Quote:
Originally Posted by Anth0789;15252484
Just buying another GTX 480 to SLI but I was wondering if it will fit with the AXP cooler it seems very close as you can see in pic below.
Judging from the pics you show, it seems the top card will
not come into conflict with the bottom card. However, its cooling performance will obviously reduced due to insufficient clearance between them. Aftermarket coolers like to have at least 1 empty slot space in between. (Traditional cooling design with 'front-centrifugal-intake-fan-and-rear exhaust' is more tolerable and can handle no empty space much better.)
The bottom card has two additional challenges. It will have to clear with the USB cable header and the front panel I/O Power/Reset header along the bottom edge of the motherboard. See orange circles in pic below. It will also have to clear the PSU below.
I suggest:- take out the top card (already with AXP installed) and move it to the lower (white) PCIEx16 slot to check for these 2 challenges.
If the bottom card passes the 2 challenges, it will still be a tight fit. And the cooling performance will also, just like the top card, be reduced. You can keep the card in this lower slot and run some tests to check the thermal numbers. This will be an early estimate of the final thermal performance.