Video Card Clearance Question

Greetings Geeks.

I replaced my aged (and slowly dying) 8800GT with an Nvidia GTX 460 Superclock. It seems the beast is immense. I had to yank my network card to provide clearance. Despite removing the card directly below it, I now only have about .25" of clearance between the bottom of the card where the fan is located and the top of the sound card below it.

I don't think it is. Is the fan designed to blow air down the length of the card and out the back? Or as I suspect does is just draw air into the fan and away from the center of the fan, which is now virtually touching my sound card?

My old card was dying. It was about the same distance from the network card which I had to remove to fit my new card. Which I suspect the heat might have caused it's untimely demise.

It looks as if you Geeks tell me it is too close, which I am sure I will hear, it looks like I will be doing my total system upgrade early (some of you may have seen my previous posts regarding my current problem). Which means I will need a motherboard with plenty of space, so I will be back asking for advice on a good board.

So, what is the verdict on my new card? Answer quick - I don't want to kill the thing!

Thanks for any advice!

 

Yes it is.
You need to make sure the fan has a good draw of air to keep the card cool. If the sound card is completely over the fan area, you need to watch the GPU temps. Mid 70's to low 80's at 100% usage and fan speed would be good readings. Get up in the mid to high 90's and you need to rethink the positioning or do your upgrade.

 

It must be a pretty old motherboard for it not to have integrated Ethernet. Do you really need a network card?

Your graphics card should have come with a utilities disk which should allow you to monitor your card's temps. As lbmest suggested, graphics temps run higher than CPU temps and I agree, if hitting the upper 90s, you need to start looking at your cooling options. If your case does not support more or larger fans, then you need to be looking at another case. A new motherboard may resolve your card spacing issue, but your case still has the responsibility to provide adequate front to back air flow. And note a new motherboard may require a different CPU and RAM, which may then require a new PSU to support them. And in any event, a new motherboard is considered a new computer so you would have to buy a new Windows license too. So a new case is likely to be easier on the budget.

 

Arggh licensing fees! I understand. But my problem at hand still my mobo. I shopped motherboards, and they all seemed to be laid out the same way as far as spacing. The video card seems like it would be cramped. I can't imagine how users are using SLI configurations. I am running the EVGA monitoring software, and I plan on testing and monitoring temps. I do want to upgrade, but as I said, all motherboards seem to be laid out the same way.

 

They are spaced the same way - thanks to the ATX Form Factor standard and that's a very good thing. But not all boards have the same number of slots so a different board with more slots would allow you to space the cards out. The only restriction would be if your case is a microATX case, then you may not be able to fit a large motherboard in it.