HTPC WoW video card

[colinstu]

As you can see, only a single slot card will be able to fit. That narrows it down to a 4850 and a whole bunch of 9800GT's. Browsing around, I recently however stumbled upon this 9800GT from PNY. The PCB is much shorter then the rest of the other cards, and doesn't require the 6pin power (core clock seems to be lowered 50-100MHz compared to the other cards). This case doesn't have the best of ventilation, so if I can reduce heat made, that's a huge plus, but I also don't want to loose too much performance. (Current card is 9500GT btw)

Resolution is 1280x720, would really like to max out the settings or at least most of them in WoW. What should I do? The cooling solution on that 4850 lots of people like, but this is only a 380watt PSU and pretty limited room/ventilation. I might take off the two extra rear back plates to get some more air in there, and move that 80mm fan over from the HD over near the video card.

 

[risqu3]

4770.

 

[AltTabbins]

4770.

QFT

 

[colinstu]

The 4770's cooler sticks past the first slot though... I'd be all over the 4770 if it was single slot (looking at last pic, there is another slot under, but a full thickness card would hit the PCI slots, USB header, etc)

 

[Nenu]

Get an angled sata plug/lead, that will allow you to use the space.
You should be able to squeeze the card in next to the USB headers.

 

[colinstu]

Get an angled sata plug/lead, that will allow you to use the space.
You should be able to squeeze the card in next to the USB headers.

Reading reviews... "double slot video cards will not fit due to ... PCI slots in mobo too high",

I really want a dual slot card to fit, but I don't think it will work. I'd try a dual slot card if I had one laying around, but I don't.

 

[Jospeh]

At that resolution you should be able to max out everything with a 4850. A 9800GT is slightly worse than a 4850 I think.

 

[risqu3]

9800gt is 30%+ less then the 4850, err i mean 4850 is 30%+ faster then the 9800gt