WELP
one of the (very ancient) case fans in my case gave up the ghost just now. I mean it didn't die sudenly but it DID start making a horrible racket at gone midnight when everyone is asleep (except for me because I am garbage)
So cue me pulling off the case, checking which fan is failing, realising that the fan is SO shot that the bearings are generating HEAT, so out that thing comes immediately once power is off.
and replacing it with two SMALLER fans that are WAY newer and unused.
at midnight of course. this takes some bodgejobbing. I have the right sockets on the motherboard, I have ONE correct fan mounting on the case that is unused for a 120mm fan. aaaand a BIGGER mounting for the dead fan that I want to replace. the two fans are not as powerful but are extremely quiet so i have themboth do the job of the dead fan : blowing air in.
PROBLEM: I forget to check what direction the remaining stock case fan is blowing air.
SOLUTION: use bare toebeans to check airflow
CONCLUSION: I did it right and the two new fans suck a lot of air in, the stock case fan that still works blows all that cool air out. :D cpu temp actually dropped like 10 degrees too who knew.