Best GTX 970 under 10 inches of length.

[IncendiaryLemon]

My case has a GPU clearance of slightly more than ten inches. Which of the candidates listed below (and other I may not know about) will perform the best? I am looking for good cooling, build quality, and OC potential over silence and a higher base clock speed.

#1: The MSI Gaming 100me version. This card looks amazing, technically it is slightly too long, but I could probably make it fit.

#2: The Zotac GTX 970. This card looks decent, has a nice metal shroud, and would easily fit.

#3: The PNY version with the reference style of cooler. Again this could easily fit, but I know very little about it.

#4: The Gigabyte Mini-ITX version. I am not so sure about this card. I have heard that it's small size limits its cooling ability, and therefore its ability to overclock.

#5: The EVGA ZCX 2.0. I have heard bad things about evga cards. I would not get this one
unless absolutely necessary.

#6: The Asus Strix. This card looks awesome. I know I said that I care little about the base clock speed. but this one's looks a little too low for me. Please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[elneelo]

1. MSI -> best overclocker, looks amazing! (Gigabyte G1 is a better overclocker, but far too long)

2. (if MSI is too long), get the ASUS -> Extremely silent, very high build qaulity.

3. Zotac -> Have always had a soft spot for them 😉 Great stock clock speeds. 5 year warranty I think? (Correct me if I am wrong)

 

[mudpuppet]

Honestly I have an EVGA 970 FTW and have nothing but good things to say about it. Remember to take reviews with a grain of salt as you're more likely to hear bad reviews than good ones. My card has peaked around 70*C underload (again FTW so I haven't played with the clocking at all) and while you don't case about noise, is quiet as can be. I would say the biggest downfall of the EVGA card is I had to pay extra for the backplate, but I got mine through Amazon's Warehouse Deal (open box) so paying 300 for the card and 15 for the plate isn't bad at all.

Past my own experience, I hear great things about the gigabyte and ASUS the most for nvidia cards.

 

[sora]

I would personally just go with the ASUS Strix!

 

[maddogfargo]

I'm going to pop in another vote for EVGA. Make sure you get one with the ACX 2.0 cooler.