R600 - time to buy a new case?

[ZozZoz]

The rumor is, top of the line r600 cards will be 340mm in length (a lot of that due to heatsink/fan sticking out beyond the PCB).

That's not compliant to ATX standards for cards which currently stand at "12,25 inches, while being around 13,38.
I know that those of us, ready to shell out about 1k for the best card will have no problem buying a bigger case, or removing the HDD tray and moving them to 5,25 slots, but still... If things continue going this way, your armors and xasers won't suffice in a year or two [/b]

 

[slicessoul]

Well you were clearly say "The rumor is..."
So, where's the rush ?

Do you want to know another rumor ? OK, this is another rumor...
"The rumor is, ATI will reduced the size of R600 card into nearly the same size as 8800 series card.

But remember, i state clearly "the rumor is..."

 

[ZozZoz]

Ok, I should've said "According to VR-Zone"

http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=4529

 

[slicessoul]

Ok, I should've said "According to VR-Zone"

http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=4529

Yeah...and that would be a real good topic to speak about.

 

[Valtiel]

There's really no point in buying a case for a card that isn't out yet. Wait until the card comes out and then decide on a case. Don't base your case decision on non-facts.

 

[capnbfg]

That article says that the real card looks pretty much the same as the illustration that they had shown previously. That illustration is shown here:
http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=120679

By looking at the scale between the PCIe bus connector and the PCB length, it's pretty clear that the length figure they give refers to the overall card including the cooler. If you do the math to scale down their number and get actual PCB length, you will find that it is 21cm. This is actually shorter in length than an X1900XT, which is also shorter than an 8800GTX.

In summary, you have nothing to worry about for length, because the PCB is a very reasonable length, and you can just put an aftermarket cooler on it. Honestly, how many people are going to keep the stock cooler if it makes that card that much longer? Not so many, I would wager...