware. Even then a very easy clean up job.
Another reason why I might ditch this large CPU cooler and go back to a smaller one so I can re-fit the fans/filters on the side panel of the case.

If my desktop weren't under warranty, I'd do as Nibs suggested, putting the guts (parts) into a mid sized tower. That would not only help with the cooling, but it would allow me to keep it cleaner on the inside.

This all-in-one, can't be taken apart as much as I'd like for cleaning, without cracking the plastic casing. And when I say plastic, I mean recycled plastic at that. My notebook is built more solid than my desktop is. And it's loaded with expansion ports, those kind where you connect cables with screws, 3 of them, one wide, and 2 smaller ones, and a S-Video output. This desktop has none of these ports, not even a S-Video port.

But it does has a nice widescreen, looks better than my TV does. It would make a nice second monitor for my future build, if I can find a way to power it. It may take some trickery, not having a proper port, mabye it can be done. Hopefully, it'll make it through Win 7 and the next version (6 years total). A new notebook is a more pressing need at this time (mainly for folding).

Cat