Consensus on Vertical Video Card Mount?

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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Going to be putting this 6900 XT under water and was thinking about displaying it in the case window. What are your thoughts on what vertical GPU mount is the best/least problematic? I have done zero research on this in the last two years so I am sure there are some kits out there that are better than others. Thanks for the input.
 
I like the Phanteks one I'm using with my 2080Waterforce card with custom loop. It installed easily and has not sagged since i installed it in January of 2019. Excuse the potato quality of the photo. My vidcard is somewhat blocked by the M.2 Expander card I also mounted vertically using a 3D Printed adapter
267826_IMAG0839.jpg


Here's a closer pic (after I replaced the fan grills with fancaps and fandannas)

IMAG0871.jpg
 
I have used phanteks and EK. EK's new solution is the most solid on the market right now. It anchors to the motherboard standoff. I know your not a fan of the company but it is a good product. Phanteks works, it is just kind of bulky. Lian Li charge too much but if you have a lancool 2 or another of their cases their solutions are the best looking visually, you cant even see the brackets.
 
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I like the Phanteks one I'm using with my 2080Waterforce card with custom loop. It installed easily and has not sagged since i installed it in January of 2019. Excuse the potato quality of the photo. My vidcard is somewhat blocked by the M.2 Expander card I also mounted vertically using a 3D Printed adapterView attachment 310048

Here's a closer pic (after I replaced the fan grills with fancaps and fandannas)

View attachment 310053
Totally forgot about the damn MSI Expander card that I use too. Duh. Yeah, I guess that puts that idea to rest. Oh well.
 
Totally forgot about the damn MSI Expander card that I use too. Duh. Yeah, I guess that puts that idea to rest. Oh well.
Thermaltake makes some cases where you can have more than one vertical card (the apparent intended use case being SLI setups). The catch is that whatever plugs in at the bottom of the motherboard has to be on the outside of the stack, so it's the secondary card in an SLI setup that gets shown "front and center."

I have a Core P5 and a P3, and I was able to get around this in them by running a long X1 cable around the X16 cable, which allowed me to mount a super ugly PCI-E X1 GPS timing card behind the graphics card, out of sight. I think they offer a similar setup in some of their other, more conventional cases, but I haven't looked that closely.

I really like the vertical mount with water cooled cards, though. It looks super cool, and you get around the sagging issue.
 
I use the Phanteks Vertical Mount:

1608262030774.png


Something to keep in mind is that most of these vertical mounts are somewhat flimsy and will not support the weight of the card without significant sag. If you look closely in my photo you can see that I have a screw coming up from the bottom of my case that prevents the mount from sagging.

The vertical mount comes with a PCI-E 3.0 riser cable, but 4.0 riser cables are starting to come out if you have a compatible motherboard and want to get that extra 1% performance.
 
I like the looks of them when watercooled. I use a audio card though and all the ones I have see block all the other pcie slots.

Would have to get creative with relocating and pcie extention cables to make the vertical mount work.
 
Totally forgot about the damn MSI Expander card that I use too. Duh. Yeah, I guess that puts that idea to rest. Oh well.
If you use the O11D-XL the lian li vertical mount for it has 5 slots which might work out actually since the riser that comes with it is only pcie 3.0 cable, you could use the 3.0 for the expander.
Then place the gpu closest to the front window to still show it off with the 4.0 cable.
https://www.lian-li.com/o11dxl-1/
 
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Here are a couple I was considering, but didn't commit because I don't really need one, just would be nice.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TYVPPBQ/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VCWDG2C/

First one because it has more than just two slots, and second because it can be mounted above the case slots (if there's room). Problem with first, is you need to dremel the slot dividers if your case has them (most do), and the problem with second is it needs room if you plan to mount above the slots...
 
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Totally forgot about the damn MSI Expander card that I use too. Duh. Yeah, I guess that puts that idea to rest. Oh well.

What case are you using? You can 3D print the MSI Expander card design I have and just bolt it to the back of the case. With my design, you remove the steel "slot" attachment and bolt on the mount. Works like a champ. and you can print the design in whatever color your case is and you can mount it in a completely different area if you want.
 
If you are running a CoolerMaster case that is compatible with their "Master Series" case design, they sell a kit that completely replaces the PCIe slot area in the case and features vertical mount. Seemed very solid since it is not an add-on to the existing slot setup in the case, but a purpose-built replacement for it. As I recall it was ~$60 the last time I looked but it's been a year or 2.
 
I like the Phanteks one I'm using with my 2080Waterforce card with custom loop. It installed easily and has not sagged since i installed it in January of 2019. Excuse the potato quality of the photo. My vidcard is somewhat blocked by the M.2 Expander card I also mounted vertically using a 3D Printed adapterView attachment 310048

Here's a closer pic (after I replaced the fan grills with fancaps and fandannas)

View attachment 310053
I have the O11D case, and I need to vertical mount my GPU and sound card, how did you make it work? I see this set up, can you help me with this?
 
I have the O11D case, and I need to vertical mount my GPU and sound card, how did you make it work? I see this set up, can you help me with this?

The sound card has a slot plate on the back which attaches it to the case. Get a friend with a 3D Printer to print a replacement plate that you can use to mount it vertically, and use a PCIe Extension cable to plug it into the PCIe slot. You'll have to drill holes in the case to use your ports on the card to connect external cables but you get the idea...
 
I've had nothing but bad experiences with the flexible risers people use for these custom mounts. Because of that I wouldn't consider it for myself.

If you do decide it is worth the risk for yourself, pay very close attention to the riser quality.
 
When PCIe 4.0 came out, I gave up on the idea of vertical mounts.

The ones being advertised as "4.0" are just barely good enough to allow the PC to boot. Tests show performance losses using a 4.0 riser compared to just running the PCI slot in 3.0 mode. The 4.0 spec is very unforgiving of extending the traces and exposing them to additional noise, parallel signal latency, and contact points.

I'll be riserless from here on.
 
When PCIe 4.0 came out, I gave up on the idea of vertical mounts.

The ones being advertised as "4.0" are just barely good enough to allow the PC to boot. Tests show performance losses using a 4.0 riser compared to just running the PCI slot in 3.0 mode. The 4.0 spec is very unforgiving of extending the traces and exposing them to additional noise, parallel signal latency, and contact points.

I'll be riserless from here on.
There are no working 4.0 cables, you are correct on that. You can use most riser cables without issue or performance loss if you set your pcie lanes to gen 3 in the bios.
 
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