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

[HeX]

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....

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?

 

[HeX]

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

 

[HeX]

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?

 

[HeX]

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 :|

 

[HeX]

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.

 

[HeX]

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

 

[HeX]

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.