Dear Linus tech tips community
This is my first time posting to your forums. I love your videos and view them frequently on Vessel and Youtube. I am posting this because my two 7970s are overheating while at idle. As a write this, with only Google Chrome running, the top 7970 sits at 50 degrees Celsius and the bottom one is at 43. The bottom one I can almost live with, but the top one is just too hot for an idle temperature. I have tried reapplying thermal compound to both cards several times without a drop in temperature. My Computer case should be able to handle cooling these cards adequately, for it is a NZXT Phantom 820 (pictures attached).
My Complete system specs are
MSI Z-97 Gaming 5 Motherboard
2x Sapphire 7970s Ghz Edition
Inel Cor i7 4790k
Corsair H100i V2 liquid cpu cooler (push)
AX1200i PSU
Corsair Neutron GTX Series SSD
1 WD Black 1TB and 1 WD Blue 1TB
Also while I'm here my computer is a little too loud for my preference. What methods can I use to optimize my PC for silence without sacrificing cooling performance?