Enough room for a mid/high end video card ??? (1 Viewer)

[Dave Moritz]

Is there anyone here that owns a Antec midtower case and has put in a high end video card aprox 11" - 11.5" in there case?

I have a Antec ATX-635 Mid Tower and I am looking to purchase a BFG Tech GeForce GTX 285 PCI-E video card. I would like to get a new full tower case but I really do not want to spend that much more on my pc than I allready have and have planned. I still need to get another pair of DDR3 (2 X 2GB) memory, 1.5TB SATA hard drive, one GTX 285 pci-e video card with 1GB of ddr3 memory onboard. I do not want to go beyond that as I really want to get back to my a/v system and upgrading my reciever. Unfortunantly my old power supply died and I ended up with alot of collateral damage on my old pc. So I ended up basically building a new pc.

MSI NF750-G55 Motherboard w Nvidia Chipset
4GB DDR3 Memory (2 X 2GB)
AMD Phenom X2 550 Black Edition 3.1GHz CPU
Seagate 400GB SATA Hard Drive
Plextor PX-716A DVD/CD Burner
Antec 650 Watt Power Supply
Samsung P2350 23" LCD 16:9 1080p Display
Polk Audio 2.1 PC Speakers

Have heard about the ATI Radeon HD 5870 but have heard mixed reviews on it and something about it not supporting certain nvidia games? ATI has had alot of bad drivers in the past and I swear that I keep hearing that the drivers still could be better!


Here is the actual card I am looking to buy in July:
BFG Tech BFGEGTX2851024OCFUBE GeForce GTX 285 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

 

[Parker Clack]

I don't have that particular case but it looks to me like you would have plenty of room for it.

 

[Dave Moritz]

This case is so boarder line with a new high end card fitting. The card I am looking at is around 11 1/2" and may not have enough room if it has the power plugs on the end of the card facing the hard drives. The hard drive cage is missing from the above photograph and once there is a single video card in this case there will not be much room in the case. Forget about how little room there will be if I try to squeze dual cards in this case, ROFL. I think it is time to seriously save up for a full tower, 1200watt ps and a GTX-285 1gb PCI-E video card. I wish that I didn't have to do this because the money would come in handy to get a new receiver or subwoofer for my HT system. Am also looking into a way to move programs from my direct tv hd-dvr to my pc so I can watch programing on my pc if I want to.

COOLER MASTER HAF 932 AMD Limited Edition AM-932-RWN1-GP Red Steel / Plastic / Mesh bezel ATX Full Tower Computer Case. This will have enough room not only to install dual video cards, but to install alot more hard drive space and actually be able to work on the pc when I need to do so.

If I was to go dual ATI cards then I would upgrade to possibly an Asus AMD motherboard and upgrade the AMD 3.1GHz Dual Core to a AMD Quad Core! Or just wait a year and maybe just or with a Intel board and a new 6 core cpu? Most likely will just go with the NVidia card and see how it runs and seriously consider if I want to buy a second card. There is just to much to do with my home theater and life is just way to short to wait much longer.




PC Parts purchase plan:
Cooler Master Full Tower
1200 Watt Power Supply
G Skill DDR3 - 4GB more memory to run PC in dual channel mode! Total of 8 GB of DDR3 Memory

Currently checking out a BFG Tech PCI-E GTX-285 video card with 1gb of DDR3 memory
Concidering: XFX HD-585A-ZNBC Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) 1GB Black Edition 256-bit GDDR5

But heck the second card is an ATI and I honestly am not sure I want to go that route? And besides if I want to go dual cards I would have to use the NVidia card because the chipset on the motherboard will only support dual NVidia cards in SLI mode. If I wanted to go dual ATI I would have to buy a new motherboard and I am not sure I want to do that. I have been putting off my A/V system to long and being able to save money is not allways been easy.

 

[Parker Clack]

It sounds to me like the full tower is going to be your way to go with the video card(s) you are wanting to use. I know how you feel when you have more than one thing you want to
get done and how you have to sacrifice one thing for another. That Cooler Master case looks great.

 

[Dave Moritz]

Thanks Parker,

Not only did I like the looks of the case with the side graphics but there was plenty of room for hard drives and dual video cards and plenty of air circulation.

Not to long ago I got moved to a diferent department and more hours, so I figured I could funnel a little money into my pc and my a/v system. Well today without warning I got moved back to my previous department and I get my hours cut. I am now going to take a few days and decide if I am going to get the case since it has the looks I like and the room I want. I may just put off eveything for the PC until hours pick up as the money really isn't going to be there now, this sucks!

Just when I thought I would be able to finish off my pc this year with no problems, bam! What else?

 

[Dave Moritz]

A few months ago I ended up getting a Diamond ATI Radeon HD 5700 with 1gig of DDR5 and direct x 11 ready. Maybe in the near future I will be able to get a nicer Nvidia card and run two of them! While this ATI card has been very decent I still am not big on ATI and feel I have had some problems that this cards drivers has caused. I can not actually prove it but I have had some glitches that have not happened with Nvidia cards before.


I will post a picture later on once I get the wirering in my case cleaned up.

 

[Dave Moritz]

This is just an update on the addition of a Diamond HD-5770 ATI video card that I have been living with for a few months now. While it does a good job and it is a huge upgrade over the onboard video that is on my MSI motherboard. The newest game I am running on my pc is GTA4, I am hoping to get a newer game that will really test the short comings of this card! But back to the current video card, GTA4 video settings are a little higher than the middle settings. Anyway the next card will be a Nvidia based card especially since the motherboard has an Nvidia chipset and that will allow me to run dual Nvidia only!