regarding the gtx size, look at this image. see where the top of the card is. now look at the metal part. the actual card part doesnt extend further than the metal part, so the size will be fine. looking at the rear of the case, theres at least 6 cm from the case side to the top most part of the PCI securing area, so even with a massive fan, you will be fine.

as for the 295's, all you need to worry about is looking for an SLI supported ATX motherboard. the motherboards and cases are designed around eachother so that they line up with the spaces for PCI's, and looking at the amount of spaces on the back of the case, theres enough room for two 295's, as well as your current other pci cards.

and i have no clue about ATI compatibility issues. theyre just rumors to me - i havent seen it confirmed yet.

yep. if there is no PWM, then it runs on 100%. thats fine anyway, seeing as this is a massive fan and it wont make much noise anyway.

not too sure about your motherboard, but its most likely going to fit. i dont think that series is an e-ATX, and all motherboards are m-ATX or ATX, both of which are supported. basically if your current case is of similar size, then youre set.

i think for a fan of that size, it will. i wonder if it will use two (doubt it)...

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I wonder if they actually sent me a system with the CPU heatsink full of crap...

who knows what businesses do....

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Aaaand then there's the issue of how much power it actually takes to run. I guess my 850Mhz should be enough but I know nothing about fan power usage.

you mean watts, right?

well look, if you have useless space on your hard drive mounting rack, then you might be able to use some metal cutters and remove the excess part of the rack, but that would depend on the positioning of the card and hard drive. you got pics?

would they fit? hard drives are 3.5" right? so they would have a hard time fitting, unless you have something extra to hold them in there

its definitely an improvement. still, its rather dissapointing that the fan didt make that good a difference. does opening windows help or make it worse?

what about rolling back to an older driver? sometimes that might help with issues like this.