Hi,I my mobo I have a pci-e video card, with a large heathsink and fan, then a sound card, and then another pci videocard, but also with a large heathsink.I have 2 slots left, but cannot use them due the large heatsinks.. is there any solution for this?Looking at risers, they only give the option to stick a card on the left of right in it, what still gives this problem.How does one put in more cards?

Do you *need* the sound card? Onboard sound is surprisingly good nowadays.

Do you *need* the sound card? Onboard sound is surprisingly good nowadays.

Yes of course.. two soundcards gives you good sound, and atc on the headset!

Then you'll need to purchase water cooling or a new motherboard with an expansion slot layout that will accommodate your expansion cards. A riser is the last thing you want.

Can you elaborate on this? watercooler? why ?I dont understand why they make such mobo's when a modern card is put it all space is gone!And whats against a riser?

You would need water cooling to replace your current air coolers installed on your graphics cards as they do not make aftermarket air coolers designed to dissipate enough heat and only take up a single expansion card slot. You don't want to use a riser because it could lead to performance issues and instability. If you can even find one. Risers are designed for specific systems because they alter the orientation of expansion cards. Your chassis would need to be designed to accommodate this fact. It is likely not.

You would need water cooling to replace your current air coolers installed on your graphics cards as they do not make aftermarket air coolers designed to dissipate enough heat and only take up a single expansion card slot. You don't want to use a riser because it could lead to performance issues and instability. If you can even find one. Risers are designed for specific systems because they alter the orientation of expansion cards. Your chassis would need to be designed to accommodate this fact. It is likely not.

To expand on this a little more...the water cooling jacket for a video card generally has a much slimmer profile than the double-width fan shroud on an air-cooled board.A riser is a bad idea because the trace lengths increase dramatically with use of a riser, and at the UHF/microwave frequencies that components of these boards operate at, RF resonance on the traces can cause all sorts of stability issues, not to mention RFI problems for nearby equipment.One thing you might consider is a USB or PCMCIA sound adapter instead of a PCI board. I use a Creative Soundblaster 2ZX PCMCIA sound adapter in my laptop and it works very well.RegardsBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

Ok, I look into that then...So you suggest to remove the fans etc from the cards and connect somehow water ?Is till wonder how some people got 8 monitors connected on 1 pc.

Ok, I look into that then...So you suggest to remove the fans etc from the cards and connect somehow water ?Is till wonder how some people got 8 monitors connected on 1 pc.

There are water jackets made for most of the mainstream cards...companies like Swiftek, Koolance, and Thermaltake...and some video card OEMs like eVGA even market water jackets for their own cards.If someone wants to build an 8 monitor system, it's very important that they pick a motherboard that's physically capable of mounting the video cards on the backplane...as you've clearly discovered, many have slots that are functionally useless when you start populating the backplane with double-width PCIe cards. Some interleave the PCIe slots with less-used PCI slots to leave room for the big video cards. Some mobos have components sticking up that prevent a full-length card in some of the slots, too. I look for reviews before buying, and I try to avoid being an early adopter of any motherboard, too--even some of the outfits with good name recognition come out with turkeys from time to time.RegardsBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO