A8N32-SLI is there going to be any room?

Jakass202

Jakass202

Jakass202

Associate
Joined
6 Oct 2005
Posts
16
I am currently building my new pc and was wondering, before i buy, if i am going to have any space issuses!

AMD64 FX 60
ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe
TWINX2048-3500LLPRO

I have the motherboard currently waiting for fund issues with the memory and cpu and for the graphics cards ( note the plural ) i intend to get. Problem is i hear soo much about the onboard sound devices being utter pants these days and people saying its well worth getting a dedicated sound device IE the creative XFI device. The problem im having is space on the motherboard itself!

I just want query some ppl to tell me if there is enough room for either 1 7800 GTX 512 and a creative sound card or for my main plan to 2 7800 GTX 512 in sli and a creative xfi sound card?

I know they are big beefy cards is there any room for anything else?

Thanks in advance

Jake
 
Hmmmm, doesnt help really but does put things a little clearer in my head. The 7800GTX 512 has big chunky heatsink is there any pictures for that?
 
I have the exact setup your talking about(apart from the fx60)

First off, the 512gtx is not a problem in fitting in single card mode. You have plenty of clearance to fit a creative card (my XFI music fits fine in the bottom pci slot with the gtx in pci-e slot 1. Just rememebr to fir your sata cables in before the card as the huge heatsink covers sata ports 1+2.

If you plan on going SLI then it will be a tight squeeze but they still fit with the creative card at the bottom although that is all you will get. Airflow to the second card may however become a problem, especially if you plan on overclocking the card. A watercooling solution would be recommened to rid yourself of the double slot coolers which would free up more room.

The 3500ll memory works great in this board but be wary of using big coolers. I have a TT BT and can no longer use slot A1 for the memory as the heatsink would touch the tall HS of the memory. Works fine in dual mode on slots A2+B2 though.

The one MAJOR problem you are going to have is that the board is gonna be upside down. This board is a fanless design and as such is only designed to be placed in a standard way. The lan li as you say puts it in upside down which could (and probably will) affect the heat pipe configuration of the board. You could always replace the heat pipes and get soem fans but then thats defeating the object a little imo.

Hope this helps.
 
Lets just hope you dont go for watercooling on that system.Had to help my mate reset the cmos on his pc with 2x7800GTX EE xfi and watercooling.It took about a hour from strip down to reboot.Stupid place to put the cmos reset right under the top GTX.

I suppose we could have done it quicker if everything wasnt watercooled and he wasnt using a P180 Case.
 
Good to know!

w3bbo - if i had 2 7800 GTX 512 is there any space BETWEEN the two for a sound card it would go under the 2nd and above the first?

And as for water cooling no such thing will happen until i feel trustyworthy enuf that water and pcs go to gether!!!


Cheers
 
Just to prove it can be done even with 2 x 2slot 7800s. Certainly very tight but I have a TV card in there aswell - Cooling was an issue hence the Twin 60mm fans blowing directly onto the Graphic cards
2.jpg
1.jpg
 
w3bbo said:
I have the exact setup your talking about(apart from the fx60)

First off, the 512gtx is not a problem in fitting in single card mode. You have plenty of clearance to fit a creative card (my XFI music fits fine in the bottom pci slot with the gtx in pci-e slot 1. Just rememebr to fir your sata cables in before the card as the huge heatsink covers sata ports 1+2.

If you plan on going SLI then it will be a tight squeeze but they still fit with the creative card at the bottom although that is all you will get. Airflow to the second card may however become a problem, especially if you plan on overclocking the card. A watercooling solution would be recommened to rid yourself of the double slot coolers which would free up more room.

The 3500ll memory works great in this board but be wary of using big coolers. I have a TT BT and can no longer use slot A1 for the memory as the heatsink would touch the tall HS of the memory. Works fine in dual mode on slots A2+B2 though.

The one MAJOR problem you are going to have is that the board is gonna be upside down. This board is a fanless design and as such is only designed to be placed in a standard way. The lan li as you say puts it in upside down which could (and probably will) affect the heat pipe configuration of the board. You could always replace the heat pipes and get soem fans but then thats defeating the object a little imo.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

when using two 7800 512 gtx's with the a8n32-sli the only free pci slot for the x-fi is between the graphic's cards(believe me i have exactly that setup) the bottom slot becomes unuseable
remember they are both double slot coolers
 
Last edited:
If you have one 512gtx then the soundcard WILL fit in the bottom pci slot and you will have plenty of airflow for the GTX.

If you go SLI the bottom PCI slot becomes covered by the dual slot cooler of the 2nd 512GTX, sorry for the confusion. The only remaining PCI slot in sli with dual slot coolers is between the SLI setup. You can fit a pci card in there just but it is a tight squeeze and airflow would be impeded somewhat, I tried my XFI there and it does fit.

The layout of slots goes like this (although it will be the otherway around in your case!) :

PCI-E x16 (GTX)
PCI - covered by cooler
PCI - XFI
PCI-E x16 (GTX)
PCI - covered by cooler

I'll take some pics later if needs be. I'm not sure 'how' exactly the GTX cooler works as the fan is in the middle and I'm not sure where it sucks the clean air from. Seems to me, the clean air is sucked from the end of the card, through the HS past the fan and out the back. If its like this then cooling wont be too much of a problem as clean air wont be impeded in a tidy case. If however the fan draws air directly from below then obviously with a soundcard just 10mm away, airflow will be a problem (hence the watercooling suggestion). I guess if watercooling scares you then you could just place a 120mm fan over the sli setup to 'blow-out' the heat that will be built up and 'trapped' between the cards, I have an 80mm over the single card as the back of the card gets quite toasty when overclocked (610/1850).

CS|nuts : Yeah m8 I hear ya on that one. Had to do the same myself once (although a simple battery in out usually works for reseting the cmos on this board for me). The p180 is a pig of a case to work in especially with a badly designed motherboard that relies too much on a 'crash free bios'.

Maybe we should have a 'official A8n32-sli' thread as this board is becomming increasingly popular.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom