7800GT's - SLi - Small Gap - VF900's & 8NPA-SLi...

HeX · 11 May 2006 at 11:34

Ok... I was planning to get two VF900's tommorow... but i've just read this:

"As it turns out the VF900-Cu has a marginally shorter profile (0.012) on it's fins, and slightly taller mounting hardware on the back. We could not install this card under the eVGA 7800GT that was using the FS-V7 cooler. In fact on older SLI boards with only one PCIe 1x slot between the 16x PCIe slots, you cannot use two of the VF900-Cu coolers in an SLI setup."

http://www.bcchardware.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=2475&Itemid=40&limit=1&limitstart=2

Now my mobo is this:

Thats only 1 x PCI-E slot between my 16x Slots... so will they fit or not?

God SLi is becoming a real pain in the arse...

All I want is 2 coolers that will fit, cool properly, and not interfier with each other or the PCI slot on the far left.... :cry:

Do you think I could fit 2 x Accelero X1's in there as they have really low profile nuts... or even 1 x Accelero at the bottom and 1 x VF900 at the top...

Whats going to be the best way to go?

welshtom · 11 May 2006 at 11:53

Im guessing no as that is a board with just 1 pci-e slot inbetween the x16 slots

HeX · 11 May 2006 at 12:01

No to 2 x VF900's or no to all the options I stated?

leezer3 · 11 May 2006 at 12:04

Have a look here for a good size indication: http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/vf900/index5.php
As I see it, your best bet is probably to put a VF700 on the top card & a VF900 on the bottom card. I know this means the better cooling is the 'wrong' way round, but as far as I can see it should probably fit. (Or you could just get an upside down case like the V1000!)
Anything you do though with aftermarket coolers is likely to bung up that PCI slot I'm afraid

-Leezer-

HeX · 11 May 2006 at 12:22

As it stands now I have an Arctic Cooler 5 on one card and stock cooler on the other.

The Arctic Cooler 5 card was my original card but when it came to fitting the 2nd card I found that the 2nd card pressed against the fan of the AC5.

As such I moved it to the 2nd slot only to find the fan pressed against my Audigy2...

As such i've taken the Audigy2 out for the minute until I get the coolers sorted...

Now looking at these 2 pics:

I'm thinking I might be able to squeeze 2 x Accelero X1's in there... as the only part of the AC5 that was touching the other card was the round 'bump' in the centre of the fan... the X1 looks to be a good cm shallower than that and also has really low profile screws...

What do you think?

BigDom · 11 May 2006 at 12:32

Zalman's in general, in theory, wont' fit as the mounting has two large thumbscrews on the back mounting the bracing plate that interfere with the other cards coolers fan. HOWEVER I had no problem with leaving the plate off when I ran a SLI setup. That PC's reverted to a single X850 ( from two 6600's ) though as the hassle wasn't worth it.

matt100 · 11 May 2006 at 13:17

I wouldn't say sli is to much hassle because you're struggling to find coolers. I'd say that sticking with s754 was your problem.

There are bucketloads of s939 boards with 2 pciex1 slots between the pci-e full size slots ie plenty of space for dual slot coolers.

I reckon you could quite easily sell your mobo and cpu and jump straight over to a s939 solution for very little loss and choose whatever high spec coolers you want.

Also for the record I'd go with the AC coolers because they exhaust the hot air out of the case.

HeX · 11 May 2006 at 13:25

I don't want to go 939 as the performance increase for the outlay is small to say the least.

Furthermore i'm waiting for AM2 at least before I change sockets as there really is no point going to 939 with that on the horizon.

Finally Accelero's don't exhaust air out the rear, and I can't fit AC5's in SLi on my board or there wouldnt be a problem.

In a nutshell the board and CPU arn't changing, I want 2 new coolers not a new setup.

From what I can gather the X1's should fit leaving enough space to install both cards and for my Audigy2 to go in the last PCI slot. Suppose i'll find out tomorow when I go pick em up :|

squiffy · 11 May 2006 at 13:39

Why not just replace thumb screw with a lower profile washer/nut comob? :confused:

matt100 · 11 May 2006 at 13:41

I wasn't thinking for a performance upgrade, I was just thinking for ease of sourcing parts and more mobo choice.

tbh am2 looks a bit dissapointing to me but thats another conversation altogether so I'll stop it before anyone says conroe.

Its just the layout of that mobo is very old school sli like the first asus a8ns/dfi sli-d etc. I know this is probably a daft question but are the stock coolers not good enough seeing as you're on a non upgrade path?

I've just seen plenty of people who jump through hoops to retain something almost worthless like some ram or a cpu socket when if you look at the members market sale price of the kit they already have they could probably make the jump for almost nothing.

Just thinking if you looked in the MM you could probably sell the epox and 3400 (especially now s754 are getting a bit rare) and pick up an a8n sli premium and 3200 s939 for about the same and have the choice of any dual slot cooler you like. Yeah no performance upgrade but you give yourself something more valuable.. choice.

HeX · 11 May 2006 at 13:53

Yeah AM2 doesn't look all thatatm , it was just an example with regards to the little point in going 939 imho...

The reason I have stayed with 754 so long is that 939 just didn't offer me anything worth changing for... and tbh I really don't want to go thru the hassle of changing my mobo and CPU now when i'll probably do it again at the end of the year for either AM2 or Conroe.

Yeah the layout is rather cramped like the older 939 SLi boards unfortunatly, but I don't want to change everything else just to fit a cooler, i'd rather find a cooler that fits what I have, which after reading the Arctic site and looking at the X1 Height Restriction Diagram I am nigh on positive I can fit 2 side by side in my board without hindering either card nor the final PCI slot.

I'll be checking for sure when I get home and cut out the template for the width diagram.

matt100 · 11 May 2006 at 14:09

just seen you're in Huddersfield.. can't you just stick the pc outside? that'l cool it nicely.. bbbrrrrrrrrr

(lived in longwood for the first 20 years of my life before moving to the sunny south.. you think you've got cooling problems.. pah!

)

HeX · 11 May 2006 at 14:13

matt100 said:
just seen you're in Huddersfield.. can't you just stick the pc outside? that'l cool it nicely.. bbbrrrrrrrrr

(lived in longwood for the first 20 years of my life before moving to the sunny south.. you think you've got cooling problems.. pah! )

If only! That many hills here and i'm right at the top, closer to the Sun and all that, tis toasty warm outside

pastymuncher · 12 May 2006 at 09:40

I have the same mobo as you and have a AC NV Silencer 5 (Rev. 3) on the lower card and a Zalman VF700-CU on the top card. It is a tight fit but it is easily fitted. According to Zalmans website the VF900-Cu is the same height as the VF-700CU (30mm) but it does have the same stupid mounting sytem on the back with a raised plate which would probably screw things up for the top card. The NV Silencer has a plate on the back that sits flush with the back of the card and has no springs as this plate is the actual spring. It is insulated from the card by a rubber spacer. It works well for me anyway.

I will shortly be going over to watercooling though as the Zalman and my SI-120 screw up the airflow in the case really badly. I will be using Aquaextreme MP-1 full size waterblocks on the graphics cards. They do fit and have about 6mm clearance as i have already done a dry run. I do have to modify the mounting kit for the lower card as the screws are too long.

As for the suggestion of going over to 939, Why? Why spend more money on another cpu and board when you have a perfectly good set up already. Ok we may not be getting any new cpu's but they are hardly past it. As already stated there is very little in the way of performance to be gained maybe just a better board layout. There are ways around that though as i have said. The stock coolers are rubbish. Noisy and they throw the heat against the front intake fan (if you have one down there) and cook your hard drives. Thats why we fit better coolers.

HeX · 17 May 2006 at 09:43

Sorted it in the end, got 2 x Accelero X1's and they fit perfectly.

They are very quiet (even more so than the Silencer imho) and don't suffer from poor airflow even in SLi config as the fans are above the cards, I think the top card is about 1-2C warmer than the lower card, much better than the 8-10C difference I was getting with the stock cooler.

They are dead easy to install as well, did both cards in about 15mins.

For people with 'old style' single gap SLi boards I reccomend them highly.