Crossfire 6950 TFIII's + M-ATX motherboard?

[Adappy]

I've been getting tired of how excessively large my Fractal Define XL is lately. I don't move it all that often, but it's big and heavy and always seems to be in the way no matter where I put it. So I've been thinking about getting an ASUS Maximus IV Gene-Z and putting it in a Fractal Design Arc Mini. The main thing I worry about is the fact that I'm using two Twin Frozr III R6950 2GB graphics cards, and I'd be worried about the two cards being right next to each other increasing the heat too much. As it is now in my P8P67 Pro with an empty slot between the cards, the top card usually runs at around 70C... which gives me plenty of temperature headroom, but I worry about the fans having to run too much faster to keep things under control (and the TFIII gets obnoxiously loud above ~50% fan speed) The question is, how hot will a TFIII get with a second card blocking its fans' intakes?

So... just go for it and hope things don't get too hot, or just deal with the excessively large case and wait to switch to M-ATX when a single GPU graphics card that can beat Xfire 6950's comes out?

[nekrot]

This may not be what you want to hear. But you are correct, smaller case means more heat. More heat means more stress on your components. Your problem is the case size. My suggestion would be deal with it and not risk the chance of burning up your cards.

[Adappy]

It's not really the smaller case that's the issue here: it's the fact that the motherboard's PCI-e slots put the two graphics cards right next to each other. I'm not worried about the cases ability to keep things cool, I worry about the top GPU getting choked by the bottom card being right next to it. This mobo + cards could be in a HAF X and have the same problem

[DeltrusDisc]

This mobo + cards could be in a HAF X and have the same problem

Not necessarily, we have an intake fan on the side with a GPU-duct that will feed the cards lots of extra air.

[BicycleMafioso]

Not necessarily, we have an intake fan on the side with a GPU-duct that will feed the cards lots of extra air.

... which the Arc and Arc mini also have. (seeing how you will move the top-fan there, as it makes no sense in having it there to begin with.)

The duct is mostly useless for multi-card solutions, but slightly better for single.

[Drunkenvalley]

Well, if you're into blue board there's MSI Z68MA-G45 at 115 bucks, or 140 bucks for MSI Z68MA-ED55.
According to MSI's own website, they both support Crossfire and they both have a space extra between the PCIe 16x ports.

[Adappy]

Well after having to mess around with my CPU fans this morning after getting a constant stream of CPU_FAN error!'s upon booting (turns out it was the Y cable splitter I was using decided to stop reporting the RPM) I noticed that unless the topmost PCI-e slot was slightly farther away from the CPU socket... the clips that hold the fans into the NH-D14 in will hit the graphics card in the top slot (the Noctua website says it will be compatible with the Gene-Z, but on my P8P67 Pro if my Xonar DX wasn't half-height there would be a problem)... definitely makes the Corsair H80 sound pretty good right about now

I'll probably just hold off for now... wait for the 7000/600 series (if the rumors about the 7970 = a 6990 in performance turn out to be true (obviously gonna take that with a grain of salt)... I might get me one of those ) to rebuild

[BicycleMafioso]

Equal to a HD6990? No. But I think we'll see the differences like we did last time. Ie, 5870 vs 4870 and almost reaching the GTX 295 in performance.
Meaning the HD7970 will be closer to the GTX 590 than the GTX 580

[Drunkenvalley]

Well after having to mess around with my CPU fans this morning after getting a constant stream of CPU_FAN error!'s upon booting (turns out it was the Y cable splitter I was using decided to stop reporting the RPM) I noticed that unless the topmost PCI-e slot was slightly farther away from the CPU socket... the clips that hold the fans into the NH-D14 in will hit the graphics card in the top slot (the Noctua website says it will be compatible with the Gene-Z, but on my P8P67 Pro if my Xonar DX wasn't half-height there would be a problem)... definitely makes the Corsair H80 sound pretty good right about now

On the Gene-Z my NH-D14 did come very close to the GPU, which used the furthest-top-most slot, but it did not bump into it. However, this will depend on the orientation. Directing it to push air out the rear gives it just enough space.

[BicycleMafioso]

My NH-D14 does connect and bend my sound card in the most upper slot. :P