Hi Greg,Thanks for the warning. The mobo is the Asus P5K Premium Wi-Fi. Image attached. Hope it's big enough to show whether it will be okay or not.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/184766.jpg

>I missed the pics but would be very interested to see them, >Im sure others would too.>I saw the pics. And let me say, that I saw much crisper textures with the ATI card. Now, keep in mind, it could be that there was some dirtiness with the nvidia driver install, but I doubt it, Mike knows how to run a box. First impressions of this new ATI card are good to me...RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

Ray that is a smart move to compare the vid card length and the position of the SATA ports on the motherboard before you build. Find out how many cm long the vid card is, and then find out how many cm the motherboard is,...and case...and, well, you know, measure it out based on the photographs.I'm leaning toward getting a Coolermaster Stacker case for my next build but I am not sure yet.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

Does DirectX 10 Preview work well?

Hi Rhett,After a lot of searching I found the dimensions of the 3870X2. Even the official site didn't list them which is a bit remiss.The Asus mobo measures 305mm x 244mm and the X3870X2 is 270mm x 100mm.The PCI-E slot is aligned along the shorter of those two axes which means the card is 26mm longer than the mobo. However, this review www.digit-life.com/articles3/video/rv670-3-part1.html suggests it's about the same size as a 8800GTX so although it's a fairly tight fit it should fit into most ATX mobos. It should also be remembered that the end of the card that is fixed to the case is outside the mobo area so there may be more room that those measurements suggest.That's an interesting review. Of the three cards reviewed the MSI comes out as the best. It's a pity there were no tests involving FS9 or FSX. The DX9 test seems to suggest the X3970X2 is slower by some degree over a 8800GTX but beats it in DX10 tests.For those of us who want a card for both FS9 and FSX that presents a problem! :-rollChoosing the right case can be difficult. I've always liked Antec. When I get home I'll check a review of the Coolmaster. Can't access the site from work!

As much as I'd be worried about the length, I'm more concerned about the SATA ports. In your pic above the video card will be installed in the PCI-e slot #1 (the blue slot just to the left of center), and the SATA ports are those 4 orange rectangles (a row of 3, and a single port just below them) along the bottom edge and slightly in from the left side. Your SATA connectors could incur some interference with the video card cooler.

Greg,I plan to install two SATA hard drives and one SATA DVD Writer. Those could be plugged into the left most slots. If necessary I could always change the DVD writer to a IDE version.Do you think that would work?Edit: Given all ATX boards are the same size what options do I have open to me if I wanted the X3870X2? Is it just a case of going for a board that is suitable designed for a X3870X2 and if so, which one?

I just ordered my 3870x2 and get it in days where I will be putting it on my p5k premium. I'll let you know how it goes.

You've just become my new best friend! :-hahYour sig doesn't include your case which I think is an important factor. Can you post details including its depth (the important dimension). My proposed Antec P182 is 51cm deep which I'm hoping will be sufficient.

>You've just become my new best friend! :-hah>You see how cautious you are, Ray? Speed is a guy who takes chances. :D :DRhettAMD 3700+ (@2585 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2gb Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8 (1T), WD 150 gig 10000rpm Raptor, WD 250gig 7200rpm SATA2, Seagate 120gb 5400 rpm external HD, CoolerMaster Praetorian

<>:-lol Yes, I am a bit of a woos and I applaude Speed's get-up-and-go attitude. If I had a hat I'd take it off to him ;-)

Rhett,I can't find any Coolermaster reviews on the site I read about the Antec P182. On their review of the Antec they posted several photos and here's one which seems to suggest there is plenty of room between the ATX board and the hard drive cages for the 3870X2 card.This case got 10/10 and is reasonably priced.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/184861.jpg

It is, I'm training on ground control at Duluth tower in MNWe work F-16's, C130's, and all sorts of Cirrus SR22's, and GA jets/props, plus NWA/Mesaba/Pinnacle/FEdex and Allegiant from LAS!I'll have to send a few pics.... (sorry OT post ;))

I doubt the current models will fit in my case as my 8800GT is already touching my drive connectors. BUT . . .Here's a nice piece of news from this site which mentions powercoler, however there are other companies following suite: http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=c...d=5427&Itemid=1PowerColor's new HD 3870 X2 design Written by Sanjin Rado

Question if you know: I prefer NO SCALING for non-native output to my LCD. nV cards do this fine, but the ATI driver or Omega's would not do this with my x1950Pro. What do you know with your 3870x2?NoelQX9650 @ 4.0GHz/1.285 vCore / 8GB PC-800 Mushkin (cheap!) / evga 8800GT @ 660Mhz / 2xSATA 2 drives /