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Reference GTX 960 in M-ITX Case - Good or bad idea?

Hi guys,

 

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with a reference cooler gtx 960. It looks like just like those on the old 760.  I know it's louder, and many think it's ugly, but I'm planning to put it in a m-itx case, most likely a Thermaltake Core V1.

 

721_3Z.jpg

 

There's only two reason I'm considering this: Rear exhaust, and the pricing.

 

I heard rear exhaust is better for m-itx case, keep everything else cooler, but I also heard the Core V1 is a well ventilated m-itx case.

 

For the pricing, I do not live in the US, so bear with me for a bit.  The only GTX 960 worth buying is the reference cooler card at around RM750 (USD207). All other cards with better coolers from Asus/MSI/Gigabyte will cost around RM1,000 (USD275). For that price I would rather get a 280x from team red for about the same price, though not all card would fit in the 11.2" max card length limit of the case.

 

So, if you're in my shoe, what would you do? Would you get the reference gtx 960 or go with a 280x? Noise isn't an issue, I game with headphones (most likely the only time the card will spin up), but heat could be a problem though. Power consumption difference should be minimal as I'm likely only game 10 hours or so per week.

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Sure why not, GTX 960 barely produces that much heat, if it's the same as 760 cooler (likely is, cost cutting rather then designing and making a whole different cooler) then it will run cooler and quieter compared to the "Reference" 760s.

"Rawr XD"

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I'd get the GTX 960 to control power consumption, heat output and size. They're three things that matter with the ITX form factor and three things that the R9 280X isn't that great at.

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How much worse would it be for the chipset/cpu on the motherboard if I go for the 280x?

 

The 960 makes perfect choice if I need to hunt for a power supply, but I already have a Coolermaster 750w 80+ psu lying around, not the best, but it'll handle a 280x no problem.

 

The rest of the system is likely to be i7 and H97, non overclocking.

 

A Sapphire 280x dual-x would fit no problem, and the Asus direct CU unit would be absolutely on the limit, at 11.2", I think... I neither need Gsync/Freesync nor gpgpu.

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Hi guys,

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with a reference cooler gtx 960. It looks like just like those on the old 760. I know it's louder, and many think it's ugly, but I'm planning to put it in a m-itx case, most likely a Thermaltake Core V1.

721_3Z.jpg

There's only two reason I'm considering this: Rear exhaust, and the pricing.

I heard rear exhaust is better for m-itx case, keep everything else cooler, but I also heard the Core V1 is a well ventilated m-itx case.

For the pricing, I do not live in the US, so bear with me for a bit. The only GTX 960 worth buying is the reference cooler card at around RM750 (USD207). All other cards with better coolers from Asus/MSI/Gigabyte will cost around RM1,000 (USD275). For that price I would rather get a 280x from team red for about the same price, though not all card would fit in the 11.2" max card length limit of the case.

So, if you're in my shoe, what would you do? Would you get the reference gtx 960 or go with a 280x? Noise isn't an issue, I game with headphones (most likely the only time the card will spin up), but heat could be a problem though. Power consumption difference should be minimal as I'm likely only game 10 hours or so per week.

I would go with the best performing card that would fit the case, i have the thermaltake core v1 with a gtx780 (titan cooler) but i know it can handle aftermaket coolers with no problems (from a thermal stand point) specially if you install the 2 rear 80mm fans in the back.

Main rig. Updated :D CPU: FX8350 @stock Cooler: Corsair h110 Motherboard: Ga-990fxa-ud5 Memory: Corsair Vengance 8Gigs 1866Mhz GPU: MSI GTX 970 SLI (blower cooler)  PSU: Cooler Master Silent pro 850w SSD: Corsair Force GT 60Gb HDD: WD 500 Caviar blue Case: Thermaltake core V71 Fan controler: NZXT Sentry
 
Secondary PC: CPU: i5 4670k @stock Cooler: Thermaltake NIC L/31 Motherboard: Asus Z97I-PLUS Memory: Corsair Vengance 8Gigs 2133Mhz GPU: ZOTAC GTX 780 (Titan cooler) PSU: Antec 520m Pro SSD: Corsair Force GT 60Gb HDD: WD 500 Caviar blue & WD 2TB Green Case: Thermaltake core V1

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I would go with the best performing card that would fit the case, i have the thermaltake core v1 with a gtx780 (titan cooler) but i know it can handle aftermaket coolers with no problems (from a thermal stand point) specially if you install the 2 rear 80mm fans in the back.

 

From what I read, the Titan cooler is about 10.8" in length.

 

Does it go through the GPU "hole" with less than half an inch before it hits the front mesh? Thermaltake site says 11.2"/285mm max length.

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Hi guys,

 

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with a reference cooler gtx 960. It looks like just like those on the old 760.  I know it's louder, and many think it's ugly, but I'm planning to put it in a m-itx case, most likely a Thermaltake Core V1.

 

721_3Z.jpg

 

There's only two reason I'm considering this: Rear exhaust, and the pricing.

 

I heard rear exhaust is better for m-itx case, keep everything else cooler, but I also heard the Core V1 is a well ventilated m-itx case.

 

For the pricing, I do not live in the US, so bear with me for a bit.  The only GTX 960 worth buying is the reference cooler card at around RM750 (USD207). All other cards with better coolers from Asus/MSI/Gigabyte will cost around RM1,000 (USD275). For that price I would rather get a 280x from team red for about the same price, though not all card would fit in the 11.2" max card length limit of the case.

 

So, if you're in my shoe, what would you do? Would you get the reference gtx 960 or go with a 280x? Noise isn't an issue, I game with headphones (most likely the only time the card will spin up), but heat could be a problem though. Power consumption difference should be minimal as I'm likely only game 10 hours or so per week.

 

 

watch the gtx 970 m-itx that linus reviewed in NCIXtechtips..

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From what I read, the Titan cooler is about 10.8" in length.

 

Does it go through the GPU "hole" with less than half an inch before it hits the front mesh? Thermaltake site says 11.2"/285mm max length.

 

It uses that GPU hole, here I took some pictures of the GTX 780 (reference)

 

post-15452-0-76708900-1425604317_thumb.j

 

And another with an R9 280x (sapphire vapor X)

 

post-15452-0-32095800-1425604295_thumb.j

 

Just because I love ya :D

 

It doesn`t close with the 280x xD

Main rig. Updated :D CPU: FX8350 @stock Cooler: Corsair h110 Motherboard: Ga-990fxa-ud5 Memory: Corsair Vengance 8Gigs 1866Mhz GPU: MSI GTX 970 SLI (blower cooler)  PSU: Cooler Master Silent pro 850w SSD: Corsair Force GT 60Gb HDD: WD 500 Caviar blue Case: Thermaltake core V71 Fan controler: NZXT Sentry
 
Secondary PC: CPU: i5 4670k @stock Cooler: Thermaltake NIC L/31 Motherboard: Asus Z97I-PLUS Memory: Corsair Vengance 8Gigs 2133Mhz GPU: ZOTAC GTX 780 (Titan cooler) PSU: Antec 520m Pro SSD: Corsair Force GT 60Gb HDD: WD 500 Caviar blue & WD 2TB Green Case: Thermaltake core V1

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