[Redstreblo]

well, I am not getting blue screens so much now as I am getting freezing where the audio hangs on the last note played and I have to reset the computer by holding the power button down. I am running the computer right now in a room that isn't very hot, nor is it very cool. I have both sides of the case off, and the fans are connected through the motherboard, not directly to the power supply. Like I said earlier they don't seem to change, even when I start up a game they stay at the same speeds as when I am at my desktop. Could it be that the motherboard isn't controlling the fans like it should anymore? I don't really feel like re-applying my thermal paste (it is a pain in the butt to mount this heatsink and I have already re-applied the thermal paste when I installed it).

Who says it is the processor that is overheating anyways? Could the graphics cards be insufficiently cooled? My SLI setup has them both right next to each other and there isn't much of a gap between the primary and secondary cards meaning that the card on top is trying to suck air from the PCB of the card below it. (Two GTX 560 Ti's using stock coolers (reference design)).

Should I just water cool this PC (motherboard, CPU, and graphics cards)?

[Redstreblo]

Oh, by the way, I can play Diablo 3 as much as I want, but I can only play about 3 minutes of GTA IV before it freezes on me. If anybody can think of a game I should play to see if the computer freezes suggest it, because those are the only 2 games I have played recently even though I have about 1TB worth of games on this PC! 

---just to rule out the possibility that it's a problem with GTA IV not the PC---

[LHN91]

Give it a stress test of a full-blown Prime95 test run simultaneously with windowed FurMark, and run HwMonitor to keep an eye on temps. That'll tell you right away what parts, if any, are running hotter than they should.

Edit: Run it for at least an hour, as that'll catch any glaring issues. Full stability testing is usually 12-24 hours, but in this case I doubt it'll be necessary.

[jr2]

Well, FYI, you shouldn't have to leave the sides off of your tower.  It's actually not good for it (although, if the 'hot spots' are overheating, sometimes you have to).  The reason is because you are supposed to be drawing air through the system, cooling everything in the path of the air flow.  With the sides off, the only thing getting cooled are the things that have a heatsink and fan mounted on them (items with only a heatsink still get cooled, but much less than they would with air flowing over them, and ofc items that don't have a cooling device just sit and build heat).

Say, for example, your hard disk.  Depending on your motherboard model, your northbridge could be getting hot.  (Some motherboards actually have a heatsink / heatsink + fan mounted on the northbridge).  Your memory also may be heating up.

Of course, in your circumstance, you have to keep the sides off until you get your problem fixed, I'm just saying, don't stop until you've got your system holding a good cool temperature with the sides on.