Stubby is neat, but what about low-profile? Maybe after AMD and NVIDIA get closer to 20nm? 14nm? The 7750 in my HP 6200 plays most games 1080p with med-low settings, powered completely by the PCIe slot. The PSU isn't even close to max output and it's very cool inside. It could handle something more powerful with a 6-pin or two...
Ditto - I'm kinda wondering why these short video cards are being released. It doesn't seem like a small computer should equal a box. Low profile case looks so much nicer and fits in with the home theater so much better. I'm still using a 6670 waiting for something not ridiculously expensive to come along.
I think your best bet is a 7750 low profile. It's both low and short and doesn't require external power. Considering all these restrictions it seems a very reasonable choice for the money. I've also heard of a 7850 low profile but never actually seen one around... Other than that, I'm afraid we indeed have to wait, actually it's already quite a bit since the 7750s low profile were introduced.
Check out steambox like case designs.. the use riser cards/ribon cables to turn the full height GPUs 90 degree and thus make them fit into low profile cases that fit into your AV rack.. Some dudes at hardforum in the SFF section are currently throwing concepts around, you might want to get involved?
repeat: They'd just need to cut off the VRM part at the back of the GTX 780 cards and remount this piece via some vertical means to get it out of the way of the airflow.. (think the subboards for Asus boards). The card can be triple slot afterwards, no big deal, but length should come in at 180mm and price a bit above the standard GTX 780. That would rock!
"only" lol... why would you need anything more than that? I have a factory OC GTX 760 and you can push 1080p60+ max details on most everything. One of these boxes would most likely be connected to a TV as a Steambox or something similar anyway and the vast majority of people don't have a UHD TV.
Not quite a straight dollar-to-pounds conversion, but I'd expect no less in the UK ;) Both rather nice prospects though. I wonder if they could ever manage to squeeze a GTX 770 into that form factor..?
They'd just need to cut off the VRM part at the back of the GTX 780 cards and remount this piece via some vertical means to get it out of the way of the airflow.. (think the subboards for Asus boards). The card can be triple slot afterwards, no big deal, but length should come in at 180mm and price a bit above the standard GTX 780. That would rock!
When I was trying to custom make an mITX case, finding a suitable length graphics card was quite difficult. The most affordable one was the GTX 650Ti, but even that needed modifying by cutting the (fully plastic) fan shroud to shorten it.
Good that some people have started making mITX cards which aren't horribly expensive.
My full size GTX460 fit inside my Fractal Design R4 just fine. With the Seasonic G550 PSU I used the modular PSU cabling doesn't even get in the way. Though it does come close, the cables come up below the GPU.
Actually, the R4 is a mid-tower. I'm actually running an EATX board in mine. The Define Mini is the µATX in that series, and I don't believe there's an mITX offered in that family. I'm not sure what the Hrel they were talking about.. (sorry, had to)
What would be the smallest case you could fit this in? I liked the idea of a mini-itx gaming system to go under the TV but because the graphics card is perpendicular to the motherboard it meant the case had to be quite large. The riser in the Alienware x51 for the graphics card seemed a good idea but stupidly expensive, even for the refurbished models.
It seems like a missed opportunity to bundle a 90° PCI-E adapter with either of these. Lying both boards flat and using an external power brick would allow for a nice thin setup for a gaming HTPC. A more extreme option would be a 270° adapter (does such a thing exist?) to fold the GPU under the motherboard, which would helpfully thermally seperate the two.
The GPU is in a completely sepereate compartment, so i'm guessing gpu cooling is good. But the CPU cooling options is limited on that case, and your gonna run into thermal throttling on the CPU before the GPU.
The M8 supports full size cards, (TITAN, GTX 780 etc..) Cool air is pulled from the top of the case and ejected out the back, where-as in a normal pc, ambient case air is pulled through the blower then out the back.
Good thinking but I don't think there are any external PSUs that can deliver than 150 watts or so. Not to mention that those picoPSUs only provide the basics: Usually a 20+4-pin, a cpu 4-pin, a sata power and if you are lucky maybe an additional molex. But still, they are nowhere near the 400w you'd need for such a GPU. That's partly the reason why I had to go with a flexATX PSU in my recent mini-ITX rig I just built in an Xbox360 case.
I like the idea of folding the video card under the motherboard for a nice compact system. The best way I see doing that would have the motherboard designed to mount the video card in that fashion and then simply use a 90 degree adapter from there.
The 270 degree effect can still be achieved with this board it it'd require a ribbon extender cable. It'd be best with a short version of this example but I believe you'd get the idea: http://www.amazon.com/PCI-E-Express-Extender-Flexi...
And what if we want all "Apple" and (by using the flexible riser) actually reversed the GPU so that it faces the CPU? And then we had some custom cooling for both of them? Crazy talking but I had that thought cross my mind when I saw the new Mac Pro :-)
Hopefully you wouldn't go all Apple by put two such cards in a system along with a 130w a 12 core chip but only a 450W power supply. I have a feeling that the new Mac Pro is going to have some issues when placed under full load.
The K7T turbo was among the best (among a hundred different) motherboard I ever bought, at least a dozen years ago. MSI made good board. I am sure this one is no exception.
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meacupla - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
Shame it's only a GTX 760, but I guess that's the best that can be crammed into that space.nathanddrews - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
Stubby is neat, but what about low-profile? Maybe after AMD and NVIDIA get closer to 20nm? 14nm? The 7750 in my HP 6200 plays most games 1080p with med-low settings, powered completely by the PCIe slot. The PSU isn't even close to max output and it's very cool inside. It could handle something more powerful with a 6-pin or two...kashwashwa - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
Ditto - I'm kinda wondering why these short video cards are being released. It doesn't seem like a small computer should equal a box. Low profile case looks so much nicer and fits in with the home theater so much better. I'm still using a 6670 waiting for something not ridiculously expensive to come along.dj_aris - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
I think your best bet is a 7750 low profile. It's both low and short and doesn't require external power. Considering all these restrictions it seems a very reasonable choice for the money. I've also heard of a 7850 low profile but never actually seen one around... Other than that, I'm afraid we indeed have to wait, actually it's already quite a bit since the 7750s low profile were introduced.JoanSpark - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
Check out steambox like case designs.. the use riser cards/ribon cables to turn the full height GPUs 90 degree and thus make them fit into low profile cases that fit into your AV rack..Some dudes at hardforum in the SFF section are currently throwing concepts around, you might want to get involved?
pierrot - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
i think thats going to require cases/mobos with riser cards so u can mount parallel, and those arent really available yetJoanSpark - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
repeat:They'd just need to cut off the VRM part at the back of the GTX 780 cards and remount this piece via some vertical means to get it out of the way of the airflow.. (think the subboards for Asus boards).
The card can be triple slot afterwards, no big deal, but length should come in at 180mm and price a bit above the standard GTX 780.
That would rock!
cwolf78 - Thursday, December 5, 2013 - link
"only" lol... why would you need anything more than that? I have a factory OC GTX 760 and you can push 1080p60+ max details on most everything. One of these boxes would most likely be connected to a TV as a Steambox or something similar anyway and the vast majority of people don't have a UHD TV.Spunjji - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
Not quite a straight dollar-to-pounds conversion, but I'd expect no less in the UK ;) Both rather nice prospects though. I wonder if they could ever manage to squeeze a GTX 770 into that form factor..?JoanSpark - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
They'd just need to cut off the VRM part at the back of the GTX 780 cards and remount this piece via some vertical means to get it out of the way of the airflow.. (think the subboards for Asus boards).The card can be triple slot afterwards, no big deal, but length should come in at 180mm and price a bit above the standard GTX 780.
That would rock!
Lonyo - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
When I was trying to custom make an mITX case, finding a suitable length graphics card was quite difficult. The most affordable one was the GTX 650Ti, but even that needed modifying by cutting the (fully plastic) fan shroud to shorten it.Good that some people have started making mITX cards which aren't horribly expensive.
Hrel - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
My full size GTX460 fit inside my Fractal Design R4 just fine. With the Seasonic G550 PSU I used the modular PSU cabling doesn't even get in the way. Though it does come close, the cables come up below the GPU.Gigaplex - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
And what the heck does that have to do with small graphics cards in mITX systems?JoanSpark - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
Fractal Design R4 is NOT a mITX case by any means.. it's uATX.. go home with that big ole stuff :pjdon - Thursday, December 5, 2013 - link
Actually, the R4 is a mid-tower. I'm actually running an EATX board in mine. The Define Mini is the µATX in that series, and I don't believe there's an mITX offered in that family. I'm not sure what the Hrel they were talking about.. (sorry, had to)Johnmcl7 - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
What would be the smallest case you could fit this in? I liked the idea of a mini-itx gaming system to go under the TV but because the graphics card is perpendicular to the motherboard it meant the case had to be quite large. The riser in the Alienware x51 for the graphics card seemed a good idea but stupidly expensive, even for the refurbished models.John
psuedonymous - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
It seems like a missed opportunity to bundle a 90° PCI-E adapter with either of these. Lying both boards flat and using an external power brick would allow for a nice thin setup for a gaming HTPC. A more extreme option would be a 270° adapter (does such a thing exist?) to fold the GPU under the motherboard, which would helpfully thermally seperate the two.Morawka - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
Super cramped cases are including this adapter such as the asrock M8DanNeely - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
How well is the case able to cool a larger GPU?@Anandtech You need to get a review sample of the case to test.
jasonelmore - Monday, December 9, 2013 - link
The GPU is in a completely sepereate compartment, so i'm guessing gpu cooling is good. But the CPU cooling options is limited on that case, and your gonna run into thermal throttling on the CPU before the GPU.The M8 supports full size cards, (TITAN, GTX 780 etc..) Cool air is pulled from the top of the case and ejected out the back, where-as in a normal pc, ambient case air is pulled through the blower then out the back.
TLDR: GPU Cooling is good.
dj_aris - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
Good thinking but I don't think there are any external PSUs that can deliver than 150 watts or so. Not to mention that those picoPSUs only provide the basics: Usually a 20+4-pin, a cpu 4-pin, a sata power and if you are lucky maybe an additional molex. But still, they are nowhere near the 400w you'd need for such a GPU. That's partly the reason why I had to go with a flexATX PSU in my recent mini-ITX rig I just built in an Xbox360 case.dj_aris - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
*more than 150 wattsKevin G - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
I like the idea of folding the video card under the motherboard for a nice compact system. The best way I see doing that would have the motherboard designed to mount the video card in that fashion and then simply use a 90 degree adapter from there.The 270 degree effect can still be achieved with this board it it'd require a ribbon extender cable. It'd be best with a short version of this example but I believe you'd get the idea: http://www.amazon.com/PCI-E-Express-Extender-Flexi...
dj_aris - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
And what if we want all "Apple" and (by using the flexible riser) actually reversed the GPU so that it faces the CPU? And then we had some custom cooling for both of them? Crazy talking but I had that thought cross my mind when I saw the new Mac Pro :-)Kevin G - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
Hopefully you wouldn't go all Apple by put two such cards in a system along with a 130w a 12 core chip but only a 450W power supply. I have a feeling that the new Mac Pro is going to have some issues when placed under full load.piroroadkill - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
That would be amazing with a tiny purpose designed case. Yes. They need to do this. Now.dnt94civic - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
I'll take anything that's freeovercome - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
I'd love to win this! My computer needs an upgrade!tristanbob - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
Do you think this hardware will be used as a Steam Machine?KaChow - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
Does anyone else think this may make a good foundation for a tiny Photoshop/Premiere editing machine?wingtree - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
reviewMSI GTX 760 mini-ITX Gaming: http://www.coolaler.com/showthread.php/310578
MSI Z87I Gaming AC: http://www.coolaler.com/showthread.php/310600
pierrot - Wednesday, December 4, 2013 - link
nice thx - looks like max temp for the cpu in furmark was 81C? that seems pretty good?thunkrd - Thursday, December 5, 2013 - link
sweet video card. the 760 is a fast enough card for 1080p (unless you are playing crisis 3 or some other games lol)Frangelina - Saturday, December 7, 2013 - link
The K7T turbo was among the best (among a hundred different) motherboard I ever bought, at least a dozen years ago. MSI made good board. I am sure this one is no exception.jasonelmore - Monday, December 9, 2013 - link
$270 seems awfully cheap for a motherboard with a GTX 760 Included. A GTX 760 Normal Length reference card is around $200 all by itself.Dug - Tuesday, December 10, 2013 - link
So $470 US for the bundle?KwakerJacks - Friday, December 13, 2013 - link
So this boards been released but where is it being sold? Can't seem to find anything yet...