GPU How big is too big?

[Kmpkt]

I'm just curious what people feel is the optimal max GPU length that a small form factor case should be able to accept in order to have broader market appeal. Same goes with height. At first I'd been thinking that 10.5" (266.7mm) x 4.376" (111.15mm) might be enough, but it looks like so many manufacturers are going well above and beyond these measurements that I am wondering where to draw a line? I know the Dan A4 SFX can handle a card up to 295mm while the Zaber can do up to 305mm? I guess I'm just having difficulty deciding where the cutoff should be. @dondan , @ZombiPL , why did you guys decide on your respective cutoffs?

 

[Sicaris]

I know I'm not a case designer but my personal feeling is that the other features should dictate that. For example, using an SFX PSU in front of the motherboard means you have a lot of space. Otherwise you could end up with a lot of wasted space just to be able to fit a full sized GPU.

 

[CC Ricers]

Dondan extended the size of his case when he shifted away from using only blower cards for his initial prototype, and switched the placement around to have the fans facing outward, thus allowing it to support open-air cooler designs. It also worked out for him because it gave the case room to add a SFX PSU instead of the HD-PLEX solution he originally had.

 

[JosephEK]

I personally like blower style GPU coolers so I'd say anything longer than reference cards.

 

[cmyk78]

I think max supported height should be the height of the Gigabyte 1070 mini and the max length should be the length of the Zotac 1080 mini.

 

[Ceros_X]

I think max supported height should be the height of the Gigabyte 1070 mini and the max length should be the length of the Zotac 1080 mini.

Seems like a good answer to me

 

[ZombiPL]

I'm just curious what people feel is the optimal max GPU length that a small form factor case should be able to accept in order to have broader market appeal. Same goes with height. At first I'd been thinking that 10.5" (266.7mm) x 4.376" (111.15mm) might be enough, but it looks like so many manufacturers are going well above and beyond these measurements that I am wondering where to draw a line? I know the Dan A4 SFX can handle a card up to 295mm while the Zaber can do up to 305mm? I guess I'm just having difficulty deciding where the cutoff should be. @dondan , @ZombiPL , why did you guys decide on your respective cutoffs?

Non-reference GPU cards are usually more power hungry and you would get overheatting + throttling in such small case like ours.

I think everyone here are asking wrong questions. The main question should be: Why should i get this bigger GPU card which isn't even made according to the PCI-E standard specification?

Manufacturers are making non-reference, bigger graphic cards because they need a place for more electronics like better, bigger coils and capacitors, to give you better clock speeds. As a result you will get something like ~10% of improvement in performance for a bigger power consumption, which equals bigger heat. Adding 1 or 2 cm more to our pc-case to fit those bigger cards wouldn't help in dissipating this additional amount of higher temperature. That is why we decided we will stay with the PCI-E standard. We prefere to make a clear and honest statement about how high TDP is our pc-case designed for, than saying "we will fit everything" and after selling our product explains everyone why their GPUs or CPUs are overheating. You can make many "tricks" to get better performance, but you won't fool the laws of physics.

 

[Kmpkt]

Fair enough. I've kind of settled on 280mm x 140mm as the bounding box for the card and PCIe riser plus any other mounting. It basically selects out three fan OC monsters while comfortably allowing reference cards.

 

[dondan]

Short answer: The A4-SFX has a high price level and only enthusiast that are using high end GPUs are willing to spend so much money on a expansive case. Currently supporting as many high-end GPU as possible is one of the key features for a successful project.