Posting this because it does not seem many have Crossfire or SLI set-ups in mATX cases, so I was wondering if I should give up my Crossfire set up and move onto maybe a GTX 980 single card (and whether I would take a significant performance hit).
Some context
I recently moved out of a Fractal Design R4 into a Corsair Carbide Air 240 (the mATX little brother of the Air 540). The reason for the move was that I wanted to hand off the R4 to my younger brother for a gaming build.
I was running an ASRock Z87 Extreme4 mobo, i7-4770k, 16GB Corsair Vengeance RAM, and two Sapphire Dual-X R9 280Xs in crossfire.
The cards sit almost right on top of one another, and though the bottom is ventilated, there's barely any clearance and the 60c idle temp scares me a little. This is a snapshot of what I'm running at currently.
The ultimate question is -- since I'm giving the R4 case, as well as the ASRock Z87 mobo to my brother, should I hand over the Crossfire set-up too, and go with a GTX970 or a GTX980, and if so, reference or a particular brand?
Apologies for the long post - hopefully someone as some expertise/advice to share!
Some context
I recently moved out of a Fractal Design R4 into a Corsair Carbide Air 240 (the mATX little brother of the Air 540). The reason for the move was that I wanted to hand off the R4 to my younger brother for a gaming build.
I was running an ASRock Z87 Extreme4 mobo, i7-4770k, 16GB Corsair Vengeance RAM, and two Sapphire Dual-X R9 280Xs in crossfire.
- H100i cooled the CPU, vented to exhaust out the top
- Rear 140mm exhaust, dual 140mm intakes up front
- Side 140mm intake to bring cold air to the Crossfired GPUs
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- CPU temp idle would sit around 26-28c, load could hit 40s
- GPU temps would idle around 35-43c, load could hit high 60s, low 70s
- H100i cools CPU, radiator is front mounted intaking air
- Two Noctua 80mm exhausting out the back
- Single 120mm exhausting out the top
- Single 120mm in opposite chamber exhausting HDD, SSD, and PSU heat
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- CPU temps idle around 30-35c
- GPU temps idle around 60-63c now! 🙁

The cards sit almost right on top of one another, and though the bottom is ventilated, there's barely any clearance and the 60c idle temp scares me a little. This is a snapshot of what I'm running at currently.

The ultimate question is -- since I'm giving the R4 case, as well as the ASRock Z87 mobo to my brother, should I hand over the Crossfire set-up too, and go with a GTX970 or a GTX980, and if so, reference or a particular brand?
Apologies for the long post - hopefully someone as some expertise/advice to share!