Case recomendation for multi GPU rig?

Thingomy · August 24, 2021

I'm building machine(s) with the following requirements, and I can't find a suitable case, recommendations would be appreciated:

Two large modern graphics cards -- this is the hard bit, motherboard still TBC, for a graphics card with a non-blower cooler to fit, and not be suffocated, needs (IMHO) at least 4 slots of volume, and most performance motherboards use the top slot for other things, so this means either needing 9 slots (the bottom 2 don't need actual slots, but the equivalent air circulation space is needed down there.)

Air cooled, I'm not going down the water cooling rabbit hole, so it needs good ventilation, but doesn’t necessarily need space for rads. Machine will end up with a 12 core CPU, and will be doing overnight rendering runs fully utilising both CPU and GPUs, so will be generating a lot of heat.

Needs to look business-like -- this is a workstation at a workplace, it's not a gaming rig. I will tolerate having to unplug all of the RGB bits, but I'm not having a machine with a window in the side panel, nor do I want go faster stripes.

I'm currently using Phanteks Enthoo pro 2 cases -- while they are huge and heavy -- and look the part -- 90% of the features are wasted on us, they frankly have too much ventilation as we are not populating all the fan slots and while they have what looks like an option for extra bracket arrangements to support a second graphics card with a PCIE extension, it's just not a good solution as it's only a double slot, so it suffocates the second card. (in the end I didn't even bother trying to source the extra brackets needed to cobble this together and gave up sticking with normal mounting and a suffocated card)

If anyone is curious, we are running Agisoft Metashape, there are benchamrks on what it needs/wants/is picky about on Pugit Systems.

As a bonus, we may at some point also be building machines of the same spec that will end up in a rack -- so rackmount cases that fit these requirments would be useful too, but this is a secodnary question.

tkitch · August 24, 2021

your limitations are more in the motherboard than case.

You need a board with proper 4 (or 5) slot spacing on the board to get any kind of airflow between two GPUs.

A full ATX case will have at least 7 rear slots, possibly 8 or 9, depending on the specific design.

Thingomy · August 24, 2021

15 minutes ago, tkitch said:

your limitations are more in the motherboard than case.

You need a board with proper 4 (or 5) slot spacing on the board to get any kind of airflow between two GPUs.

A full ATX case will have at least 7 rear slots, possibly 8 or 9, depending on the specific design.

Thank you tkitch. There are motherboards that will get the job done, but you are right, careful selection is needed.

If you have any recomendations for a full ATX case that has a modern feature set, I'm interested. my search (perhapse in the wrong place) turnexd up nothing of any help. 7 rear slots is very common, but isn't big enough. 8 is borderline..

For Science! · August 24, 2021

9 minutes ago, Thingomy said:

Thank you tkitch. There are motherboards that will get the job done, but you are right, careful selection is needed.

If you have any recomendations for a full ATX case that has a modern feature set, I'm interested. my search (perhapse in the wrong place) turnexd up nothing of any help. 7 rear slots is very common, but isn't big enough. 8 is borderline..

Just two GPUs? Then your options are fairly open. I use a Meshify C in my office housing 2x 2070 Strixes

tkitch · August 24, 2021

What cards are you running, and/or how thick are they?

2 slot? 2.5 slot? 3 Slot?

GuiltySpark_ · August 24, 2021

Professional machine? Fractals Define series, no question. You'll find what you need there. Puget Systems builds all their workstations in those cases and they absolutely know what they're doing.

https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/define/

thrasher_565 · August 24, 2021

if you want to sil recommend 4 slot pcie spacing and finding the thinnest gpu and best temps,

bottom intake for the bottom gpu is ideal but top will most likely be 5-10 degrees hotter,

might be posable to find a case with a full vertical pci slot meaning you can mount 2 vertical but that a big if.

other then getting a case that you can mount a fan to the side panel to help the top gpu. you could mount one gpu els ware with a pcie extetion. mnpctech sell a mount that attaches to an fan. but there are other diy mounts too.