Why are video cards seemingly upside-down?

Discussion in 'General Hardware' started by Supernoob2286, Jun 12, 2013.

  1. Supernoob2286

    Supernoob2286 Active Member

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    I wish they were cooler-side up instead of pcb-side up, (in a regular case).

    When using a test bench it's not a big deal, and i saw an old pic of a Dell XPS with the panel off and the graphics card was actually cooler-side up.

    Why isn't this more common? I always thought it was weird to install the card and have to look at the pcb instead of the pretty looking side.
     
  2. Mufflore

    Mufflore Ancient Guru

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    Because it would blow heat onto the CPU cooler when using coolers that vacate into the PC case.
     
  3. yasamoka

    yasamoka Ancient Guru

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    I believe the outdated ATX standard caused this to happen. Nobody had expected such beast cards to surface eventually, so everybody was content using expansion cards upside-down.
     
  4. ESlik

    ESlik Guest

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    Really? My cards exhaust the heat through the rear. The BTX design of the Dell cases were ahead of the curve. For some reason it didn't catch on.
     

  5. sykozis

    sykozis Ancient Guru

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    hot air rises...cool air falls. If you turn the card over, so the cooler is on top, you'd be sucking hot air from the CPU and blowing it onto the graphics card as opposed to pulling cool air from the bottom of the case. It's actually more efficient to have the cooler pointing down.

    Graphics cards were inverted when PCI became the standard expansion slot. This was maintained with AGP and now PCI Express. EISA was the last expansion slot standard to have the PCB facing upwards under the ATX platform standard.
     
  6. Mufflore

    Mufflore Ancient Guru

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    I covered that in my post.
     
  7. ESlik

    ESlik Guest

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    So you did. Sorry.
     
  8. Extraordinary

    Extraordinary Guest

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    Because photos of high end rigs always look better from low angles looking up ;)
     
  9. Loophole35

    Loophole35 Guest

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    Simple answer: water.


    That is all
     
  10. Mufflore

    Mufflore Ancient Guru

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    Also that large coolers (3 slot cards) wont fit if using dual cards, were the coolers on the other side of the cards.
    Same applies to single cards in non SLI/Crossfire motherboards.
     

  11. Supernoob2286

    Supernoob2286 Active Member

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    I really don't think that would matter, probably .5c difference unless u have no fans at all, and who would do that. The dell cases didnt catch on fire or explode.

    With a nice SLI setup i would trade .5c temp increase for a better looking interior.
     
  12. Supernoob2286

    Supernoob2286 Active Member

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    Yeah, I think a manufacturer needs to adress this, even if they re-design a motherboard, put the cpu and ram at the bottom, expansion slots at the top in the opposite direction. I would buy one.
     
  13. Supernoob2286

    Supernoob2286 Active Member

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    I think a thin waterblock and pcb looks worse than a regular cooler, i mean, yeah the hoses look cool and everything but i really dont like how much different they look with a waterblock and that little pcb, they look wimpy. Thicker cards look beefier and stronger imo.


    EDIT: And how do you do multiple quotes from different posts?
     
  14. Loophole35

    Loophole35 Guest

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    Different strokes for different folks. I find the waterblock to be much more ridged than the factory solution how many sagging water cooled card do you see.
     
  15. ESlik

    ESlik Guest

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    Dell tried what they called a BTX design for a few years. It just never caught on. Too bad. My wife has the XPS 730X with the BTX. Heat dissipation is excellent.
     

  16. dsbig

    dsbig Ancient Guru

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    I remember this.

    I know my system would benifit from it.

    my vid cards heats the inside of my case and my cpu cooler has to deal with it.
     
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2013
  17. clawhamer

    clawhamer Ancient Guru

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    I absolutely hate Dell's BTX FF... personal opinion, nothing more :)

    Reasons above are why it never caught on and personally I'd rather see the PCB side with a nice back plate on it then the fan and some cheesy ass sticker.
     
  18. FULMTL

    FULMTL Ancient Guru

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    Get an inverted case?
    Well I wouldn't want the CPU starving for air, so I'd rather have the GPU intake away from it.
     
  19. Sasquatch

    Sasquatch Master Guru

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    I have a Cooler Master HAF XB case where the motherboard lays flat & the PCI cards stick up. Very nice for air cooling.
    I used to always wonder about this as well. Main thing I didn't understand then was fan direction - blowing onto the processor or trying to pull away from it.
    Pretty sure it's more efficient to push onto the unit & that means a ready supply of air right next to the fan intake.
    As others have said, putting the cooler on the bottom, means pulling up the cooler air, forcing it onto the processor then forcing it away. Since it's warmed up, it will travel around the card & out the top. Not the most efficient, but more so than an inverted card.

    Again though, better to get a flat motherboard & have a vertical card. Lowest temps I've seen in ages using my current setup.
     
  20. Loobyluggs

    Loobyluggs Ancient Guru

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    This.

    Low angle photos imply domninance.
     

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