Bare cards

[BubbySoup]

Why hasn't a manufacturer thought of doing this?

We can buy cards with all kinds of custom coolers on, and some manufacturers will even sell you a card with a water block pre-fitted, so why won't they sell us bare cards?

Anyone who has fitted a custom air cooler or water block to a GPU will know it is only marginally more complicated than fitting a custom CPU cooler. In fact, with some of the reviews I have seen for certain CPU coolers and their retention mechanisms, fitting a GPU water block is actually more straight forward.

I understand there could be all sorts of warranty issues, but surely the same issues someone has fitting a cooler to a GPU would also apply if they were fitting a CPU cooler (other than the retail one) and people seem to get on just fine with those without breaking anything or gouging out great holes in their motherboards.

Maybe it's because I haven't used a GPU air cooler since 2005 and I just resent paying for them all the time

 

[BubbySoup]

hm...not sure how you would post them? lots of caps can easily be bent etc..myabe senf them with a solid plastic cover that just slides off? ;p

Motherboards post out just fine. They are both just PCB's, just of a different shape and size.

 

[BubbySoup]

Ultimately they do not do this because -

1. It doesn't fit right will be your most common problem.

2. RMA support will be huge due to damage to the card from users trying to fit coolers.

It's a support nightmare and support is expensive.

I think you are right but I think a lot is misconception. Water blocks will always fit to a reference design and there would be no reason not to make a reference design as they are only needed for exotic air coolers.

As for fitting, see my previous point. A lot of CPU air coolers are more difficult to fit than screwing a water block to a card with a lot more room for damaging the motherboard and/or components surrounding the CPU socket.