I set it to 59 based on really the fact that my old cars, the CRX in particular, ran warm and if I were to set it lower than that, in the summer I'd hit that in about 15 min of driving (black interior, lots of glass... bad combination. Even tinting the windows didn't help)

I tend to agree with you completely as I noticed that night it happened that the air in the compartment was horribly hot and stayed that way. But I have always configured the fan as a "puller" meaning it'd pull the heat out, but of course that air has to come from somewhere and warm air flowing over the components is better than hot air being blown in, I guess.

I just this morning pulled the noisy fan out (it rattled... bad bearing I believe) and will try my luck without a fan for a bit and monitor how things are performing. If issues continue (and it sounds like they will), I'm going to go back to the hard drive heat sink and have it controlled by a thermostat... once again pulling. But the CFM of those 2 fans is 37 between the 2 of them although that is free air and the empeg constricts the flow... but regardless... pulling even 18.5CFM over the components, even if warmer air is still MOVING air, should help with matters... these fans are just so darn loud, though... hope I don't have to go that route.