Tight fit? (Radeon R9 280X Vapor-X OC 3GB DDR5 384-bit)

[seinfeld87]

So my Gpu is comming http://

my motherboard: http:// h55m le

When i initialy thought about it , it seemed fine. My case sizewise is ok, pci relationship is ok etc.
but never did i think that the chipset heatsink would've been placed so stupidly by the "designers". It's not even the positon it's mainly the height of it's "arms".

From what i saw it will be extremely tight, or it might even push my Gpu out a bit on the end of it's slot, cos of the GPU's pipes that fall exactly where the mobo chipset heatsink is. It may be depending on 1-2mm from what i checked. The GPU is consistent in pictures, the height 4.5cm and width 12cm , it's cooling pipes aren't wider than that size , maybe narrower in some parts.

So the solution if needed, may be that i will have to take of 2mm of the mobo chipset heatsink with some "sandpaper grinder " or something. Is that a bad idea? To be honest i dont think it will affect performance since it's a solid block of copper like metal but with grey colour.

 

[timeconsumer]

You might have to worry about oxidization of the metal. The color is anodizing which is protecting the metal from becoming oxidized. Now, if it's solid copper ($$$) then it will be ugly when oxidized, but won't really affect performance much, just don't touch it with your hands and it should last longer. If it's aluminum, don't worry about it.

Another thing, be very careful when doing this not to generate any static electricity and ruin your motherboard.

 

[jafrankl]

The GPU's pipe sticks out no further than the board. Connecting them should be fine and it may touch the heatsink, but it shouldn't cause any issues. I would not modify any heat sinks as they are pretty important.

 

[smackers_12]

If you do end up cutting something do not cut the heatpipes on the card, it will wreck the heatsink. By the looks of that heatsink you might even be able to cut some of it off with snips. I doubt that it will matter if you leave the card touching it, as long as it is just the heatpipe.

The board isnt really designed with higher end graphics cards in mind, hence it does not have a large amount of clearance around the pcie slot for large cards.

 

[seinfeld87]

yeah my guideline is the upper part of the GPU side line which overlaps with the height of the heatsink i THINK, but we'll see in practice


Update: i meant sanding the chipset heatsink, i WOULDN'T touch anything on the GPu cooling system ofc.