ATX motherboard incompatability with ATX case

[Karl Zhao]

Hi everyone,
I've had my eye on the Asrock Z77 WS motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157336&Tpk=Asrock%20Z77%20WS&IsVirtualParent=1) , because it's a Z77 board that seems to have a PLX chip and is ATX instead of E-ATX. In the description, it says that the motherboard allows x8/x8/x8/x8. What confuses me about this is that the board should have 7 PCI/PCIe slots, in which case installing 4 double-wide graphics cards would bring the total of needed expansion slots on the case to 8. However, I've only found a few mid-tower cases with 8 slots, and all of them are out of my price range. My question is, will this motherboard be incompatible with cases that only have 7 slots, despite them both being the ATX form factor? And if it is incompatible, where would the conflict be?

As a secondary question, is there any Z77 CPU that won't be a bottleneck for 4 GTX 670s or GTX 680s? I'm planning to build gradually, adding better components every few months, and since I'm starting off with Z77, I don't really want to completely switch out the motherboard for an X79 board and CPU if I do get 3 or 4 cards. If you have a better solution for someone who can only save up 500 dollars every 6 months, I would be happy to hear it

BTW, this is somewhat hypothetical, as most likely, I'll wait until Z87 and GTX 700. However, if this problem arises again in an Z87 board, I want to know what to do.

 

[Rammy]

Quite a lot of questions, with quite a lot of slightly awkward answers.

If you want to put 4 dual slot graphics cards into that motherboard, yes, you will need a case with 8+expansion slots. It's nothing to do with form factor really. An ATX board spec covers those 7 slots, dual slot cards are a relatively modern creation. The motherboard will be perfectly compatible with the case(s) in question, but you will not be able to fit 4 cards in.
The biggest issue raised is why you would want to. Four graphics cards is an incredibly extreme (and problematic) solution to a problem. It's going to mean a lot of heat that has to be dissipated, and doing it in a case with limited space seems foolish. Also, if you have the money for that kind of setup, you no doubt have plenty of money to spend on a suitable (and likely sizeable) case.
An alternate solution would be to go with two GTX690 or GTX Titan cards. This is likely to be a much more practical solution, offering similar (and perhaps better) performance while using less slots and less power.

Thing is, very little needs that kind of power, it's just a waste of money unless you are trying to play some very intensive games on a lot of monitors.

As for bottlenecking, it's not really a question anyone can answer, too many variables without any specific info. There aren't many games out there that are held back by a modern CPU, and PCI3.0 bandwidth is pretty huge, but given how much graphics power you are talking about, it's more likely you'll hit a CPU block than a GPU one.

 

[Karl Zhao]

Quite a lot of questions, with quite a lot of slightly awkward answers.

If you want to put 4 dual slot graphics cards into that motherboard, yes, you will need a case with 8+expansion slots. It's nothing to do with form factor really. An ATX board spec covers those 7 slots, dual slot cards are a relatively modern creation. The motherboard will be perfectly compatible with the case(s) in question, but you will not be able to fit 4 cards in.
The biggest issue raised is why you would want to. Four graphics cards is an incredibly extreme (and problematic) solution to a problem. It's going to mean a lot of heat that has to be dissipated, and doing it in a case with limited space seems foolish. Also, if you have the money for that kind of setup, you no doubt have plenty of money to spend on a suitable (and likely sizeable) case.
An alternate solution would be to go with two GTX690 or GTX Titan cards. This is likely to be a much more practical solution, offering similar (and perhaps better) performance while using less slots and less power.

Thing is, very little needs that kind of power, it's just a waste of money unless you are trying to play some very intensive games on a lot of monitors.

As for bottlenecking, it's not really a question anyone can answer, too many variables without any specific info. There aren't many games out there that are held back by a modern CPU, and PCI3.0 bandwidth is pretty huge, but given how much graphics power you are talking about, it's more likely you'll hit a CPU block than a GPU one.

For why I want to do that, several reasons.
1. I do a lot of rendering and editing, and also CAD. While I could get a Quadro/FirePro card, I do want to be able to game on it.
2. I have 3 2560x1440 monitors from a friend, and I would like to run 3D Surround on them.
3. I like max settings. 😛

I do realize that 4 cards is a problematic solution, and I would go with 2 Titans or GTX 690s (Or their Kepler Refresh/Maxwell equivalents) if I could. However, as I said, I can only save up 500 every 6 months, and I don't have the patience to save for a year for a 1000 dollar graphics card. I could just get a 680, then sell it 6 months later, but I feel like I'll lose money from selling it. I'm just hoping that the GTX 780 will actually have 2496 CUDA cores, so then maybe I could just use 2 780s.
Also, the reason I want to go with a mid-tower case is because since my desk is occupied with those 3 monitors, the only place where I can put a computer is the cabinet under my desk, which can only fit a mid-tower case.

For bottlenecking, how much do you think a i7-3770K would bottleneck quad 680s? I'm fine with the CPU limiting a small amount of the performance, but I want to make sure that the GPU is not performing to half of its potential in CPU-intensive games because the i7 is too slow.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I believe the Level 10 GT has 8 slots, 900D has 9

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/2661/nvidia-geforce-gtx-680-quad-sli-reviewed

 

[Karl Zhao]

I believe the Level 10 GT has 8 slots, 900D has 9

http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/2661/nvidia-geforce-gtx-680-quad-sli-reviewed

Those are both full tower cases, I need a mid tower so it will fit in my desk.