Too much weight for PCIe slot?

I recently got the Arctic Cooling Accelero Extreme GTX 280. It's a hefty beast, and when put on the already heavy GTX280 there is a lot of weight on the PCIe slot.

It installed fine, and temps went down considerably. I ran some tests and was able to get a little higher on the clocks, but not much. 702/1404/1260 -> 713/1458/1269

Anyway, yesterday I was just surfing the web, and my screen went black...


So, I started to investigate. I noticed that the 8-pin power connector was preventing one of the fans on the new cooler from spinning. This is good news b/c I might be able to get better results.

[FYI, I was able to get 729c/1458s stable after fixing the fan and temps are a few more degrees cooler. 1512s seemed stable, but I think I saw some very slight artifacts in Crysis Benchmark]

After re-seating the card a few times I noticed that it would boot fine if I supported the card's weight on the end furthest from the mounting screws. Also, the mounting screws themselves seemed to make the card a bit crooked in the slot.

I wrapped some ty-wraps around the power connector plugs and up around a support bar in my case. I also am not using either of the 2 mounting screws to avoid any side torque. It works!

But, I'm a bit upset still. Is my slot damaged? Has anyone else experienced something like this?

The ty-wraps are also pretty unattractive. Anyone got a better idea for support?


Here's a pic:




I know she's a bit dusty, but don't worry. She's got a date w/ Mr. Air Compressor soon!

can air even flow through that true???


I have never had a prob with a card being to heavy... but that is one massive cooler... i could see how it could turn the card just a bit to where some of the pins wouldnt make contact.

also noted ... you have NO screws in either of the pci bracket holes on the gfx card - that could be causing your prob...

you could machine a little post out of aluminum stock if you had a lathe, and just place it under the card, you could measure it right and glue or screw a plastic foot on it so your card slides right in.

She's got a date w/ my Air Compressor, so don't worry about the dust. It's days are numbered! But even w/ that, my Panaflo on ~5v, and during the hottest part of the day (thermostat says 75*F, but it is hotter in this room):



I'm also planning to cut out the vent holes in the case and put Panaflos/Deltas all-around...but I digress.



I took the screws out. They were actually making the card sit at a funny angle. I'm guessing the case isn't square or something. I did this after the black-screen problem that I was troubleshooting, so the missing screws are not the source of the problem..

With the screws in there, but w/o the ty-wraps, it sits in the slot OK near rear-case side, but the other side is a bit funky; it's not all the way in and its going down at an angle...still, it worked like that for several days and through a good bit of stress testing. Unless you push on the card you really couldn't tell it was at all crooked. It looked fully seated.

The slot seems to support the rest of the weight fine (besides what the ty-wraps are doing), and it's sitting in the slot square as you see it in the pic. The problem comes when the card doesn't sit in slot at the correct angle.

hinderpits said:

you could machine a little post out of aluminum stock if you had a lathe, and just place it under the card, you could measure it right and glue or screw a plastic foot on it so your card slides right in.

Click to expand...

No lathe, but that is giving me some ideas. Thanks!

there is such thing as round aluminum rod. u could also grab some steel break line from the auto parts store... easily cut able.

i machined these posts within a few thousands and the hollowed out a through hole for a 10-32 screw. If you ever want a post pm me with a measuremnt i have endless material and time at work[/URL][/IMG]

Wow! That would be awesome man! I may have to take you up on that.

It looks like the distance b/n the case floor and a decent support point on the gfx card is ~72mm. I don't have a super accurate way to measure.

Can you make the post so that it is actually 2 posts that screw together? And when fully closed it would be around 71mm tall? That would give me something I could work with and adjust. And if the top could be covered in rubber or plastic that would also be cool, but not necessary as it won't be touching anything electrical.

Or perhaps just a single aluminum post w/ a screw on rubber/plastic end...kind of like a leg leveler, but upside-down.

Let me know if you have any ideas.

If you can't I'm probably just going to use some all-thread, screws, nuts, lock-nuts, etc (whatever I can find while scrounging around a hardware store) to fashion an adjustable post of sorts.

let me see what i can do ill get back to you at the end of the day

The dell machines I support at work all come with a plastic 'arm/ bracket' that bolts through the mobo and clips onto the outer edge of the gfx cards. Its adjustable and you might be able to find it on ebay for a dollar.

Edit: found one close to what I'm familiar with: here.

i use this cooler. my card runs MUCH cooler.

^^ Did you chop up the long RAM sinks?


I modded mine slightly.
I took a bunch of low-profile heatsinks and attached them all over the VRM sink. I'm glad I did b/c the VRMs still get over 100*C on Crysis bench. I'm hoping for even lower temps on the card once I re-do my case fans.

nightelph said:

The dell machines I support at work all come with a plastic 'arm/ bracket' that bolts through the mobo and clips onto the outer edge of the gfx cards. Its adjustable and you might be able to find it on ebay for a dollar.

Edit: found one close to what I'm familiar with: here.

Click to expand...

That looks cool, but I'm having a hard time picturing how it attaches to anything. Do you have any pics w/ it installed?

no, i picked up 2x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185083 and gave each ram chip it's own sink.

i used the plate sink that came with the (GTX) pack for that dumb bridge chip on the front of the card (or whatever it it) and sunk all the fets using sinks from the vga pack

jason4207 said:

That looks cool, but I'm having a hard time picturing how it attaches to anything. Do you have any pics w/ it installed?

Click to expand...

The one in the picture looks like it mounts around the pci-e slot. The ones we have here bolt to the mobo via a screw through the mobo hole. Could be a proprietary hole in Dells, though.

I'm resurrecting this thread since I finally got my camera back and can take some well deserved pics of the custom mounting post that hinderpits built for me. Major kudos to him for going out of his way to help a fellow OCF member in need!

Lookin good J-man!